Busy times1 Thats the only excuse I have for not posting on here since New Year - apologises - as always we have has loads going on, seems to come in waves! But I wanted to check a few dates and the record here of the progress of my hobby to my business was the only way to check dates - looking back at old photos and styles of pottery really does clarify for me the journey we've been on.

So now - whats going on - Jon is building a shed in the garden and balancing the paper work trial/office side of the business along with making his products - above are some of his cheese and butter knives. When we had free time one of the projects Jon worked on was repairing a series 2 1959 landrover from a broken down wreck to a useable vehicle, this involved replacing the leaf springs and we ended up with a lot of scrap metal, add that to researching cheese knives to add to our range and an idea was born. 

It's taken a lot of practise by Jon, advice from some excellent knife makers and now we have the finished products. 

Jon has four different blade shapes he likes to make and handles can be finished in three different woods - oak, walnut or plane tree and therefore can be ordered bespoke. We will take a selection to the shows we have left this year - the next one being ludlow Food Festival, closely followed by Abergavenny which we were invited to show at. Exciting times! As for me? Still throwing some orders but holding off on others as I get stock ready for the shows, I'm also trying to get a better work/life balance by having the weekends off - that is the plan anyway, we will see how it goes.

Happy Christmas and New Year everyone!

I hope its been a good year for all of you - it's been really good fun, we've meet some great people and have been supported by loads more!

I especially want to thank our friends Pye and Trish - major background support, my mate Mel, both our families and my sister Jane Lane who keeps our book keeping on track, Sarah aka @shropshirelamb for the coffee stops and lunch trips, Marcus and Jenny Bean from Brompton for so many reasons, and all our great bespoke customers who become part of the design process - and Lauren from Indigo Orange Studios who took all these beautiful images.

There's so many local and national businesses too which we feel really lucky to have meet, I'm not going to list them just in case I miss one out! 

I'm sick right now, bad cold, but excited to get back to it in the New Year!

Hope its a good year for you all with lots of good health and happiness x 

Massive thank you to everyone who caught us to say 'Hello' at any of the shows we have been at, it's been a really busy time! Needless to say we both have an underlying level of tiredness but we're ploughing on. 

We had four days in London at Taste, four days at the NEC with the BBC Good Food Show, and this weekend just gone, two days at Brompton Cookery School for Brompton Christmas Market, doesn't sound to bad but being away from home and standing up all day takes it's toll but we had a giggle too!

It's been fab fun to catch up with friends, clients and customers. With no more shows, today I've been up loading pieces to the on-line shop including these ceramic decorations. Planning to have more condiment sets too, kiln firing right now which is great in this freezing weather, keeping my hands warm!

Here we go! Final glaze kiln is going up right now for Taste of London - these pieces came out today along with a few presents, I am always going to wish there was more finished but I hoping my stand will look good with new glazes for people to see along with old favourites!

So the hard throw down is done, turning tomorrow, then all I can do for Taste and BBC Good Food Show is glaze, which is a bit of a relief as my hands could really do with a rest! No more throwing now for a week, doesn't sound long but after throwing every day for over a month it really is!

And a new glaze, well, an old glaze that fires totally differently in my new kiln, quite complex, warming surface with lots of detail, more experiments needed but certainly different!

Fresh from todays kiln, lots of greens and browns which seems apt with the change in the weather. The pottery is warm and I am cramming the firings in as we get ready for the festive season.

If I haven't told you already, locally, I'm showing at Brompton Cookery School as part of the Brompton Christmas Market  - 3rd and 4th of December  - 12pm till 6pm.

There's no entry fee and no parking fee so it's the perfect spot to whizz in and grab a few bits or linger, get a bite to eat and drink off Marcus Bean and take your time looking around the stalls. This is going to be the best place to find me before Christmas, as after this show I'm hoping not to have a lot of stock left!

Book it in your diary!

This is an idea I've been playing with for a while, a plate that is more like a plinth, giving height to the presentation of the food. Could also but used as a cake stand, hence the mini one, for a little cup cake.

And Jon's knives, he's had the base blade made in Sheffield and is ready to start on the handles. He's hoping to have a few ready for Taste and getting the blades made elsewhere should hopefully make them more affordable. 

I'm in love with the green plates above, these two are for sale and I will glaze more, and I'm definitely making a few for myself. Whilst I have a cupboard full of ceramics, I don't have matching sets and have never really wanted matching, but there's something about this glaze on plates that I can't resist! 

I met a lovely couple at Christmas whilst showing at the NEC BBC Good Food Show last Christmas and then again in the summer, when they booked to visit us here at Sytch Farm.

Together they had some really clear ideas on a dinner service set that they wanted to order.

They knew what sizes they wanted and the colours they wanted and were prepared to wait for me to make and glaze to fit their brief. 

Different glazes fire at different temperatures and hence it can take some time to complete a mixed set as I make and store enough stock of one glaze colour before filling and setting the kiln off.

That combined with the issues with a new kiln brought means they have been patiently waiting since the start of July, even though the work was thrown within ten days of their first visit.

Well now I'm pretty much there and excited to show them!

They ordered dessert plates which are slightly smaller than main plates, which they also ordered, breakfast bowls and salad bowls and a few large serving pieces. 

Thats the beauty of ordering your own set, you have control on some of the decisions. Having put this order through the kilns in the last two weeks I am a little in love with it myself, I adore how the orange and green work together, picked out with a few pieces of light blue.

And now? Kilns are firing with stock for Taste of London and BBC Good Food Show Winter, trying to get together sets of colours together, trying to second guess what colours everyone would like to see!

Jon has been making these boards for a great place called The Riverside Inn , worth the trip to for lunch or dinner. They are made from Pippy Oak so have these beautiful markings in the wood. These have been made to order and are intended to be the tray for small glasses of real ale, an ale tasting tray.

These ceramic pieces are a mixture of samples and ordered pieces. The flat pink plate came with us as we visited another restaurant this week, they want plates that are super flat, real low raise edges. I made several so will have a few to sell as the Christmas shows start. 

And the black edged bowls are samples for another customer, I'm not sure if he will like them as he asked for the edges to be black and the sides bare. I tried that but the black rim left stains where I tried to clean it off. I do love the pink and green together though but I'm finding the green glaze difficult at the moment, the joys of ceramics! 

Autumn is coming - I'm still living in my shorts and flip flops even if my feet are freezing! Hanging on in there but the changing signs are everywhere. This tree - I have no idea of it's name - was given to us two years ago as a stick about a metre high, this summer it has really grown and I love to see how the leaf colours are changing, with this tree in particular the colour changes from bottom to top!