Friday 4 December 2015

Shortlisted...Again!!



Just found out that the third book in this series has been shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book Award again. Congratulations Andy and Bloomsbury.... and Me!

I shall be posting more info and images soon.

Hooray!

(can we really win it twice? the odds are good for the other two i would say... but the kids decide!)


Thursday 26 November 2015

More Music


Seems like i only share music on the blog these days! Enjoying this recent Chastity Belt album though.  Time to Go Home, highly recommended!






Thursday 19 November 2015

More Music - Daniel Knox


Been listening so much to this newest Daniel Knox record. I love the playing on it and i love his voice.


High Point Drive is my highlight, that's not to say it will be yours.






Wednesday 11 November 2015

Israel Nash


This is a fabulous little session by Israel Nash and his band for KEXP radio in Seattle. I've listened to Israel a lot lately, Rain Plan is a particular favourite of mine (...of course i like Neil Young! ;-)

Full session.



Just Rain Plan.



Monday 9 November 2015

Look What's Coming!!



Yep, over four years after buying my first clay ands lots of failures later I'm getting a new kiln, this Rohde Ecotop. My parents have been amazingly generous, i don't think they could bare to watch me struggle anymore!! Thanks Mum and Dad!

I'm very excited to, hopefully, rule the kiln out of my list of possible problems. I've also been incredibly fortunate to have been given generous support from the amazing Doug Fitch and Hannah McAndrew... Fitch! Bless them both. Hopefully i will have a much improved glaze recipe. This should narrow it down to the slip and clay body. I have things to try first with the slip, hopefully that's where my issue lies. Ball clay shrinks more than earthenware clay. If i can get that fit right, then i think i'll be nearly there, in terms of pot finish. Then i just need to focus on making constantly better pots.

It's also been good to have the support of some great Hastings pottery folk now. Thanks Vanessa, Alastair and Judith! I've spoken with the lovely Judith Rowe about a few things slipware related, so hopefully we'll get back to some of them in the future. I shall be posting a few more musical items for her over the coming months too, now that she drops in on this blog. "Hi Judith!"
... and thanks to Matt Grimmitt, at Winchcombe Pottery, for always being there to support me and introducing me to Judith. You need people and support, no matter how much you'd like to figure it all out yourself. I feel very lucky now to have it.

I also had a chat with the wonderful guy in the Old Hastings Pottery (Hasting's Courthouse Street). Don't know his name, sorry about that, i shall ask next time. He lost his lovely wife to cancer last Christmas and has been soldiering on keeping it all going on his own ever since. He always has a smile on his face and time for me. He's happy to chat about slipware and shivering problems! He had a good tip that i'm going to try to see if it helps my slip fit the pot better. I love that little pottery shop, it's a very honest and pure little space. I'd love a little workshop/shop like that one day! If you live in Hastings/St Leonards please support him and his business. Perfect for some Christmas gifts!
I'll have to get some photos and info, there's so little info on it online. I'd better change that and do my bit for it!

Speaking of which.... I've been so happy with how the sale of my pots has gone in my online shop, but there are still a few pieces left!.... just in case you needed some ideas for Christmas presents!!
A big thank you to all those beautiful people who bought one of my pieces. Thank You!

Now i just need that kiln delivered. Christmas is coming early this year!



Monday 2 November 2015

Halloween Shenanigans!


Been absent from this blog for a while, I'm pretty much just doing Instagram as @garrettworld.
Anyway here are a few pics of this years Halloween outfits for the family.

Cheap basket mask!
The full outfit based on those fabulous folk costumes.


Jakki with our good pal Marky, wish i'd got a better pic of these zombie park rangers!




Friday 9 October 2015

GarrettWare - Online Pottery Shop!!




I'm OPEN for business!!

You can see my pots at GarrettWare, just click that link!

My Slipware pottery is now available to buy. It's taken me a while to decide whether i should sell what i have been creating. I was waiting to iron out a few of the issues i've been having.... but finally i gave in to peer pressure, to just let people buy them, even with the odd blemish!

They were right and as long as i'm upfront about any defects, i'm happy to sell them... and have sold them. Which has pushed me to update my online shop to now make it a purely pottery space... and hence the name GarrettWare (i know a bold move, claiming a whole niche in pottery to myself!

Anyway it feels good and is motivating me to step it up a gear!

I shall keep updating it as i create more pots and hopefully get some of the larger, more elaborate pieces on there with more sgraffito!

It's exciting, i'm excited.... and that doesn't happen very often!


Wednesday 16 September 2015

Pickles, Ferments and Sandor Katz




Been having a lot of fun and playing with my ferments. Started to broaden out from just krauts, brining more things, making more cultured drinks and being a bit more experimental, just made a small trial batch of coffee kombucha!

My spicy pepper kraut (more like a kimchi, i guess) is always a hit. The continuous kombucha gets amazingly fizzy, love that stuff! I've made pineapple skin vinegar and a melon scraps one, fermenting has become my form of composting!

I've made fermented buckwheat bread, thanks to Amanda Feifer at Phickle (a great resource for us fermenters!) I've pickled water melon rinds (a bit tough) and recently made some garlic-dill sour pickles, they were delicious. I took Sandor Katz advice and added a couple of cherry tree leaves to the brine as the tannins are supposed to help keep the pickles crunchy. They were crunchy, sour and absolutely gorgeous! I left them to ferment for 20 days in a 5.4% brine.

Then i made a ginger bug starter and a batch of ginger beer from it, still have a week to go until that's ready to drink. Yesterday i pickled some carrots and ginger. I'm so glad i started to lacto-ferment... and discovered Sandor Katz. My innards have never felt so good!! ;-)
It's great fun, have a go... it's alchemy!

'Ginger bug' starting to ferment.
water, ginger and sugar, which you keep feeding like a sourdough starter

My garlic-dill sour pickles at the start of their journey.


Tuesday 15 September 2015

This Will Take You Places


Built To Spill cover Neil Young's Cowgirl In The Sand. Love both. Going to see these guys play soon too. Looking forward to it. Now listen, get in the groove... and drift off...



Monday 20 July 2015

Go Tex!



A proud day yesterday. Put the pedals back on Texas' bike and took him out to try proper riding... and he went instantly. I held him to start with but (almost immediately) as soon as he started to pedal i could feel he had it, so let him go and he was off.

It made me so happy to see him pedalling around. It took me back to when i first learnt, talking to my Dad as he pushed me along on a big flat football pitch, then he wasn't talking back... and that's when i realised he was way back, smiling! These are the wonderful moments of parenting (to be fair most of it is.... most!)

Go Texas!!


Rye Harbour nature reserve. Wonderful (and photogenic) shack.



Tuesday 14 July 2015

All The Dads Together


I've now gathered all the School Run Dads together in one place on my website School Run Dads
They were only quick drawings done later from memory, just to see if i could remember the outfits mostly. A few actually still look like the Dad, that's a bonus for me. I don't do portraits, but i do like characters!

here are a few you haven't seen before... i don't think...??







Monday 13 July 2015

Last Days Of School


... so thought i'd creep a new School Run Dad in. This guy is one of my playground favourites, i love his superman trainers with their huge 6 inch tongues sticking straight up.




Friday 10 July 2015

91cm From Myself


I love this animation. I first saw it a few years ago and had forgotten about it until recently and then remembered enough to track it down. I sometimes feel exactly like this, 91cm from myself.



Monday 6 July 2015

Working Lunch


In Saturday's Guardian Weekend mag. A fun project, always more than happy to put food heads on people... put a face on it!



Thursday 25 June 2015

Into The Wild




This film has really stuck with us both here. It leaves it's mark. I watched it for the first time a couple of months ago and instantly loved it. Then we both watched it the other night. Right up there on my favourite movie list. I'm listening to Eddie Vedder's soundtrack right now, love that too.... and the film's score by Michael Brook. Emile Hirsch was great in the role of Christopher McCandless, whose life the film is about. Jakki's reading the book his sister wrote about it all too and is gripped by that.

It helps that the film (2007, directed by Sean Penn) is set in part out at Salvation Mountain and Slab City! Love those places. Anyway, i'm not doing a film review, just a nod to say, if you have never seen it, you should. It's a great film, about life and true happiness.

It's quite a ride though!





Tuesday 23 June 2015

Introverts!




Ha, i just found this again floating around on my desktop... and it's so totally true for me. It pretty much nails it exactly.... so i thought i'd share it. There, now you're not so weird, just an introvert!
Sadly i can't remember where i copied it from, if you've seen it before and know, let me know and i'll credit it. Here goes:

Introverts catch a lot of shit for being introverted. The whole world seems so enamored by extroverts – the people we know who just want to be around people all the time. While we introverts might not want that, it doesn’t mean we’re depressed or suicidal or anything wacky like that. There are some things you should know about us.

1. Small talk sucks.
We’re just not very good at it. We’re typically the big-thinking types. We like big ideas and theories. Small talk is uncomfortable. We don’t care about the weather or how your cat has been doing.

2. Being alone is fine.
Seriously, we’re doing okay, even if we hole up in our houses for a while. We don’t need other people for stimulation. We find that ourselves.

3. We aren’t rude or uptight.
We might seem like that at first, but get to know us. We’re still a fun bunch of friends, we just don’t always acclimate to unfamiliar settings and people so quickly.

4. Sometimes, we swing both ways.
We might be introverts, but sometimes we are just so the life of the party. We do this willingly when we’re up to it, but we can’t always keep that kind of energy going. If we throw a party, great! But give us some time to recover.

5. We have friends. And they like us! Probably.
People hear the word ‘introvert’ and think of the goth kid sitting alone at the food court. That’s a whole different thing entirely. We love having friends, and our friends love having us! We put in a conscious effort for people we think are worth it.

6. When with the right people, we feel safe.
Having the right people in our lives is amazing. we really give our best selves to the best people. We shine in the right company. But sometimes it takes a while to find those people.

7. We like to write things out.
Writing is easier than talking for us sometimes. Email is the best because it helps us get the thoughts out of our heads without being interrupted. Thinking about giving us a call? Try a text or email instead.

8. We’re super productive.
Sometimes at least. Usually in our alone time, we’re able to really rock and roll on projects that we need to finish. The solitude helps us, as we tend to be a bit more distractible than most.

9. If we don’t like you, you won’t know it.
It’s the truth of the matter. We hate conflict. So even if we don’t like you, we’ll still be nice. It’s a lot easier than being real with you. Especially if your feelings are inconsequential enough that confronting you on your bullshit isn’t even worth the time. Sorry. Well, not sorry.

10. Networking events suck.
Seriously. Is there a mailing list we need to opt out of? There are few things more uncomfortable than a networking party. Except maybe a dentist’s networking party that we’ve just been accidentally invited to.

11. We don’t like crowds.
Though I find that after a few beers, I can tolerate it. Introverts tend to get overstimulated easily, so big crowds aare tough to deal with.

12. Sorry, we probably weren’t listening to your story.
We care deeply about our friends, but people outside of that circle will have a tough time maintaining our attention. It’s not that we have ADD or anything like that, we just don’t really care about you. On the plus side, we won’t judge you, so feel free to tell us all the fucked up things you said to your ex.

13. Don’t make a fuss out of our birthdays.
For the longest time, I had a great deal of difficulty understanding why I hated my birthday so much. Everyone I ever knew would come out and party with me! But then I realized: that’s the problem! We don’t need to make a fuss out of our birthdays, so please don’t do it to us.

14. We don’t want to make a fuss out of your birthday.
We can quietly honor the annual birthday, right?

15. If we’ve chosen to be friends with you, appreciate it.
We value our alone time. If we see you often, it means that we really love you. Just don’t get too bummed out when we don’t hang for a week at a time sometimes.


Read more at http://higherperspective.com/2015/01/introverts.html#OvDxkQFQ7GyYjDAU.99


Thursday 18 June 2015

My New Hang Out




I've been seduced away from the blog by Instagram, that's where I'm hanging out these days. It works for me and there's always cool new stuff to find.

Twitter's dropping off my radar, it's too relentless and in my mind you have to be either in or out, it's not for dropping in and out of. Blogging is great, but way too little feedback, if there are no comments you get no feeling of support, as the stats are too unreliable and vague. Facebook works, but not all your friends want to keep being bombed by your arty snaps! I keep that more social.

Instagram is good. I like it.  It's now my home for a while. Come and join me there @garrettworld.


Wednesday 17 June 2015

Making Heads




Sat last night and started on my collection of heads to try and fire in the kiln and if they come out ok, they will be my first pots for sale. I'm going to try and get the money to either buy a new used kiln or get this pain in the ass kiln sitter converted over to a digital set up.

Anyway, i really enjoy sitting making these simple pinch pots with a little base and then i roll them on the work bench. I'll add some details and then dip them in lovely white slip, before going at them with a combo of black slip, combing, wiping, sgraffito and oxides. Some will be tidier than others!

What got me just as excited was scribbling potential ideas for the hollow lumps.... and then adding washes of clay! The old sugar paper stock with dusty marks and splashes, from kicking around the studio floor, combined with the drawings and clay washes really works for me.
I immediately thought about adding some white slip for little highlights, then about cutting bits out and assembling them. Lots to think and play with!

The problem will be it's lack of permanence, the paper fades badly. Not sure about the clay washes lifespan... should be ok. I can always scan them and get prints made.

Fun, lots more to come hopefully as i work through ideas and ways of working it.

The joy of clay! I love a bit of slipware pottery

Hopefully lots more like this chap... and for sale! (probably cursed the lot now)


Tuesday 16 June 2015

Frazey Ford - Summer Listening


Been loving this Frazey Ford (ex Be Good Tanyas) album Indian Ocean. Also liked this video and nice to see a bit of the studio action and musicians in the bottom clip. Summer cool.






Thursday 4 June 2015

Wisdoms Of The Old And The Young


I really enjoyed this documentary yesterday, so thought i would share it with you. Lots of wise words, see it through to the end even if you do plan on sticking with your big house and death grip mortgage!

Wednesday 27 May 2015

SNAP!


Me and my good pal Craigio have started to throw images back and forth (Craigio more than me!). I had an idea for a series of images under the title of "Snap!", where we could just respond to images the other makes or posts. Eventual culminating in a split exhibition, in two countries simultaneously, Craigio lives in Thailand. This way each of us has the individual items to display and can each print and display the corresponding "Snap!" version by the other one of us.

Anyway, it's a loose idea and starting point. Eventually we'll start posting in one centralised place, where we can direct folk to and tweet about etc. It'll be a slow burn rising to a fabulous blaze of glory! (hopefully!)

Here are some early ones to get it started on here. It's off to a good start!

Selection of face jugs print out in my studio that i posted on instagram


Furnace Freako by Craigio. I love this!
That bamboo head i made


Tuesday 26 May 2015

Objects From My Studio


All part of my ongoing "Small Brown Things" collection.

Carved wooden dog from Greenwich market late 1990's, painted by me.

Carved wooden boot, not sure what the little metal knob wasfor

Bamboo cup with old wooden brush for hair. Made by me

Thursday 21 May 2015

Homes, Shelters and Wonderful Buildings


Sorry, more video sharing, but this one is wonderful. It's long, but if you like this kind of thing it's a pleasure. It covers Arcosanti in Arizona, created by Paolo Soleri in the 70's. There's also Mike Reynold's Eathship Biotecture in New Mexico. Brad Kittel (Darby Lettick) in Texas with his Tiny Texas Homes and Salvage, Texas. John Wells' Field Lab in Texas also gets featured, along with the brilliant Frank Lloyd Wright School in the Arizona desert, with it's wonderful selection of student shelters. What i really liked about it was how it included Kirsten Dirksen's family making the trip around these places and camping along the way. A lovely virtual road trip!

Perfect.




Wednesday 20 May 2015

At Home With The Kahns


The Lloyd is my shepherd!
Lunchtime relaxation with the Kahn's. I like everything about Lloyd Kahn (and his wife) and if you don't have one of his books kicking around you really should. Try and find the time to watch this, because if you don't have that kind of time, you probably need to watch it!
Also Kirsten Dirksen, makes great films. Go subscribe to her youtube channel and look up her Fair Companies




Tuesday 19 May 2015

Still Krauting



I've been refreshing my kraut stocks recently. This one is a lemon and rosemary sauerkraut. The juice was good enough to drink already! I was unsure how the acid of the lemon would effect the lactic acid forming of the cabbage, but i saw the recipe, so figured it must work out ok. I'll have to wait and see. It looks beautiful though, with the rosemary sprigs layered and the specks of lemon zest.

I also made another batch of the Salvadorian sauerkraut, which has chilli and oregano in it. The oregano is a great addition, i really liked how it turned out last time.




A couple of weeks ago i made a bigger batch of this standard red cabbage kraut. It's still one of my favourites and goes with just about anything... well for me! I made about 3 litres of that one.

I think I'm a krautaholic.

Have you made yours yet?


Thursday 14 May 2015

Studio Snaps


Some random objects from my studio. If you're interested!








Tuesday 12 May 2015

Distortion


Weird little shot across a curved magazine page, gave this pic, which to me looks like a finely painted caricature and not the photo it actually is.





Friday 8 May 2015

Find Me On Instagram



Been getting a bit more active on Instagram. You can find me on there as garrettworld


Wednesday 6 May 2015

Fishy Money



I made this Fish headed man, along with the hand of a few posts ago, also as a money box. I just find money boxes are a useful way of making an object functional. I like my pots to have a use and not just be an ornament. He was just a simply paddled sealed cylinder. I didn't know what he would be. Originally he was going to just be a guy in a baseball cap, but i didn't have enough height to have a cap peak and a face!... so i just flipped the peak to the top of his head like a mohawk and saw that he could be fishlike. I added some scale texture and slipped it. I always make some mistake, or forget my intention, when i'm in the heat of slipping. It's a kind of panic. I was leaving the coin slot until after slipping it, but i had cut a stopper hole at the back to allow the air inside the form, so it would dry more evenly.... i just forgot to block it when i dipped it in the slip! No biggy, just annoying that i forgot what i was meaning to do!

This guy will also get some additional sgraffito lettering on the back and some eye detailing.

i do like a nice coating of wet slip!

Thursday 30 April 2015

Anti-Dog-Poo Posters Continued...


Right, being as there seems to be a bit of a buzz on the dog poo poster front, i thought i'd re-post this set of prints. If you would like some to put up locally, i'm happy to post you copies or email you the digital files for you to print out and/or share.
(I trim them so they have a space at the top and bottom when laminated, this allows you to punch holes for cable ties without any water being able to get in to the printed paper.)

You can have multiples of just one single design or the full range. My contact details are on my website, which has a link in the blog sidebar, or just click here at garrettworld

This is one exception where i won't mind my images being ripped off or used without my permission.
Let's try and clean up these pavements... Feel free to share!

#thepoowontdo #youforgotyourshit