I have three week's to go to the Dulwich Festival and to be honest, I have been having a panic! The pit firing is behind schedule and the latest glaze has been a bit problematic but I am trying to let it grow on me. There is not much I can do now, so the perfectionist has been comining to terms with accepting the work as it is. Especially at this stage, my work is like a fast flowing river and curating "finished" pieces is almost impossible as the work continually evolves. The work that people buy is a point on a timeline. I am giving the carved pieces a lot of time at the moment, exploring the relationship between the form and the carving. This is the latest piece. What do you think? I think the "parsnips" are still the shapes with the special magic, but I know there are still better pieces to come.

I had new visitors to the shed this weekend. Three young children stopped by and played with clay on the wheel. These were the first children to be unbothered by dirty hands - although the cold water in the outside wash bowl was not entirely popular! These three were delighted with pressing and shaping the turning clay and I am hoping to get them back at some point after the show. I asked one of them how the clay felt as it was turning under his hands. I was expecting "cold" or "slippery" but he smiled and said "calming". I know what he means.