Clay drying and slaking

Clay sieving

Clay drying, weighing and slaking

Pittormie fruit

We have spent a Saturday in Fife fields, at Pitormie Farm and St Andrews Farmhouse Cheese fields near the old Clephanton Brickworks.

We were prepared for a rainy day, the weather has been so changeable. We met Euan and Jackie in the Egg shed with our buckets and spade. Euan suggested a few locations where the soil was heaviest, heading first to the back of the farm up the hill past the raspberries, strawberries and Christmas trees. Euan stopped to pick a white flowers from a strawberry plant and pointed out that the first had got to the plant, the centre of the flower was black. After chat about the Norwegian and Douglas fir trees duration of growth Euan left us to our own devices, as Sean began digging Euan came back suggested another spot on the know of the field further up. Sean and I agreed that we weren't quite up to speed with the descriptions of field navigation since our Puddledub dig. When ever a farmers tells you can't miss it, Sean and I probably can. What townies we are, looking for our road signs with arrows saying stop here. We were to go past the gooseberries, beyond the seeded field to the ploughed part on the know of the hill. The kids were happily trampling along, and taking photos. Sean began his dig and Erin and I looked for treasure in the turned over soil and I was delighted to find a few fragments of blue and white pottery among the white earthenware. We could barely walk in the soil in our wellies, Erin got stuck in the great hills of mud looking for rocks and minerals while Lewis ran between us and the gooseberries to help Sean. What a height it was, we could see the weather coming in around us black clouds on the left, followed by grey then white and hint of blue followed by grey and lilac. Rain was hitting Guardbridge and heading to Clayton Caravan Park. We walked out a downpour only to have to take off all coats and hand them on the wall in the heat 5 minutes later.

We'd been on the hill for an hour and decided to head back to the car, Sean would head across the road towards the other field where the rhubarb was planted to see if the the other soil was part of the seam of clay running from Bulmullo to Claytons.  Listening to Jackie telling of the efforts of ploughing in the past,  the effort of growing and sustaining growth gave extra blue to our keeps and tatties we'd bought.

Sean mentioned that he's dug half a meter down and Jackie said there was no need to that the soil was consistent for 8 feet then turned to sand-we marvel at the of knowledge we are being introduced to.

Clephanton Farm, Anstruther

Eating out at St Andrews Cheese

Pittormie Farm, Dairsie

Slow Design

Our slow design philosophy to Butter Wynd Pottery production is not in alignment with our project for Fife Contemporary Art & Craft. As the deadline approaches I am beginning to understand just what is involved in Sean's raw clay digging. Sean has told me I need to read his previous blog entries to catch up, but I'm only now realising the work involved in processing the clay we are collecting from willing soil sample givers. As Sean rearranges the contents of our shrinking shed to accommodate more buckets, shelves of drying clay and devising a system to process the variety of clay we are sourcing, he has finally found a purpose for the broken bed frame and accepted that we are not to have veg in the veg plot this year but clay and wild flowers. I know only one thing - a country potter must have had more room than we do.

It is amazing how much space is required to make six plates it should necessitate half our garden too. Our modest garden has a propensity to move towards a Steptoes and sons environment, our limited space means our collections are curbed and I relish my visits to Steptoesyard in St Cyrus to see how we could become. My new mantra is: space is a state of mind.

Making connections

Making connections...

I (Christine) am reading a beautiful book called Spittalfields Life by the gentle author. I was drawn to the book by its book cover with twa Wally Dugs actually two Staffordshire dogs decorated by Rob Ryan. It turns out Spittalfields Life is both book and blog telling the stories of the lives of those living and working in the East end of London, especially those lives of the stallholders working in the various markets. You find yourself privy to intimate conversations of exceptional lives. Each entry is categorised with street life, human life, past life, culinary life, market life etc. My current favourite page is 367 and the paragraph describing the merits of a Spittlefield weavers chair, it shares such affinity with Sean's Whitby pancheon I'd like to see both artefacts get together for a photo. Do we have a gentle author in Fife?

The gentle authors mission to record the stories of Spittalfield highlights my shared desire to reveal other stories and expand on the processes in which we find ourself through this commission. I think these might be less holistic than I'd like and present more as fragments of our sustainable intentions.

"I like this sad old stool for its functional austerity and evidence of wear. Commonplace objects that are used my many people in the course of daily life always speak to me more than rare precious artefacts. "

In piecing together bits of information about our first visits to collect clay and bring together what we've collected from pillars of hercules and puddledub, I feel the visual narratives will be fragments of our experience and this could be used as a decorative device as plate patterns/decoration. I couldn't resist collecting 8 shards of pottery from the field at Clentrie farm,  wherever you go in Fife evidence of the potteries heritage is washed up on our shores and found in fields-the revelation of treasures. At present I'm swamped by the quantity of information that might adorn the plates and goblets, trying to remain true to the simplicity of the country potters pattern making might prove difficult. The shapes of the ceramic shards make attractive shapes and might provide a framework for symbols and signatures associated with the producers foods and recipes - The difficulty will be reaching a consensus with Sean.

Telling this commission process might not be as as in-depth as our digging, our intention is that our digital stories will create further curiosity, our fragments might led like place markers to new journeys and future stories at Farmers Markets throughout Fife, finding new gentle authors in Fife!

Successful plate mould making

Making a plate mould (failed!)

Christine looking for inspiration

Drying clay

Billy's fish van

More shards

Collected from the water front in Tayport.

Shards

These shards were picked up in the field we dug the clay on Clentrie Farm (Puddledub). Christine and Erin have sharp eyes for them. Where do they come from, though? They are some distance from the house or an obvious midden. We were told later that the burnt remains of slum clearances were spread on fields...

Shards might play some part in our decoration of the plates. Each one tells it's own incomplete story...

Testing a QR code on a plate

Getting clay from Clentrie Farm, Auchtertool

Pillars of Hercules, Falkland

Farmers' Market Conversations

As part of our research for our FCA&C project, which this blog is all about, Christine spent much of our Farmers' Market quizzing customers about how they cook the food they buy at the market. Christine drew the recipes there and then. It was great fun and very interesting, as the people that go to Farmers' Markets plainly have a great love and interest in the food.