Page 33 - ClayCraft - Issue 35 (January 2020)

KILNS

 One of the jugs auctioned for
the homeless. 23cm high.
(Photo: Shannon Tofts)

some wonderful people made bids, another
who wanted to contribute but couldn’t
afford the pieces made a donation, and
between us we raised £1,365 by the time
the polls closed. That money will be so
useful, particularly when you consider that
 Making the film for the Burrell Collection, Hannah decorating a plate. during the past nine years, homelessness
has increased by 165%, that’s a staggering
It’s a great honour to have been asked to statistic.
participate, and I look forward to going Well, as you can gather, the election
and seeing us in action on screen when it didn’t go the way I had wished, and it
reopens in spring 2021. leaves me deeply saddened, distressed and
Filming completed, I returned exhausted worried. Will we see our European potter
to my sickbed, where my dear wife looked friends next year at the pottery shows, or
after me, employing the sweetness and ever again for that matter? Will our home
gentleness with which she is blessed. When here in Scotland even be part of the United
I was ill and lying freezing, yet boiling in Kingdom in the longer term? Would I like
bed, I wondered how on earth I would have that? Maybe, maybe not. Will the
coped had I have been homeless and ill like inevitable turbulent financial situation
this, with no warmth and nobody to love enable us to survive as full-time potters,
me better. making things that in the scheme of
I had plenty of time to think, which is things, nobody really needs? Who knows?
rare in our hectic lives. I thought a lot Too many gloomy thoughts.
about my dad; I think of him every day. He Hannah was ill in bed, so I went with the
died just two days after Pippin was born. kiddies for a walk this afternoon to give
He was an extraordinary man, and was  The final Christmas order heading her some peace, to clear my head and to
instrumental in establishing a charity to into the kiln room after three days of tire them out, because they were tiring me
provide a day centre to deliver support for decorating. out! I took a photograph looking down
the homeless and vulnerable of Bedford. over our house and workshop to show you
The centre, now with the acronym Facebook business page. We had a few the isolation and beauty of our
SMART is still serving the community, really good pots that were unsold from our surroundings. It’s a good place to be able to
with increasing necessity. online exhibition, and because they’d been fool ourselves that we can hide from the
It really sunk in how lucky I am and I in the show, we had good photos, so we real world. I know we can’t really, but we
decided we should try and do what we decided we’d try to auction those pieces. can pretend.
could to help those less fortunate in some And so we did, yesterday, during polling These are uncertain times; I hope that if
way and to do it for my dad, for the charity hours, 7am until 10pm, accompanied by and when the hurt starts to heal, that we as
he established. the axiom, Please, when you come to vote, a nation can all be friends again and for
I shared my thoughts with Hannah, and think of the most vulnerable person you know goodness sake, look after each other.
we decided to hold an auction on our and vote in their interest. I’m pleased to say, fitchandmcandrew.co.uk 
Issue 35 ClayCraft 33