Things at school are getting more and more difficult as we approach the very last days before final closure. We are counting out the last kiln firings and calculating the precise number of plates and children’s work that we can fire. The kiln is scheduled to go on the very last day. I am still making plates though. Two last sprig plates and three are rolled up and waiting for images to be drawn on for the Walpole Chapel show in a few weeks. We have counted all of the plates and we make it to be about 96 at the current moment. It would be satisfying to make the century before the end of term and the end of the school. It is possible.

Last week I spent at a conference at Mansfield College in Oxford and I took my plates with me. Taking time out and having to pack the room up and sort out my stuff from the general accumulation of material int he space has been time consuming and has interrupted the flow of plate making. The journal has slowed to a stop as I focus of getting through the next few days.

Still I did make a couple of plates with two children who came down at lunchtime and I worked on a couple of plates yesterday and today. I even found some new items to press into the clay in a couple of pieces of font metal from some old printing kit. these made a satisfactory square relief shape in the clay. We are also working on a set of plaques to give to all of the staff as leaving presents so we are very busy at the moment.