Whew! May marks our first full year of hosting artist residencies. Last May, our first guests were a group of three friends, who had met at a previous residency. They gathered here in Portugal as a little creative reunion and spent two weeks creating, laughing, cooking and exploring together. It was a wonderful first hosting experience, and I believe it was the beginning of a trend in terms of bringing kind hearted, open minded people into our space.
Our first group of resident artists in May 2025.
This May, we also hosted 3 artists, but they were completely unrelated, and only overlapped for one day. Karin joined us for two weeks from Norway; an experienced potter looking to hone her skills. We worked on different ways to achieve large forms, double walled pots, plates and platters, and closed form vessels. We also took a two part workshop from local artist Vitor Reis, on harvesting wild clay, and building a paper kiln to fire earthenware pieces.
Annie arrived from England right on Karin's heels, and she got to work in the glaze lab with Nick, where they spent most of the week talking about crystalline glazes, and making tests to lower the temperature of the glazes from cone 10 to cone 6, to work with our electricity limitations (more on that here). Speaking of electrical limitations, an American friend of mine that was living in Sintra, ended up moving to Australia and decided not to take her kiln along, so I was able to snag it and some Advancer kiln shelves at a sweet deal. At 82 liter capacity, it's bigger than my 60 liter kiln, and while it still requires more electricity than I have, it requires less than my bigger 140 liter kiln does. It's sort of the back up plan, if all else fails with the upgrade on the big kiln.
I was also gifted a brand new Speedball table top wheel, that's wired for US electricity. So it's in perfect condition, I just need to buy a transformer so we can use it. Just adding to my collection of expensive ceramic equipment I don't have the right electricity for. I have a good feeling about electrician number 7 though. So here's hoping by fall we may be on our way.
Karin left for a few days and returned for one night, the same day that Irtaza arrived from London. Za is a newbie potter finishing up his gap year before heading off to university in September. We have a partial work trade agreement, and he was here for three weeks learning about all things pottery, and helping us keep the studio tidy, and the clay reclaimed, among other exciting projects, like moving rocks!
Oh about the rocks... so I have been scavenging rocks since the winter storms have tumbled the walls of friends and neighbors. Slowly trying to build raised beds and retaining walls on our 1.5 acre property. Until now, we had been taking small batches in our trunk and our friend's little van. One friend, fellow ceramic artist Cat, had a massive pile of rocks from her neighbor's wall (of a house in ruin) collapsed into their yard. I asked if I could take some rocks for my wall back in January, and she said the owner of the collapsed wall was responsible for moving them, did we want a deliver of rocks in a pick up truck? To which I replied, sure we'll take 3! Only it wasn't a pick up truck, it was a massive truck with a lift, and they delivered 9 tons of rocks on a random Tuesday with 15 minutes notice. Ha!
In between teaching local students, and hosting residencies I've been busy making new work for a 3 day Ceramics market called Mestre de Ceramica, in Caldas da Rainha (and UNESCO World Heritage site for ceramics). We also had a visit from my Instagram plant friend Davida, and then I hope to post work online to my website for my very first European shop update... right after I host an open studio event to try to raise awareness of my little studio here. All while preparing for our first guest artist retreat and workshop in July, among a million other little projects.
Photo dump of May/early June below.
