Looking ahead now; there’s still some straw to plaster and walls to be lime washed but other than that the making room at Waun Hir Pottery is pretty much there.
In the next room is the kilns. The smaller gas kiln can be picked up by four people and put into the back of a van and has been in every pottery I’ve ever worked in. Including Manningtree Pottery where I did my apprenticeship over 20 years ago. (I bought it from Mike Goddard who owned the pottery). Then there is the other temporary (8 years so far) kiln. This all introduces the next project at Waun Hir Pottery; the showroom. The plan is to erect a lean- to along the back wall of the pottery and house the kilns outside. I intend to build a larger gas kiln and at sometime in the future a wood fired kiln too. I don’t believe being totally reliant on fossil fuels for pottery firing, indefinitely into the future is wholly sustainable.
As soon as this takes place we can seriously realise the long held ambition of having a permanent place for displaying finished pots. As has been cited previously we do get visitors but as yet we have not overtly advertised we’re here and open for business – easy to encourage people to visit your nice pottery showroom. Not so easy we’d wager persuading visitors to come and have a look at a building site. When the time is right though a visit to Waun Hir Pottery as part of a longer break in Carmarthenshire, will we think be a real must. There is a vast choice of rich offerings for visitors to this part of Wales.
In addition to this, adjacent to the other end of the making room we will site a toilet and shower room. Once this is installed, two or three summer courses a year coupled with home cooked, local fayre all served up in our Kitchen Pottery, are planned. Accommodation available in local B+B or camping in the field behind the pottery, will complete the picture of what we want to achieve here.
So as you can see the work is by no means complete, but you need to have goals to retain the momentum. The future still excites and despite the distance travelled thus far and the journey still in front, we have no regrets.