5th Wednesday Social Event

Wednesday 30th September saw twenty four club members, their wives and guests taking lunch at Bradley Gardens at Crawcrook. A beautiful setting in the Glasshouse Restaurant, with excellent food and congenial company on a warm early autumn day, must be one of the most enjoyable ways possible to spend a couple of relaxing hours.  lunch was followed, for a dozen or so of the more intrepid souls, by a visit to the Sourdust Pottery in Stocksfield, decorating and then firing raku pots to their own design. Bisque fired pots (a first unglazed firing) were provided by the potter John Scott, to be dipped or brush decorated.  A short time later the finished product emerged from the kiln, still red hot at 1000 degrees C. to be immersed in sawdust to cool. The sawdust burns and allows the pot to cool without oxygen giving it a lustrous final glaze.  So, a couple of hours after arriving, the newly qualified potters returned home happily clutching their precious creations.