• Mrs Rayner and I were given the birthday gift of a pottery experience day at Much Wenlock Pottery ten days ago or so.

    It was a wonderful day and I was inspired to make the video above.

    You can see the it ad free with hi res scans of the drawings on my patreon page: https://bit.ly/NewTricksPottery

    November 1st has come and gone and I’ve not closed this site or newsletter. I couldn’t do it when it came to it. ? I will be rearranging the site though.

    How are you enjoying my new video direction? It’s sort of writing and illustrating for grown ups. I’ve moved on up the age range.

    You never know they may turn into grown up picture books one day!

  • I’ve just posted Monday’s Video. It’s a story from my Art School days in Cambridge.

    You can see it on Monday on YouTube, or get a sneak preview on Patreon now.

    Support me on Patreon and you will be able to see it all ad free with scanned images too and a whole lot more.

    Don’t forget that I will be migrating this list to Patreon on the 1st of November.

    Now… I’m off to find where I put my glasses!

  • I’ve been experimenting and trying to head in a new direction that I enjoy creating and that I hope is also entertaining. It’s storytelling for grown-ups with added drawing. A new style sort of picture book illustration, in a way.

    Here is a story what happened to me at the the wonderful National Trust property, Cothele, in Cornwall.

    As part of my new direction I’m slimming down my online footprint. Keeping this website going gets more and more problematical, fighting off scams and attacks and making sure it complies with international regulations is relentless work. I really don’t need the hassle.

    So, on November 1st 2026 – in about 8 weeks time – I will be retiring this website and pointing my shoorayner.com name to my Patreon page.

    So, what do I do with my newsletter members? The mail list is tied to this website, currently.

    The easiest thing for me is to transfer names from this list to become free members of my Patreon page so you can get updates when I send them – It’s actually a better system for me.

    If you have any thoughts on this do let me know. If you would like to support me on Patreon, take a look here.

    Enjoy the video!