45. THE ARTIST AND THE ROCK

Hello Potters and Friends,

Cesar Manrique – he is the artist that captured my attention last week.

Five of us went on a family holiday to Lanzarote in the Canary islands, and Manrique has had such a big influence over the whole island, it's difficult not to see his artistic presence everywhere.  

 His many kinetic wind toys, as he called them, stand in strategic spots throughout the volcanic island turning and swirling in the perpetual breeze.

We visited his house that he built inside and around large volcanic bubbles. In each bubble he created either a living space or an outdoor pool linked by a lava tunnel to a barbecue area. 

One large bubble housed some of his sketches for his wind toys as well as some of his ceramics. 

Are these bold brush strokes or what......?

By coincidence I had just made a pot of a similar shape the week before. (Without the ears and the top-knot of course. I'd not thought of that combination!) 

Getting it out of the damp cupboard I realised that it needed a lot of trimming so I had to create a make-shift chuck in order to work on it upside down. 

So here was my solution....

I had a pot to hand with a good flared rim. Centre it and secure it.

A square of bubble wrap to protect my pot from getting marked and over she goes.

Spirit level to ensure no wonky bottom.

Then place a finger in the centre to keep it from tilting. 

A few bold strokes of my own and it's ready for the kiln.

HAPPY POTTING FOLKS

44. CAREFUL AS YOU GO.

Hello Potters and Friends,

I've just realised this afternoon that I haven't written a post on this blog since December!
So I've put down my painting brush and sat at the computer.
But, thinking about it, there is a reason why I've been so lax - I've been working very slowly.

Here's what I'm in the middle of working on right now...

I'm using black underglaze and it takes me ages. The pot hasn't been bisque fired yet, and on unfired clay your brush tends to drag making progress very slow. Also this won't be glazed on the outside so I must be accurate with every stroke because I don't want to be scraping off the mistakes, then trying to cover up the scratch marks. 

When I was a student I remember rushing to finish a pot. Why? God knows. It wasn't a race. But what I've learned over the years is to pay attention to the detail. Make sure the pot is as you want it before going into the kiln. 

Potter Lucie Rie wisely said that you can never make a bad pot good by covering it in glaze and hoping it will be transformed. It will always be a bad pot and you'll never be happy with it. 

Here's a smaller one that's been bisque fired and I'm painting a glaze on the inside.

I didn't paint right to the top of the rim because I knew that I couldn't guarantee a lovely straight black edge on the rim.  But by holding the brush steady against the far side of the pot and then turning the banding wheel, I find I have more control over that straight edge. But be sure to turn it slowly. No spinning and hoping!

But what if you thought you'd made the perfect pot but when it came out of the kiln it looked like this....

Well, yes I could fling it towards the bin... but maybe all may not be lost.... 

Kintsukuroi is the Japanese art of mending ceramic and making an artistic statement from it. This was a broken pot, put back together and the join exaggerated with gold. 

My plan is to fill the crack of my pot with paper clay (which may not shrink so much and is stronger for this job) then re-fire it, and using a porcelain gold pen, mark out the crack. These can be bought in most craft shops.

I won't be able to put it for sale but it will join other slightly flawed pots that adorn my kitchen. 

And now finally I must show you this picture of a brilliant piece of carpentry that I found on the Web.

For all you throwers of pots out there, how's that for simple invention? I showed this to the love of my life who is just now sprawled out on the sofa; eyes glued to a rugby match in HD. "No problem" he said, straining to look round me.  I think he just missed Ireland scoring a vital try. But anyway, great, I expect one appearing any day soon. 

HAPPY POTTING FOLKS

TAKE IT EASY

 

43. NEW YEAR - NEW IDEAS

Hello Potters and Friends,

Hope you all had a good festive holiday and are looking forward to the new year.

I took part in a couple of Christmas Art Fairs, the last being in our town's Art Gallery and Museum.

It's known as the Royal Pump Rooms and that is exactly what it was. This rather grand building was built in 1814 to allow townsfolk to partake of the natural spa water that had been discovered 30 years before in 1784. This murky, salt saturated, green, foul water was so popular with the wealthy London set that Queen Victoria, in 1838, changed our town's name from Leamington Priors to Royal Leamington Spa.
They obviously believed the old wives' tale; if it tastes awful, it must be doing you good!

And so here I am selling my wares in this grand building, as I'm sure many hundreds have done before me.

Top left of the picture are a row of Edmund de Waal's pots. He held an exhibition here a few years ago. 

I used these Christmas fairs to see what people thought of my new porcelain collection. I was pleased to find a very positive reaction. And I was also pleased to be asked to exhibit and sell a selection of it in the Art Gallery of this historic old building. 

I looked up some of my old designs in my sketchbook, tweeked this and that, used a lot more colour and painted with bolder strokes. 

Here are a few pieces that I experimented with.

All were painted with underglazes at a bone dry stage before bisque firing. Then all dipped in a transparent stoneware glaze.  

"Feelin' Groovy"

I think I must have been when I made this!!

I took a break in writing this post here because the doorbell rang, and to my great delight the piece of pottery that I have been waiting for has at last arrived.  

Here it is as I took it from its box. The ceramic poppy is one of 888,246 that were made for the art installation 'BLOOD SWEPT LANDS AND SEAS OF RED'  at the Tower of London.

It is the work of Paul Cummins and it commemorated the centenary of the start of the First World War 1914. 

They are individually hand made. No two are the same. 

It arrived with it's metal stem, all rusted from the London weather and I love it.

Just off now to look at it again...

HAPPY POTTING FOLKS

AND  HAVE A VERY HAPPY 2015

  

42. 'THOSE AUTUMN LEAVES'

Hello Potters and Friends,

I think I've been heavily influenced recently by all the autumnal colours that have suddenly appeared across our lovely rural town. As I swept up bright red and yellow leaves from our path the other day I had the urge to save some, and dry them out for Christmas decoration. But I resisted this urge because I do this every year and have bowlfuls in my workshop that I never use at Christmas or at any time!

But as I opened my kiln this week I really surprised myself. I had aimed at being bolder with colour and experimenting with ornamentation, and considering my favourite glaze is white satin, I'm quite pleased with myself for taking a few risks. So here are some of my favourites;

This clay was an experiment. It's a new clay produced in Northern Ireland at SCARVA. It has the pure white appearance and the feel of porcelain but is actually stoneware. They say it should be easier than porcelain to handle but I found the two clays very similar to throw on the wheel.
The colours are underglazes with a bit of sgraffito with only the inside glazed.

Out next came some jugs.

I love this colour. Talk about vivid!! I only have a small amount of it so when I dipped it in, it didn't quite go to the top, but I think the yellow flower balances it up nicely.

Now....why put a boat on the handle is a mystery to even me. Sometimes I make little flowers, boats or birds from off-cuts of clay and put them in a sealed plastic container then forget about them. Well, this is what happens when I remember! But, when pouring, my thumb sits comfortably against it and it is as if it was meant to be.

In case it's not clear there is an oak leaf on the rim and an acorn at the base of the handle. A real autumn jug. And I must photograph it better.

One of the ever popular Grab Jugs. I made two in my usual white satin glaze, but I went crazy with this one. Some underglazes fire glossy and some fire matt. I quite like the resulting mixture.

Painting very fine lines on greenware or bisque is very difficult because the clay in both cases is porous so it absorbs a whole brush load on first contact, leaving you with nothing on the brush. What is needed is the finest of brushes but with the greatest absorbency. Here was my solution.....

........My daughter's hair.

Find someone with lovely fine hair and go at them with some scissors. Then make your brush with sticky tape and a wooden skewer.  

I then wrapped it with wool in order to have something substantial to hold. And look at that fine point. I paint effortlessly with this.

Great hair Rosie......and you too Hector.

Then lastly, this little pot. 

New sort of handle for me. And there's a little porcelain bird added....from the plastic pot, of course.

Now finally a hand-building tip....

   

When cutting through leather-hard clay, cut through cling film. It gives the cut a nice rounded edge. I also cover the clay with cling film when smoothing it out with a rib. 

HAPPY POTTING FOLKS 

  

Tea Bowl with Landscaped- Rim

Hello Potter's and Friends,

I'm working away at a few new projects at the moment, so will have something to show you in a week or so. But in the meantime I've found some very informative videos that I'd like to post here, so as to keep as a reference for myself and pass on to you.

Here's a good one if, like me, you like these charwan  Japanese tea-cups.

Keep practicing.

Magh Seola - Ger Fahy on Uilleann pipes

Hello Potters and Friends,

I heard this great player, Gerard Fahy, playing this brilliant tune in Galway, Ireland this week.

He wrote it at the age of 14 and since then it has been recorded on all instruments and by all the great players.

So have a listen to Gerard on the Uilleann pipes  (uilleann being the Irish for elbow, because this elbow action is how the bellows are filled).

And the title Magh Seola means the Level Plain - which well describes the landscape around Galway.

41. SELL THE SIZZLE NOT THE SAUSAGE.

Hello Potters and Friends,

Lots have been going on this summer in our small town. The best fun was the Warwick Folk Festival.

My son Leo came home that weekend and off we went feeling slightly underdressed. (Note the woman to the left of the picture.) And, believe me, she looked quite ordinary compared to some.

But Alan preferred the Ukulele Festival that took place in the pub gardens on the Campion Hills just a few minutes away.

I heard it perfectly well by just opening the back door of our house!

But what's all this sausage business, I hear you cry??  Well, I'm trying to make photographs of my work a whole lot more interesting.

More and more, our work is being judged initially on a photograph. I was contacted, only this week to take part in an Art Fair in Stratford-upon-Avon. The invitation came after someone looked at the photographs on my website. But I also have photographs on this blog and on my new Facebook page. So they are important and I want to put the sizzle out there. 

So I'm going to show you some of my experimental pics. Some are good, some don't work at all. But I think I'm getting a little bit closer to the sizzle.

I love this picture. A few years ago I had a passion for making paper bowls and now I have a use for the ones I still have. I displayed my pots at the Open Studio Exhibition like this and the red bowls caught the imagination. So Japanese-style pots against the red sun of Japan.

The Charwan teacup got the same treatment. I also deliberately chose a wooden base. Wood, clay and paper all in one small space.

I've made my friend Bernie a personalised jug and thought a nice lace cloth would give that tea-time homely look. But I've decided it's altogether too busy and just wrong. 

 But this I think I got right. Bright blue cups had to be on my white Welsh dresser. 

The next two photos were taken outside and here's a tip; Natural light is perfect, but don't pick a sunny day. The sun will reflect on the glaze, wash out the colour and create flares. A lovely dull day is what we want. 

It's not over exposed by sunlight. And good contrast between porcelain and rough wood-chips.

My little painted boats seem to be shipwrecked on the rocks! Both pics get a tick.

Of course, showing a use for the bowl is always a good idea.  

But I was once asked.... what would you put in a casserole dish?? For once I was lost for words.

 I photographed these on my oak kitchen table to give the feeling of warmth. If you removed the lid you might find a creamy Irish stew inside. I think I could go further with this idea. Maybe a few veg?

I'm so enjoying setting up the photographs that I haven't put my hands in clay all week!

HAPPY SNAPPING FOLKS