Back to work

The excesses of Christmas are now over and its been a slow start getting back into the swing of making things again.
I would like to make some changes with my work this year, and I hope to be moving in a different direction with some new ideas and perhaps a less commercialised route.
In the meantime though I am pulled back into replenishing a near empty Not on the High street shop, and some small commissions.

The Greats

I found some photos I had taken, back in the hazy days of summer from the Sainsbury centre in Norwich. I had gone with a friend and our daughters to show them some of the collection there then took them out to eat afterwards.
Little did I know they had a temporary ceramics exhibition there aswell. I hadn't seen Lucie Ries work in the flesh so to speak, until that day. Well, those bowls are enough to make anyone go away and make a pot, they are stunning, also Hand Coper vessels on show there too.

Hans Coper vessels, these have to be my favourites.

Those war time buttons by Lucie Rie looked like sweeties.

Lucie Rie bowls

How do you suppose whoever made this pot created that lettering?

Filling the kiln can sometimes take a while, its always a good feeling when its cooled down enough to peep inside to take a quick look, its an even better feeling when you empty the kiln and find that all your hard work has paid off, and you don't have any warpage, cracks and crawls on your work.

Filling the kiln over recent times has mainly consisted of commissions and replenishing stock for my shops, all great if the work has fired well. Yet not so exciting as I already know what I'm going to find in there. This is why I always try a little experiment or test a new glaze or make a piece to use in my home somehow.
 This way I get a little surprise everytime the kiln is fired.

My new brush pot

Kiln experiments, Melting glass, feather imprint firing results

For a while now I have wanted to try melting some glass in with my ceramic work during a firing. It is a bit hit and miss as I wasnt too clear about what temperature to fire too, I fire the kilns high so I thought that results wouldnt be too good.
But I fetched these out of the kiln today, just tester pieces for now but I think I will definitely be melting more glass into my bowls. I like the results.

These bowls have got a feather imprint and a little iron oxide over them,
they look like leaf veins but they are actual feathers

Glass beads that I have used to melt onto the ceramics

Out of the kiln!

Today I opened my kiln and have lots of new things.
 I love these though because they are made by two of my children. They made these things a while ago but they wanted to slop some glaze about, so they did.

Noah's Knee Pot

Formed around his little knee and given three supporting feet. 

Molly's Fox.
She wanted to have a go at making some animal heads herself.
I prefer hers to mine! Perhaps I will ditch my own glazing efforts and get her to  do it instead!

Hoveton Hall Gardens ~ Sculpture Trail

I had a camera at the ready for a change and I'm so glad I took some shots of these stunning walled gardens and the sculpture trail full of various works from local artists, from life sized wicker figures to gorgeous enchanting ceramic sculptures dotted around the trees and even in the streams and abstract timber forms at the forefront of a stunning landscape backdrop, here are some of the things I liked the most!

Larger than life these wood/woven figures hung from trees and sprung from the ground.

These tall standing figures stand alone under shady woodland areas, this one is probably the Green Man. Made from stoneware and coated in oxides. 

Wind chimes and bells strung from a sculptered head, the head was amazingly detailed with foxes,hares and birds all blended into the face and coated with a matt turquoise glaze.

This little ceramic face was below the water in a shallow stream.

Dragon sculpture made from steel.

I just liked this as there was a little butterfly sat at the top.

I loved these sea urchin inspired ceramics inside the glasshouse with all the succulents and alpines, really inspiring.

An old water pump inside one of the Victorian walled gardens

Heron sculpture constructed from recycles iron, check out the pliers!

Here is a photo of one of the many teeny frogs seen jumping around in the boggier areas of the woods by the lakes.

Indian block printing

I've been meaning to use these blocks for ages for something other than printing into clay (which I love) so I had a go at using them for what they were originally intended, printing onto indian paper & fabrics. I started out using them to print onto brown parcel paper & the backs of old wallpaper rolls to see how they came out.

Here is the selection of indian printing blocks all different sizes and designs.

I've mixed some water based paints and used some old fabric to press the blocks onto to absorb the paint.

Heres some of the results printed onto the brown packing paper

Here they are drying out on an inspiration board. I'm going to use some of them to pack up my ceramics next time I do a stall and some to wrap gifts, next time I will try using them with fabric, (next time I indulge)