New ceramics for Summer 2013. Peg it & Decorate

Ive been meaning to show these on my blog for ages. 
It takes about 6 months for a new idea to materialise into something that I can finally show or take photographs of. 
These little wooden pegs have a magnetic strip on the reverse so they can be used on fridges to pin up cards, messages or whatever.
Covered in decorative paper with a little porcelain disc attached onto the top. 

Easy Peasy!!

x

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

Progress Report... Cone shaped Garden Planters

On my bench at the moment are these conical shaped garden planters. 
This is greenware, which is prior to first firing and I can't quite believe how fast my work is drying out, all this sunshine makes life so much easier especially working with clay and getting work finished in a reasonable time frame seems attainable again.

At the base of each planter I have left a little opening to let the water drain away from them once planted up.

Heres one not sold from last year, with a little succulent planted up from last years stall.
Ive got it hanging up outside the workshop.

The British Isles. Inspiring Tiles

I have been meaning to take pics of these lovely terracotta tiles, they are embedded into the concrete on our village sign. Each one represents each member country of the British Isles.
Stunning how they have weathered, I just like the simplicity of each one represented.

The Shamrock for Ireland

The Leek for Wales

The Thistle for Scotland

and the Rose for England.

A new approach. Photographing ceramics, staging products and white backgrounds??

Photographing work D.I.Y. style has its upsides (its not costing, I'm learning all the time and its instant, so I can work on the photos straight away, tweak and upload to wherever I want them to go.)
The flip side is its time consuming, sometimes taking as long as it does to make something from scratch,  and the photos are not always to the quality I would like and lets face it, a professional photographer would know how to shoot better than me, see my work with fresh eyes and know how to get the best from it.

I have to say I have succumbed to the white background, no creases, taken in a bright room and my pics have become more and more staged as I go along. (Mainly due to Noths appetite for staged photographs to get products initially accepted onto their website) I go along with this to a larger extent as it puts the product into perspective having a few tailored additions in the photo, creates interest ect... But.... sometimes it can go too far and on occasions I have seen photographs and not quite known what is for sale until reading the listing, there has been so much "busy" stuff and paraphernalia distracting in the photograph).
I used to just take photos of my work and that was that, I felt that the work should just speak for itself, I think I would like to go back to that sometime.

Anyway more to the point! I have taken some (staged) shots here of some new work, I am trying to get away from the stark white backgrounds for a while and set my work in a more natural environment, (where it should be)
I have tried to keep the colours authentic to the "blue" light we have in England, we don't live in the Med so our light is not yellow or orange, on the whole it is grey!

As my work is on  the whole quite Rustic in its appearance and use of colours I have teamed up with some
rustic surfaces, like this wood back ground which is a piece of weathered wood that is attached to the top of an old meat cooler.

I have also used some linen cloths and vintage wooden pegs to add some extra texture into the photograph.

In these photos I have used the weathered wood as the background and used some twisted hazel in the background which I have been introducing into my photographs of ceramic planters for some time now. I just like the curly shape and colour and have been using it to break up the white backgrounds I have been using.

This is one of my fired round stoneware pots, planted up with some parsley, perfect for the kitchen window.

More shots against a linen background. (creases & all)
Mmm think I may consider banishing the white backdrops for something a little more homely.
For the time being anyway!

I think this is about the longest blog post I have done to date!!
xx