home run.

Two days 'til Shapes + Plates opens! Nerve-wracking doesn't cover it. About 3 weeks ago I realised that 10 plates were TOO WIDE for my kiln and had to drive (at 25mph for fear of breaking them) to a friend with a larger kiln. Unfortunately 2 of the plates didn't take kindly to split shelves:

But the other survived and I could crack on (that pun was genuinely accidental) with glazing...

And there are some beauties that I'm very proud of...

All the plates are now finished and have hanging discs attached to them - I install tomorrow, ahhhh!

slowly.

Little by little, I'm getting there...

noa.

The next three weeks are going to be mad. I have an exhibition opening on Thursday 18th September (oh, 24 days away?) at Noa Bakehouse. It's the best venue on the island for all the best things in life; food, music and art. 

The Isle of Man Arts Council have very kindly funded my materials for this project.

[there will be many PLATES!]

[3 new kiln shelves, thank you very much!]

[more glaze...]

[my darling friend Graham Hall cut new and bigger throwing batts for me]

[Graham's studio - full on huh!]

[1.5kg balls of clay. HUGE for me.]

[lovely new throwing batts]

[I'm just using them for the glaze, promise...]

[the plates takeover.]

new.

One of the unexpected silver linings of my return home has been the time to push my forms and designs. 

Previously I've been so busy in the hamster wheel of filling orders for stockists and I wasn't able to allow time for 'research and development'. Since January I've been slowly pushing myself to use larger weights of clay (previously 500g seemed BIG to me, but now a whole KG feels natural!) and happily had some success with dinner plates and jugs/vases. 

I loved them regardless, but the icing on the cake? Quick sales! Better go make some more now...

plate up.

Dear kiln gods,

Please take care of these dinner plates. I'm quite proud of myself for making them and I so loved painting them - there is so much SPACE for me to paint on! I feel like a child with a whole piece of paper to draw on.

Thank you muchly.

stoo-dee-oh

This was December...somehow I managed to squeeze some experiments into my Christmas production line - grown up sized dinner plates!

[snuggling next to the fire in the PineWood Studio showroom!]

[walks to shake off a bad mood]

my (dishy) creative space

Continuing on from last week's creative space, I've been painting bowls to match my new flat dishes.

I've had a few egg-related incidents this last week - one being accidentally stepping on a gecko egg on my studio floor :( I didn't even figure out what it was til 5 hours later and I was devastated! But the lady mother gecko living in the apartment must have returned, as I found this one in almost the same place on the floor of the studio yesterday! So tiny! (though yes, I KNOW, they are considered pests. Hush.)
More creative spaces over here and a new weekly meeting place for clay folk over here.

eggs

For weeks I've been aching for a new design. I love the lorikeet feathers, but I don't want to overdo them - I need to keep them special. Everything I thought of was too different, too unconnected. I want to keep some thread of correlation between all of my work. I wanted to extend the line, not abandon it.

Then I thought of the eggs. I've painted the feathers, then the birds, so it only makes sense to paint the eggs now. Completing the circle of life?

I also wanted to develop the feathers somewhat, make them softer and truer to the real form. I started with a soft grey wash, darkened around the feathers and eggs, then used a white underglaze for the egg with grey and blue shading and instead of black line work for the feathers I scratched a line into the clay and added the detailing in dark grey.

I can only hope that the colours behave themselves once glazed!

my (egg) creative space

Inspiring me this week: sparkling blood orange, sunshine, jacaranda blossom and discovering a new (to me) potter.

[sketchbook]

[lorikeet nests?]

 

[plates/shallow dishes]

[sliiiightly larger bowls]

More creative spaces over here.

absent

Apologies for the quietness of late.
College is a bit awful, the weather has been nasty and there is little time for pots.

But here are some nice pot photos from Carmel.