Location Shoot

Nancy invited me along with her to a family friend's house just outside of Headingley. The house was the perfect setting for a little location shoot for Nancy's wallpaper's (see some bits and bobs on her website & blog). She asked if I'd like to bring along some ceramics, despite being my research bits, I went with it and I'm pretty pleased with the results.
We had a few issues with lighting and set up of the camera, both of us have basic photography experience - so lesson learnt there! But I feel really pleased with my final images in comparison to the let down I felt following the first glimpse of everything straight out the kiln.

My ceramics with some of Nancy's textiles above.

And to make the trip even better, the family had THE coolest dog named Eddie and a sweet little cat called Bella, who was just adorable as anything. Cute :)

Ceramics Update

Time's been short recently with lots and lots going on... So here's a few images from my latest ceramics days to catch up...

Shrinkage:

As my first big batch came out following their glazes, I found the mugs had shrunk considerably more than what I expected. So to remind myself, I took a handful of photos to demonstrate the change 2 firings can bring.

Original casting mold, with final fired and glazed piece:

Graduation of firing: from L-R - cast of original mold, first firing, 2nd firing + glaze.

My first batch of glazed pieces:
I didn't feel confident about these at all... the glazes were really unsuccessful, there were several cracks that developed in the first firing and most annoyingly, the results were not what I expected or wanted at all. (The glazes acted odd and didn't fuse to the insides of the mugs, instead formed big, lumpy, ugly messes in the bottom!)

Second test pieces:
The results here were much more consistent after a few tweaks to the glaze recipes. I carried on working with some oxides of titanium and ochre to add some details, unfortunately they still haven't come out as strong as I intended.

The finals:
I've made a few tweaks to the surface design to combat the flat finish a lot of the pieces have had so far. I've layered on a simple texture using an avacado skin cast, which hopefully brings out a little depth in the glaze due to the variation of clay, as all my previous pieces have been fairly smooth and flat. Firing this weekend and I can access these on Tuesday morning. (To hopefully glaze and fire to come out before Thursday at 4pm!!!!)

Britain's Next Big Thing

Britain’s Next Big Thing has been really inspirational program to watch, particularly the aspiring creatives pitching to Liberty London.

The program follows a range of people hoping for their work to make the shelves in Boots, Habitat and Liberty London. The stores are looking for reassurance the potential sellers can meet expectations on price, manufacture, quality and delivery, which is really interesting for me, in consideration of how I practice this with my own work. 
Two key practitioners that have stood out for me is ceramicist Tom Hopkins Gibson, and Professor Richard Weston and his beautiful scarves. Both artists are greatly inspired by the forms, patterns and colours of nature, which are extremely relevant to my work. I absolutely adore the work of both of these talented creatives, might need to save some pennies to buy some on my next visit to London.

Check out the programme here.

Thomas Hopkins Gibson ceramics

Weston Scarves

Researching Ceramics

Potfest in the Pens 2011- Penrith, start of August
List of Exhibitors - http://www.potfest.co.uk/penslist.htm

Definitely popping this in my Diary, sounds like a fab day out! 

Ceramics Day 3

Trying to squeeze 3 or 4 hours in here and there to dedicate to my little mugs... This time I've taken great care to the designs of the mugs, in particular the consistency of the thickness of the clay for each mug, the handles and the area where 'mug meets base'.

This care and attention I feel is necessary following the first batch of mugs that have emerged from the kiln. Some have cracked and distorted considerably, which may be for a number of reasons, including the above. Also, following my handles research, I feel that I need to step my game up on some that are more attractive and better fitting.

Keeping in mind the raw clay is subject to noticeable shrinkage when drying and following 2 firings, the following are some shots from the 'sturdier' range of mugs that I'm developing. Not quite so cute and more chunky than I've produced before, but I'm hoping with a good choice of colours, a bit of shrinkage and a subtle pattern and texture, this could potentially really work. Fingers crossed for next week!

Another few hours are penciled in for tomorrow morning, some glaze experiments soon and then the final batches out by next weekend. I hope...!

Handles!

Researching different handle shapes to try and help make my ceramics pieces a little sturdier and in 
proportion to the mugs - been struggling with this a little lately! 

Cupcake mug & brown target mug are my favourites - look & felt most comfortable and are straight forward shapes.

Ceramics Day 2

Ceramics

Some photos from my recent couple of days in ceramics - first mock ups, ideas of glazes and a few images of designs for the glazes and possible effects I'm thinking of. I want to keep a really simple and neutral design by means of shapes and colour used, with a small detail to texture and the organic, handmade quality to the pieces.