As the Crows Fly is very much looking forward to being part of the Make 17 exhibition at Devon Guild of Craftsmen this year, as well as being featured artist on their publicity for the event. Really excited about this. The private view (see below for details) will be on Friday 17th November from 6-8pm so if you are in the area please do come and meet us as it should be a lovely evening. Otherwise the exhibition will be running from Saturday 18th November until Sunday 7th January 2018.
Tag Archives: contemporary craft
Slipcast Collection
New wares are beginning to trickle out… I’m excited by the colour palette and feel of these fresh new slipcast pieces in stained porcelain. The charcoal grey vase form is cast from a lathe-turned form I created while in Denmark. I like the possibilities of the grey canvas for fresh simple white slip decoration – here a midcentury modern inspired sunburst pattern, set off by pompom hydrangea blooms.
I’ve been keen to experiment with coloured porcelain for a long time. After trying out some own-made black clay on the wheel I decided that the chemicals used in colouration (raw oxides and metal salts) were best kept in minimal contact with the skin, and so began my delve into slipcasting production… I’m really pleased with the initial results and they have certainly had good reactions from customers so this range will be something I am working on quite heavily this year. I love the strong colour palette in the pieces above and I’m also tapping into the subtlety of marbled slips and pared down surface decoration.
I couldn’t resist, while in Denmark, the chance to create a direct link with the minimal, pared down scandi-chic trend that’s consuming UK interiors shoots at the moment. These lidded vessels are based on casts of plain glass storage jars from Denmark – they are the store cupboard equivalent of the kilner jar and I was really taken by their shape and design.
Plaster Residency at Guldagergaard, Denmark
At the beginning of March I packed my bags and hopped on a plane to Scandinavia for the first time. I flew into Copenhagen, looking down on snowy, fragmented islands gradually massing together to form land. It looked flat, and it was cold.
I arrived at Guldagergaard international ceramics research centre, pronounced Gool-ay-ago, by train and bus and foot, welcomed into a mildly chaotic world of 40 hour long wood-firings, unbridled artistic expression, huge amounts of expertise and a fantastic community of learning, sharing, warm people.
A tiny world inhabited only by ceramicists, where you don’t have to explain or excuse yourself. There is just acceptance. It’s a magical place…and there are sculptures and objects from the tiniest porcelain chair model to the most enormous tiled archway, just bursting from every corner of the place. I feel so inspired here.
I came to Guldagergaard because I want to expand my practice to incorporate my own-design slip ware. So, I signed up to do an Intensive Plaster workshop week in March, taught by the wonderful Harriet Caslin, and now I am back to complete a month’s residency for the rest of April, working with the skills I learnt.
I’m currently working very hard on a project to produce my own coffee set – a tall coffee pot, a slender jug and an angular cup. The first stage is scale drawing on paper, the second stage turning a positive form on the lathe, then adding components such as spout or handle or surface detail, the third stage casting a mould – the negative; the final stage pouring slip into the mould to form a porcelain positive to fire and use. Currently I am turning on the lathe, hand carving and adapting using precisely scored and folded acetate areas, to fit my design drawings. It’s a lengthy process, and I’m not sure what the outcome will be… The photos below show plaster being mixed; the coffee pot ‘stock’ on the lathe during the initial stages of turning; the finished coffee pot form waiting to be carved and fitted out; the jug model with grooves carved in and acetate being fitted; the coffee cup form on the lathe, ready to be cut off.
I’m also indulging my long held desire to work with stained porcelain, casting a small kitchen ware range using found objects in a pastel palette, and using marbling on two elegant hand turned designs that I did during the workshop week – a tall beaker vase and a wide, conical serving bowl.
Volcanic Yellow…and Storm Blues
The experiments with colour block brights and layered leopard print effect glazes are coming along too. I’m really excited by this range and once a few firing difficulties have been ironed out I’m going to be making this my primary product I think.
I’d never really tried doing anything with out surface illustration before – that is my area of expertise and what I’ve always loved doing. Having the freedom just to think about shape and colour and the graphicness of the 3D objects themselves is really exciting to me and a bit of a breakthrough in my practice. Refreshing not just to simply see the vessel as a canvas for mark making.
New work arrayed…
My new porcelain hand thrown wares are building for the market season, as well as winging their way soon into the Platform Gallery in Lancashire for their Northern Star winter exhibition and Found Gallery in Dunbar in time for their winter show.
The Peapod and Dandelion versions of these thrown ceramics have cemented into the two designs I’m happiest with so it’s just going to be a case of trying to get faster at throwing them… Since getting back from sabbatical in July there has been a lot of work in the pipeline, building on the designs I began work on in Spring, and it’s satisfying to see it finally in the outcome stage.
Christmas is coming…
Wow, what a year… since my last post which was inexcusably long ago, As the Crow Flies has been very, very busy! New outlets at the Leeds Craft Centre and Design Gallery, 20/21 Gallery in Scunthorpe, Platform in Cleethorpes and Found in Dunbar have kept me very busy with my order books, add to that the crescendo of Christmas market madness over the past month and computer-related work outwith the studio has been at a bare minimum.
I’m looking forward to two final markets in ATCF’s Bristol hometown – first up is this Saturday, 12th December, 10am-5pm, for Christmas at the Orangery. Pleased to see this shot of my doilyware being used as a promotional piece:
A really lovely selection of fine local makers at one of Bristol’s best known Christmas fairs – Christmas at the Orangery is taking place in Henleaze at the Bradbury Hall. Very excited to be taking part for the first time, and to see the Doilyware range featuring in a lot of local publicity:
Hope to see lots of local Bristolites there! Or if you can’t make that one then our final date will be Whiteladies Road Farmers’ Market on Saturday December 19th from 9-2pm. Have a wonderful festive season!