Author Archives: Bridget Macklin

I am an artist working in the field of ceramics creating fragile porcelain pieces which are inspired by the environment or by peoples relationships with the environment and with each other and which often incorporate finds to support their narrative.

New Directions

I have a rather short attention span so life gets dull unless I mix things up a bit from time to time. I periodically sign up to try something completely new, not knowing where it will lead and not really caring if it leads nowhere at all.

Recently I signed up for an online collage making course with an organisation called Fibre Arts Take Two. The course is run by a lovely lady called Cordula Kagemann. It is online and on demand so I have been able to dip in whenever I want and I have the rest of my life to play the various modules over and over if I feel so inclined.

The course has really opened my mind. I have not finished it yet. I have got stuck on image transfer. It is an extraordinary way of adding interest to a collage and I am hooked.

Image transfer techniques using photocopied butterfly wings.

I have just completed a triptych using these butterfly images and I have started wondering how the entire process of creating layered interest like this might translate to clay.

Lepidoptera Triptych

It is early days and I have not fired anything yet. Being clay, I have had to change the order of application so I have added the cut outs before firing but will add the images later on but I think this might have a place in my work somewhere in the future. I rather hope so!

Unfired experimental work using collaged clay.

Of course I shall continue to make my usual work as well but I think this might creep in from time to time as a diversion or something more. Time will tell . . . . .

Can Ceramic Art Be Sustainable?

I talk a lot of pompous guff about making art in response to the ‘reckless behaviour of man’? Yet, how can I claim to care for my planet and, at the same time, talk about artists needing to hold everyone to account for the damage we are doing to our World whilst, at the same time, making artefacts which will last for ever? Ceramics, more than most art media is guilty of adding to the problem so what right do I have to preach about it?

In an attempt to solve this dilemma I have been having conversations and trialling some new ideas: work which is still made with clay as the main material but where the clay is not fired. Technically, it isn’t ceramic as it never goes through the chemical changes which the kiln subjects clay to. The good thing is that it can be returned to the earth when finished with and won’t hang around until the end of time. The question that I am left with is, why would anyone buy something which could disappear in the next shower of rain?

I begin to think that I might be getting there. Recent experiments are looking quite promising.

Raw clay polished and mounted on bark

It seems that polishing raw clay has been going on for centuries and Japanese Hikaru Dorodango, polished spheres from mud which are very beautiful and fetch hundreds of pounds so . . . .