Tag Archives: ceramic art

Its all about the Edges

so much to do
So much to do, so little time!

During the Ceramics Diploma, at City Lit, last year we learned a few of the tutors’ personal mantras.  This week I have been in the studio for every free moment.  I am currently making work for The Great Northern Contemporary Crafts Fair and  a Sculpture & Ceramics exhibition in the Royal Opera Arcade Gallery off Pall Mall, both of which are taking place next month .  There is a lot to make as I want to show as many representative pieces from my post-diploma ideas as possible.  All week one of the diploma mantras has been running round my head to such an extent that I think I am now saying it in my sleep.

047a
Ceramics diploma: Coil project, year 1.

My first hand built piece for the course was, frankly, looking back on it, an embarrassment.  I think I even felt so at the time but now, two years on, it shames me.  So I am doing myself a bit of cathartic good by showing it here!

If we ignore the fact that I did not know then that mixing tin oxide and chrome oxide results in a very nasty colour, I look at this piece now and hang my head – what was I thinking?

Well time has moved on.  I now have two years of Annie Turner’s wise words – It’s all about the edges – running through my head.  It is very true.  You can get away with a multitude of sins if the eye goes straight to a good looking profile.  It doesn’t matter what the edge is; it can be bevelled, flat, thik, thin, what ever you like.  But if you get it wrong; uneven, thicker in some places than others, it takes away from everything else that you are trying to achieve.

2015-09-17 09.14.13
Hours of work is now going into my edges.

I have sweated over my edges a great deal this week and I know they are not in any sense perfect.  But I do believe they are coming.  And I firmly believe that Annie is right – you can hide a lot if your edges look good.  My latest pieces do look a million times better thanks to the edges.  So now it is simply a case of getting everything else to match them.  I only need to concentrate on the shape and balance of the piece, the surfaces, the glazing – all whilst not losing sight of the importance of the edges.  So there is very little now to do before I start making masterpieces!  Approximately another 10,000 hours should just about do it!

Swings and Roundabouts

rejected[1]
If at first . . .
maverick1[1]
Hold tight and keep your nerve.
It has been a bit of an up and down week and I am, as a consequence, over 24 hours late with my blog.  Suffice it to say that I have spent the summer applying for a number of schemes to support emerging artists and am getting slightly depressed by rejections now!  On the other hand, I have begun talking to people about my new work and I am getting some very positive responses, including from Hothouse, the Crafts Council support scheme for graduates.  They have rejected me for this year but they took the trouble in their feedback on my application to be very positive about my work post-qualification and reminded me that I would still be eligible to apply for the scheme for next year.

So all is not lost!  I suppose . . . .

I am not so dreadfully downhearted.  It would be great to gain the encouragement of acceptance for sure but this is very early days and I cannot expect too much too soon.  On the up side, everyone who I talk to about my new work believes that it has real mileage and I am feeling extremely good about it.  In fact I have been thinking over the weekend that it makes more sense to focus on November when the Studios in which I work, in Wimbledon, are open to the public once more for a 4 day stint during which thousands of people will be flocking into the studios and might well get excited by the idea of commissioning a story vessel from me – one that tells of an important event, a memory, a place – it is up to them to approach me with their thoughts really then I will transform them into their own personal Progenic Vessels.  However, over the weekend I was approached by a gallery in central London which is holding a sculpture and ceramics exhibition in the autumn and which I might not be able to resist. It was also suggested to me that I should consider researching events such as the Country Living Christmas Fair as an outlet for my idea.  That is something which I had not thought of until now but it might be worth considering.  The important thing here is to decide where I am pitching my work – gallery or fair because I am fairly sure one should not be aiming at both.  So I need to knuckle down and make up my mind – what am I making? why am I making it? How am I selling it?

When I think about it there is loads going on and I just need to keep a level head, hold my nerve and find time to get down to the studio and make – now that would be very nice.  I also need to remember what Fred Gatley said to me towards the end of the diploma – do one thing and do it well!