Tag Archives: experimentation

A Man Walks into a Studio and . . .

Open Studios presents a fantastic opportunity to meet people and to chat about your work.  The trouble is that I am completely hopeless with names and faces so I am always being caught out when people drop into my studio assuming that I will know who they are because we had a long and fascinating conversation six months ago.  It is so embarrassing to stare blankly at people whilst you are frantically flicking thorough the files in you brain in search of recognition.

The lovely man who breezed into my space on Friday afternoon was nothing if not distinctive – very tall; soft, American accent; blonde hair scrunched into a pony tail; tanned, weathered face.  I was still wondering whether he had parked his horse at the door to the building whilst he was rummaging in his ‘saddle bag’.  With a flourish he fished out a plastic bag and declared that he had brought me a present.  I held out my hands and something brown and squashy was deposited!ashstead clay

After an awkward few seconds it transpired that during the previous Open Studios in November I had given him a small plastic bag and he had duly gone down to the ‘beck’ and also to a local clay pit to fill it with clay samples, bringing it back during this event so that I can incorporate into a vessel.  I love a good piece of found material

River Journey, Bridget Macklin, 2014
I love a good bit of local dirt!

to mix into a vessel so nothing could stem my excitement at this wondrous gift!  It turns out that this lovely man is a petroleum geologist called John, who I have now got completely in focus as the man of mud !  Thank you, John.  I can’t wait to get making!

Playing With Other People’s Memories!

This week I took on a new commission.  I spent a happy hour in my studio  with the customer.  We poured over the architects drawings of a beautiful looking Arts and Crafts style house which, in all probability, I will never see;  We discussed maps of the area where the house was built in order to get a feel for the place and to understand it from her point of view and then I started work on a test piece to explore the possibilities which she is hopeful that I can achieve.  I began by examining samples of the subsoil for stickiness and lime – stickiness is a good sign as it indicates a high proportion of clay in the soil whereas lime is a nightmare  because it decomposes in the kiln and then later on it very slowly and subversively destroys the ceramics made with it.  Fortunately there does not seem to be any in this sample.

IMG_8717
Lime can be a nightmare – slowly and insidiously destroying a piece at a later date, as the pitting on the far side of this vessel demonstrates!

It is a funny feeling working with somebody else’s special memories.  On one level it makes me feel quite excited.  I love the idea of creating a piece which has real meaning to someone else and yet, at the same time, there is a massive sense of responsibility!  The clay can speak for itself.  The colours and contours which appear as I work can only tell of the landscape from whence they came.  So long as I relax and just let it guide me, the vessel should tell of the place which is so important to my customer.  The anxiety on my part is that I am playing with someone else’s memories.  Knowing how important my own memories are, I really appreciate the trust that this lady is putting in me to work with hers.  She has images in her head which I can never be party to and yet, somehow, the finished vessel must give sufficient of a hint to these pictures that it sparks a sense of well being in her and in the person for whom this vessel is a gift.  I am really looking forward to working on this vessel but a cannot claim for one minute that the project is worry-free.

lake-district[1]
Even if I were to travel to the area the images in my head would not be those of my customer.