experimentation – Page 7 – Bridget Macklin

I spent a very happy day at Klaylondon this week enjoying the space and chatting to the lovely people who dropped in to admire the work in the gallery. I think the gallery is looking amazing and it seems as if people are now beginning to talk about it and seek it out. I have it on good authority that we sold a remarkable amount yesterday, but I digress.

The point of this blog is to dwell for a moment on where one thinks one is going as an artist and whether you ever actually get there.

12802780_589962844503429_4591393063765265220_n[1] — The Gallery is looking great.

Whilst I was enjoying the gallery a number of people came in specifically because they had spotted one of my pieces in the window and wanted a closer look. In conversation with one of my fellow artists she told me that she thought it was clear that I had arrived; I knew what I was making; I had a great USP and all was going extremely well for me. I was flattered! I puffed myself up and preened my feathers and sat there for a moment basking in the compliment of a fellow artist.

On reflection though I realised how wrong she was. It may be true that I have found a way of working which is new and exciting. I may be making work which really pleases me and which gains a few compliments now and then. But arrived? I don’t think that ever happens does it? In the March/April issue of Ceramic Review There is an interview with David Westcott. He talks about how every firing includes some new tests and describes the opening of the kiln as ‘still like Christmas Day’ because of that feeling of the unknown and the frisson of excitement. Hail David!

I know what my friend meant. She was talking about the fact that I seem to know where I am going and here she does have a point. I do seem to have found an exciting way of expressing my interest in the landscape which is new and different and which I am thoroughly enjoying. On top of which, people appear to like my work, which is always a good thing!

bottom of tailing dam — First finished piece from my Cornish Mining project.

Indeed, when I opened the kiln last night and discovered the first finished piece for my mining project had fired even better than I could have hoped, I did get that lovely sense of having ‘got there’. But it is not so much that I have arrived, more that I now thing I know where I am going. This way of making works for me. However, as the interview with David concludes, ‘If you think you have made the perfect pop, you may as well give up.’

I haven’t! I am not about to! And I am delighted to report that every time I open the kiln is going to feel like Christmas for a very long time to come!

There are a number of reasons why the subject of ash glazes has been on my mind in recent weeks. One of the best is that, just before Christmas, I was given a lovely little dish by Katharine Pleydell-Bouverie, one of Britain’s real pioneers of studio pottery. She was known for the subtly of the colours on her pieces which she achieved through the use of ash glazes. This little dish looks as if it might have been a test piece. It is only about 10cm diameter. Mind you, if my test pieces looked as good as this I would be in Heaven!

The glaze is a very subtle green. The crazing is interesting as it is smaller where the glaze is thin and larger where it has pooled in the dish. It has also drawn a lot of iron out of the clay causing a delicious toasted ring. Every time I look at it, and I do so very frequently because I cannot quite believe it is mine, I think about the experimental ash glazes which I tried for the diploma. Most of my test glazes are sitting on a shelf in the studio and I begin to wonder why on earth I am not having another go with them because they certainly showed some promise and, given the relationship between my pieces and place, there is a good reason for using local ash as well. It might give my work something even more.

022 — Probably high time I explored my own ash glaze tests a bit further.

Tag Archives: experimentation

You Have Arrived At Your Destination.

The Doyenne of Ash Glazes