New Designers – Page 3 – Bridget Macklin

So here I am, final lecture over, New Designers exhibition done, boxes packed for our graduation show (which begins on Wednesday at Candid Arts in Islington), practically done and dusted and I find that I am lying awake at night with a serious case of pot anxiety. This is ridiculous! I have no projects to make for, I have the summer ahead of me to relax, think about the future and bask in the sun and I am worrying about what to make.

The thing is, that’s just it! I have nothing to make for. I am dreading losing my direction. I need a project. But it is no good simply setting one for myself, it has to have a purpose. The great things about being on a course are that you have a clear direction and the camaraderie of like minded people with whom to share the experience. We are about to scatter to the four winds and I am missing us already!

001 — Long forgotten but full of potential for exploring.

005 — Fully polished – looking fairly amazing!

I found a forgotten and unloved trial piece at the back of my shelf whilst I was tidying it this week. I was half way to the dustbin with it when I realised that it just might be the impetus I need to get going post-diploma. I am very aware that I have only touched the surface of so many interesting techniques in the past two years and that there are a great many which I have had to discard in recent months in order to come up with a coherent body of work for an exhibition. But the work which I made for my final semester is not exactly who I am. This is work in progress, it is only the beginning! Now it is time to haul out my note books and reject pieces and juts play with them. Something is going to lead somewhere and in the meantime there is so much to do – glazes to revisit, methods to explore and develop, processes to be integrated into ideas which have worked well but could go further. When I review the span of time ahead it is actually very exciting. There is so much to do and explore and this long lost reject is just the beginning . . . no time to sleep, better get making!

This week I was shown the very impressive timetable which one of my fellow students had produced in order to make sure that she had everything ready for the various shows with which we are involved. It sent a cold shudder down my spine! On the one hand I can completely see the sense in knowing what needs doing when. On the other, in my case I still need to feel free to come up with one last great idea. If I was to set myself a timetable I suspect it would have the most disastrous consequences. The truth is that I am not really very pleased with much of the work that I have made for the final show and I am still waiting for a lightning bolt to strike. It would have no chance if I had an intricate plan which I felt I had to follow. On the other hand, I suppose it is helpful to have some idea from the point of view of getting everything dry, fired and finished or else you are at serious risk of ending up with what my very first ceramics tutor, Simon Taylor, at Weston College Somerset called ‘hot pots on plinths’.

In point of fact I suspect that Simon might well be the same kind of maker as me – inspiration striking at the final moment giving him just enough time to get the best pieces through the making process before the critical deadline whereas the lovely student concerned with setting off this train of thought makes complicated moulds which have taken weeks to construct. She has had to plan her route to the finish with infinite care to be sure that her moulds were ready to use at the crunch moment. One look at my worktable is enough to make it quite clear that inspiration is still some way off!

On the other hand, my ‘To Do’ list is immense and includes among other things preparation for Wimbledon Artists Studios open weekend which is now only 5 days away, drying and firing the last of my more solid work, getting all my marketing blurb in order for both New Designers which is in 6 weeks and preparing something to put on a plinth or two at our final show which is takes place at Candid Arts Gallery in Islington in seven weeks.

More on that anon but suffice to say at this time that the space is vast and I had better get making or I run the risk of being really rather embarrassed! – I feel a timetable coming on!!

On the up side, my wonderful daughter and most important critic arrived at Wimbledon Artists Studios yesterday armed with sustenance to prevent emaciation setting in during the biannual transformation of my studio into a gallery for next weekend. She sat looking at my work and gently but firmly reminded me that perhaps in all the pressure I might have lost sight of what it is that feels like beauty to me. She is so right – what ever happened to fragile, floating vulnerable forms with flowing lines? Right, six weeks to make amends then!

Have I lost sight of what beauty means to me?

Tag Archives: New Designers

What now?

Hot Pots on Plinths.