“Odds and Sods” is a sculpture now showing at the RWA in Bristol. It is the start of an exploration into reclaiming, reusing, recycling materials and sustainability. It was fired in a kiln powered 100% on solar power, which is very satisfying. It’s made from reclaimed clay and glaze, experimental tests, found Porcelain and Roman terracotta sherds, fragments of clay pipes and clay from the field.
New Outdoor Sculptures Showing at The Summer Garden Exhibition at National Trust Ascott Estate, Wing, Buckinghamshire
I’m very excited to have my first outdoor sculptures showing at Ascott House Gardens, owned by the Rothschilds family and cared for by the National Trust. I have been able to develop 2 distinct styles of ceramic sculptures in response to the estate. Open from August 1st to September 17th Tuesday-Sunday 11.30-5pm.
Miserden Garden and Club House "Creating Spaces" Exhibition June - 30th July 2023
I’m excited to be showing 3 sculptures in the Club House at Miserden, Glos, with Cotswold Sculptors Association in the Creating Spaces exhibition at Miserden Gardens. Open 10.30 - 5pm Wednesday-Sunday every week until the end of July. Such a lovely village with a personal connection. (I was married in the church, and still remember the smell of fish cooking on the car engine. the fish had been placed under the bonnet before we drove off for the honeymoon :)
New Work Showing at Hone Gallery, Holland Park, London
I am excited to share that in October I was asked to create new work to be shown at Hone Gallery. This is the first time that my work has been in London since graduating from the RCA in July 2019. The image below shows a group of four porcelain vessels with bloated wild clay inclusion. Hand built by coiling, sanded to a beautiful smooth, silky finish before heading for their final high firing. I am delighted with the way they sit amongst the furniture and art in the gallery. Please enquire through the Gallery if you are interested in them. WWW.honegallery.com
September Kiln Building in Oxford
In September I joined a group of like minded ceramicists/potters in Wytham Woods, Oxford. It was a very enjoyable 5 days, sharing knowledge and getting hands dirty resulting of two small fast firing wood burning kilns. I say small but both kilns had twice the capacity of my small Rhode kiln at home. The kilns fired to 1280 in 8-10 hours and the plan is to build a similar kiln in my field and use coppiced wood gathered from my hedges and hazels with the aim of a bit of sustainability.
July 2022 Artist Residency Garw Valley, South Wales
I have been invited to join Helen Acklam (multi-disciplinary artist) and Prerna Chandiramani (printmaker) in South Wales for a research and exploration residency as a part Helens ACE funded project “What It is to Be There”.
We walk the hills and vales of the Garw Valley gathering material- coal, clay, debris, discarded and broken objects, including the associated stories we have found during our shared journeys.
In the evenings we use our finds with paint, print and clay, the resulting surfaces have an immediate connection with the land and its history. In August we will join again and work together to form the start of a collective body of work.
Image Prerna Chandiramani
Happy 2022....... I've been a bit distracted but I am back :)
2021 was a very busy year with my time taken up by new and old adventures.
Nursing has continued to be a big portion of that time but as the Covid 19 vaccination programme slows down in the UK and finds new ways of being delivered I will be stepping back.
During the summer of 2021 I was introduced to a new space, cleaning, tidying and organising the Ceramic Studio at SGS Stroud College, ready to start my first teaching job. It’s funny how things turn out but it was home from home as this is where my creative journey began and my Foundation Art and Design Diploma course was.
It’s now January 2022 and I am at the beginning of my next teaching term and what a lovely bunch of enthusiastic and inquisitive students I have been landed with (The first bunch of students were brilliant too).
Helping my students has helped me find my way back to making for myself and I have plans for a very productive year continuing explorations with Snakeshole Wild Clay
Image Below - Ripped Porcelain with Wild Clay Inclusions, drying in the January sun
Surprise Porcelain Landscape
I am forever surprised and excited by what clay can offer when you least expect it. The following image is of a small lump or laminated porcelain and wild clay, made in readiness for a new sculpture but put aside and forgotten about for several weeks. It has become a miniature landscape with the growth of algae, mold and moss. It’s an outcome that I think I might investigate further.
Hope for the New Year
Here we are already close to the end of January 2021 and my attention and focus continues to be divided between Nursing, Making and the New challenges developing with the support of Create Place leadership programme. At times I find it difficult to keep motivated but then I am reminded by the earth under my feet and people that I care for that there is no choice but to keep moving forward. The value and importance of small and simple things in our lives can easily be dismissed and I just need to keep reminding myself of this.
Focus and Needs
It has been three months since I have added to my news page as my focus has been guided to the needs of others. I am Nursing again, helping address the imbalance in Primary Care that was created by the first lockdown in March. I have not touched clay for over six weeks, as motivation is a fickle thing but my touch is applied to people although dulled by the wearing of PPE.
I am fortunate enough to have three sculptural pieces in two exhibitions, The Wales Contemporary and the RWA Open and I am also involved with other creatives in a pilot leadership scheme called Create Place through Stafford University and a consortium of other organisations. Sadly everything is online and I miss the alchemy that emerges when creatives mingle and banter. That will come again as will the clay under my finger nails.
Patience !
The weather has held me back from the next trial of the pit, too hot, too wet or too windy ! so a little bit of reflection and dialogue on the digging of the pit is the post today.
Snakeshole is a small holding consisting of one cottage a few outbuildings and land of approximately 4.5 acres. The historic deeds record that there were originally 4 x Snakeshole Cottages ( 2 Detached and a pair of Semi-detached houses). The other 3 cottages fell into disrepair and only their foundations remain beneath the grass in the field.
The spot that I picked for the Firing Pit was approximately 50 m away from the cottage in part of the chickens paddock, ground that we have not disturbed in the 23 years that we lived here, so i was not expecting to find anything other than soil and stones as i dug my hole of 50 x 50 x 50 cm.
The image below shows the collation of the materials, fragments and shards that were to emerge from that small excavation. I was shocked by the finding of the small white plastic top to a medicine bottle at the bottom of the dig but on reflection 95% of the findings were made by human hands. They give an insight to how discarded and broken objects were disposed 30 - 150 years ago and the physical trace that remains when the humans have long since disappeared. What will my contribution to that trace be?
1st Pit Firing Completed
All started well with a good and steady flame and significant heat output which continued for 5 hours before I capped and sealed the Pit. The pit remained untouchable for 5 and half days which led me to the belief that it had reached a good working temperature. Sadly It seems that there were two consecutive fires the top fire which burnt well and later the fire beneath in the pit which burnt slower and at a lower temperature. This means the heat never got over 950 degrees Celsius, and was no more than a long bisque firing with a bit of additional smoke! It confirms that I need a through draft down at the bottom of the pit and the next step is to modify the pit and collect more fuel. Further updates to continue.
Putting the Workmanship of Risk Through its Paces
Since graduating from the RCA in July 2019, I have had time to develop my processes and focus on future developments. One such thought centres on the feelings of responsibility and accountability that come with the use of ceramics within my practice. High fired clay is an enduring material created through extreme energy use and I would like to explore an alternative firing technique that makes use of the resources and materials available to me at home on my small holding “Snakeshole”. In parallel with the experimental Pit Firing will be an open discussion on Wild Fires, Land Management, Sustainability and Natures ability to endure and recover.
The Workmanship of Risk - Imperfectly Perfect!
Reading is not my top past time, it does not keep my hands busy enough, but recently I have been catching up on a book published in 1968, David Pye’s “The Nature and Art of Workmanship”. Any sentence that has both Nature and Art in it and I am hooked but it is his concept of Workmanship of Risk and Workmanship of Certainty that have lit a bulb for me. There are very few certainties and quite a few risks within the field of ceramics and I think that is why I continue to be drawn further under its spell. My work is neither a success or a failure it is a very long winding journey with highs and lows and many things to learn a long the way, just like life its self.
Below is a sculpture that took several weeks to make and several months to dry. I was excited throughout its making and was looking forward to opening the kiln after its final firing, torn apart by the tension of the porcelain. It is “Imperfectly Perfect”
#artistsupportpledge
With exhibition and sale opportunities cancelled for the foreseeable future I have joined the inspired #artistsupportpledge on Instagram. This concept was created by Mathew Burrows Studio and it gives artists a place to sell and promote work up to the price of £200 a piece, with the additional pledge that the artist themselves will buy another artists work once they have achieved £1000 of sales. I’m setting up a gallery page of work that is for sale through this initiative but I’m very happy to discuss the sale of any work, just contact me by email.
The Image below is of the first small Stone Galls porcelain sculptures that are available
Slow Making
Time and patience leads to Slow Making……In these uncertain (Covid19) times, when its impossible to make plans for the future, I feel privileged to have the ability to make at home, when others have not touched clay in weeks. The making which is Slow and Thoughtful gives me time to reflect and organise my thoughts and feelings when many of my Family, Friends and NHS Colleagues have been directly affected by the virus. My excess and unused Care has been focused in the making and not wasted.
Where to Apply the Care?
A broken arm at the end of 2019 has forced me to look at where my care should immediately be applied. The ability to make has been much restricted but the time to think about the making and my direction for 2020 has been unexpected and appreciated. Caring for “the other” is instinctive for me but caring for myself is a concept that is foreign, although necessary at this moment in time. The past 7 weeks has reinforced that making is crucial to my own well being and I can not wait to get both hands dirty again.
First Firing from my new Rhode kiln
It’s always an anxious time when new work gets placed into the kiln, but the stakes are raised when it’s a brand new kiln that has never been fired before. What a relief when the lid is opened and what you see brings a large smile to your face. I am very pleased with the way my work is developing, it’s a positive start to 2020.
2020 is Looming
Slowly but surely I am getting back to making, it is a bit unsettling leaving the RCA for the real world but I am very happy with the way that my most recent work is looking. The image below shows a collection of pieces drying before being ready for firing. The new kiln is in the garage waiting to be unpacked and installed and this week planning permission has been given for a new studio. I am really excited for 2020. Thank you to everyone who has been part of the journey over the past 2 years. I appreciate everyone of you.
Franz Rising Star Project 2019
I am very happy to announce that I am one of the 100 international emerging ceramic artists to have been selected for the Franz Rising Star Scholarship 2019. Thank you for supporting me on my creative journey.