The Bird Cage Jar

I am going to post this one quickly, blogger would not work on Monday when I wanted to post, I think we all had the same problem. So here are the pot with the second colour applied over the paper cut outs. Once all the papers are removed and the pot has dried a little I have painted on four black windows for the birds, these are then scrapped away leaving a boarder. There is a lot of painting and scraping. I had a comment form Amapolablau from Switzerland about the layers of slip, I lost it, so if you can send it again that would be great and I can answer your question.

A New Jar for Four Birds

This is a coiled leather-hard jar and I am creating a background pattern using paper resist. The shapes are cut out with scissors, it is best to find 70 gram paper if you can, the thinner the better. I cut out many more than I think I am going to need and always use them all, it is very difficult to break off applying them and cut out more.

I have layered about 5 coats of white slip onto the pot and while the last layer is still wet I stick the papers to the surface pushing them down really flat and pasting another layer of the white over the top of them. Once covered, I apply a contrasting coloured slip, several coats. Before it dries I pick off the paper, very satisfying. Tomorrow I will blog the next stage. The book on the side is Matisse, he is always a master when it comes to cutting out paper shapes.

Click here for other pictures of the studio. And here for a view of the house.

From the Kiln

Hello Dolly

A more jumped up bird it would be difficult to find. Dolly is so full of her own importance she only sits in trees whose leaves bring out the very best in her lavish plumage. Legendary for her fine blue flash on her head feather, hen Dolly is in fact no more than a loud show girl of a bird. However having on...ce seen the film "Hello Dolly" on Brighton beach she adopted the name of Dolly Levi when she recognised this kindred spirit and took it to her little birdie heart.

The bird who likes to be called Zsa Zsa Gabor

Unlike the bird known as Vivien Westwood ( see earlier post) this bird is not actually called Zsa Zsa Gabor, she adopted it when she realised her immense beauty to replace the name Maggie Two Eyes. She has convinced her entire entourage that she is in fact from Budapest and that she went to a finishing school in Switzerland thus securing for herself an air of sophistication hitherto unattainable by common birds. However, the real truth of the matter is that her father was a Magpie from Croydon (mother, possibly a Cuckoo) and although she has none of his looks, she does have all of his traits, and lines her nest with mirrored shard's.

Birds of a Feather

Top one finished for the kiln and the one under that is obviously at the half way stage. They are taking hours to paint but I think I am getting slightly faster.

I walked down to the lake early this morning and saw this hilarious little black pig having a paddle. He has a wife and five piglets, and he is a Vietnamese Pot Bellied pig, I know odd isn't it!

Scorpio Rising

I have found a new website called Blipfoto which does exactly what it says on the tin. A zero-fuss website that lets anyone join in and publish one photo a day. It allows you to record your life in pictures, improve your photography skills. I started at the beginning of the week, you seem to get L plates to begin with (I am not sure when those go). For me I have found such amazing images looking through all the shots, it is addictive and fun. A very different platform to Blogger. To see the story on the bike click here.

The Bird Known as Vivien Westwood

The bird known as Vivien Westwood. Vivien is a cutting edge bird that lines her nest with Axminster off cuts and laments. Captured here in striking petrol blue striped socks.
She is going on the front of the invite for my exhibition at the Zimmer Stewart Gallery in Arundel, West Sussex England 8th May for three weeks,

Object of the Month

This pot seems to have taken on a life all of it's own, here it is back on the Plymouth City Art Gallery web page as....trumpets, fanfares, flag waving...Object of the Blooming Month! Who said Ides, we're not even there yet? There will be no pride here..or falls for that matter. Mars is now over the retrograde patch and this is a very good for getting on, but not for Scorpio and Virgo just yet, you have to wait for the weekend, and then according to Jess, it's rocket time!!!!

Two From the Studio

A small tea plate below is a prototype for a useable small plate to have my sardines on toast on. And another mad bird at the halfway stage above. I had a very exciting day today as my e mail was read out on Radio 4, UK national radio!

Sierra Nevada

Tonight the Sierra Nevada looks like a Lemon Meringue Pie in the sky. This the first time I have been able to see it from the house, it has been so grey and rainy.

Paraiso Terrenal

I have finished the plate above, and then found I had time for a quick walk as it actually stopped raining for a bit this afternoon. Utter devastation in the National Park, the rivers have well and truly smashed their banks and streams have become rivers.
Below is the old method that is used for extracting the resin form the pine trees here and below below is the missing bridge I use to get to the other side! The small terracotta pot is made form local clay.

Apocacalypso

So here, back in Spain it rains and it rains. The ground is considerably waterlogged and the Pantano is overflowing to the point of jeopardy! No really, the small nearby village of Cacin is at R-E-D alert, in plain English; red, if the dam either, a) breaks or b) overflows. We have entire Cacin families in our village, holed up in the attics of relatives, or adversely we have families who will not even visit their relatives in Cacin for fear of drowning! It is apocalyptic here in the extreme!

Imagine my horror when visiting the Ferreteria to discover that guttering had quadrupled in price since last year! Our neighbour is turned nearly mad with the Chinese water torture that has been the bane of her life since we departed in December, along with a substantial strip of our guttering, although that was incidental and certainly not intentional. I could get little sense out of her, she just kept pointing at the green swathe of colour deposited on our exterior walls from the spilling of so much rain from a broken gutter. The poor woman. However, with a hacksaw and an analytical mind I have been able to divert the water away from the green swath, and in true Heath Robinson style have aimed it out across the roof terrace diagonally to the closest down pipe. I amazed my self with my ingenuity here and feel there could be a future for me in irrigation should times get really hard! By the way the Ferreteria and the Ferretero (hardware dealer) are worth a post all of their own at some point.

Back in the Workshop

A quick post here as I am off out to have several drinks tonight down the local bar and find out who's done what and to whom, and when. And if the lake is going to break the dam and if so have they evacuated the neighbouring village which will surely be underwater if it does indeed rupture.

I am back in the workshop and I have started on the paradise bird plates. This one here has PARAISO TERRENAL stamped into the rim; Spanish for Garden of Eden. I can’t tell you how good it is to be back on the clay after a 7 week break. Tomorrow my guttering story and how I sent the next door lady round the twist.

Alice's Cheshire Cat in Spain

I am back in Granada after a very long drive and look who tried to hitch a lift! We stopped at junction 242 on the caratera de Andalucia. This is the junction where Watership Down meets Donnie Darko and bunny rabbits are stuffed, booted and dressed. See an earlier post here. So maybe the cat was trying to make a genuine dash for it before being dressed up as a Cossack or something. Anyway the local rabbits are put in Barbie Doll outfits and then set loose for the shoot (probably not that way round but I can’t help myself) stuffed and sold in cellophane boxes for 60 euros to children who know nothing of the plastic, size 0 look-a-like bimbo’s.

The rain here is colossal, the floods cover vast areas, but the people are sanguine that it will all be for the best. The drought is over!

Below a longing last shot of the crocus outside the shed in Sussex, Bill and Queen Bess (Mr. and Mrs. to those they favour) are very familiar with this clump, it’s where the post lady walks, not sure what they (QB & B) will make of the foreign puss though.