Clay and Blogs:Telling a Story

This little bowl is for my new online shop. The kiln is on tomorrow and again on Sunday night.The processes for making it have been many.

The bowl is an evolved version of my huge flat rays which are made by slumping clay over a hump. I have thrown this one on the wheel and turned its bottom to make it curved. Then I carved away the rim to begin the look of a tail and a nose. Afterwards I covered the bowl in jet black slip, applying several layers, and then I did the same with the white slip. When they have dried so that I can touch without spoiling I carve the pattern through the white to reveal the black. Two firings will complete the bowl.

The Shop Window returns

It's shop window time again, regular readers may remember this window, it is one of a pair which I occasionally photograph for your delight.

So here we have very carefully crafted paper-quill bees which I think are probably what this window is all about, however to say that they are the lynch pin of this assorted display is probably going too far. The multi paper card leaning up at the back crops up in almost every window display they do, all I can say is there must be a real demand for rah-rah gingham edging and silk bullion cord in this village. NB The three strips of curling patterned paper are purely there for window dressing purposes.

The theme I think is that of the needle and thread. The clever zip display, the balls of knitting wool and the embroidery haberdashery all sit well with the lace and the needles in packets. But what are those two scraps in the front, they literally look like a couple of leftovers off the gold and silver lame braid roll. It is obviously so expensive they could only snip off a couple of centimeters, it's not like it fades (mores the pity)!

The same restraint is not in evidence with the hosiery addition to the window, we clearly have opened packets on show here; and this is where the window begins to fall apart. In fact all these windows (and I have been snapping them for a while) have some random element to them. In this case it is definitely the half insoles that are the odd ones out here. I wonder if maybe the button cupboard is now off limits to the dresser, but then she would have never been able to follow those strict rules of structure and flow with buttons and the manikin's leg does lend a sense of reality and authority to the window.

The Joze Show 2010

The ceramic artists showing at The Joze Show this year are all below, each image is a link. It promises to be an astonishing show again this year. Website design by my husbands company Limongrafica.

Kitty Shepherd

Sophie MacCarthy

Morag MacInnes

Sally Everett

Matthew Chanbers

Annabel Munn

The First 3D Bird Makes it Through the Kiln

Bird in the biscuit stage, lots of copper on her head and breast. Legs are going to be metal and embedded into a block of concrete probably.

Another Jar of Birds

Here are a few pictures of the jar I am working on right now. It is quite big and it is going to the Joze Show in September. The jar is going to be covered in birds and leaves, there will be three or four big birds like the two above. The in the lower branches there will be smaller birds all very brightly coloured. I have an idea for the background but that is secret for now.

In order to work in what is now a very hot 40 degrees outside I am devoted to my industrial catering size roll of cling film which keeps the pot stable for weeks when applied correctly. Nice and tightly with no air. Inside I pop a damp cloth or two into the pot to help with the humidity.

If you ever want to see what I am doing anywhere else apart form the studio then have a look at BLIPFOTO, the link is on the top right of the page and it is a daily photo blog.