a FAB photo...

This is a photo that hopeyvonnepowell.blogspot.co.uk has just taken of my work, it's so well focused i thought i'd share it with you! xxx

Drum roll please...

So today i got what i've been waiting for! All of my small twigs have come out of the kiln! Yay! Not only that, but they all worked how i'd hoped they would, so i don't have to go to plan B! What a relief! Here are photos of some of the work that came out:

I really love how the metal bubbles out of the porcelain! I also like how the porcelain has a 20% shrink rate, so i don't have to make them as small as i want them in the end, which is a little less fiddly!  Looking forward to painting some kiln shelves with batt wash (to stop my pieces from sticking to the shelves) and to making some props, to prop the twigs whilst they're in the kiln, so they don't slump back down to being totally flat. But never mind college work for now, I'm off to Barcelona on sunday, and fingers crossed it'll be a little warmer than here there! Chao! xxx

Pitt Rivers

Here are some photos i took at Pitt Rivers a couple of weeks ago.  I was looking at the display of the pieces and the labelling, for inspiration in regards as to how i'm going to display my work.  I really like the round, metal labels that are on some of the pieces, they'd be so straight forward to make, although i'd have to think about the text, as my handwriting is appalling.

This image and the image below have pieces that have their description literally written onto them!

I love this little note to the viewer telling us that the piece has been taken for research purposes!

I apologise for the poor quality of some of these pictures - i wasn't allowed to use a flash ...

Back to ceramics!

Today was my first day back to ceramics after finishing my last project! It's been some time, but i really feel that i'm going in the right direction, even though i only have a week available to go to the workshop before formative assessment, as i'm going to Barcelona the week after next! Busy times!  

I am very excited at the moment as i feel as if, for once, everything's going my way! My college work is going fab, i've just got a new job, and i know what i want to do next!  

Below are images of some of the pieces i made today inspired by twigs.   I have been picking twigs from all sorts of places on my walks to and from college, so they're all different, with different characteristics, which i really like.  Today i was hand building the twigs, and i think that they all look quite good.  My favorite are the ones that i've mixed the pins into the clay itself, rolled the clay out into a sausage, left it to dry for a little, and then shaped it into a twig...the clay has split in lines because of the pins, which makes it look like split wood.

I'm really looking forward to developing my work this project and seeing where it goes. I'm especially excited to see how the pins and clay react with each other in these pieces as i've never mixed my pins into the clay before!