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!

Harry the Hedgehog and Made by Hand

Hereford Christmas market is flooding the town with it's variety of stands next weekend (8th + 9th of December). On Saturday Bev Milward and Bronwen Tyler-Jones are sharing a stand, where I'll be purchasing my Dad's Christmas prezzie, and on Sunday Hereford College of Arts have a stand.  The money from the work and bits and bobs that us 3rd years make is going towards our fundraising for New Designers in June. Kate Williams will also be contributing some of her stock which we are very grateful of.  For this stall I am making some hedgehogs! Here is a photo of Harry the Hedgehog.

I thought that this was appropriate considering my work haha.  I am also planning on framing some of my drawings from last year and selling them as i had quite a good response from them.  I'm not able to take part in the stall itself, however I am looking forward to hearing about how it went and how much we raised.

Yesterday I went on a road trip to Tredegar house with Del, Kate and Ambrose, to set up the Hereford College of Arts stand at Made by Hand.  The people exhibiting their work here are:

Penny Allen

Anna Blair

Josh Devenish

Anne Blades

Joe Sleight

Robyn Golding

Becca Jones (me)

Charlotte Wright

Carolyn Watson

Jo Kelly

Tom North

Danny Wapples

Nikki Burns

Genesis Rowley

I don't know about everyone else, but I had a fun afternoon figuring out where people's work needed to be placed, and painting plinths! At the end of the evening we had it all up looking fab, and I came back home to bed feeling cold, but very satisfied with the end result.  I'm looking forward to going back tomorrow to man the stand with Hope, Clare and Laura for the day, and to have a look around the craft fair itself! Here are some photos of the stand:-

My work has been placed under a transparent lid, like a museum display case, which really works for my collection of bits and bobs.

It's all about the PINS!!!

Hallo :)

Today i have been feeling particularly poorly.  The lack of sleep, damp weather and just general down-ness has made me pray to the ever disastrous...common cold.  These things really do like to kick me whilst i'm down, so i've stayed in bed all day.  In any other situation this would open up much internet research opertunities, however our internet is playing up, so every 5 minutes it turns off...this is proving VERY disprupting.  These are 3 artists that i LOVE at the moment, so i thought i'd share them with you!

The above image is one of Anne Gibbs's pieces.  It is made in bone china and has pins pushed into it.  This is very similar to my current work!  I am very grateful to have met her a couple of weeks ago, when after she gave the whole of the Crafts Cluster a talk about her residencies in Philadelphia and Rhosneath (Scotland) I had the opportunity to have a tutorial with her...which was AMAZING! She gave me lots of confidence in my work, and we worked together to create a list of things to do for my current project in college.  Meeting her has made a great impact on me and my work, and i am excited to get back into the workshop to make!

This here is a piece of Anne Wilson's work.  Anne Gibbs recommended i looked at this artist to give me some inspiration, and to see other people's work that is similar to mine.  I really do like seeing work that is similar to my own, as it gives me a confidence boost, and it excites me to see other people interested in similar techniques.

This here is Debbie Smyth's work.  She uses pins and cotton to create images.  I really like this way of drawing (as well as pins and wire), it makes me think whether i actually need the clay at all, as really the clay is just a way of sticking the pins into place.  As i have been struggling with finding a form that i really enjoy with the clay (and i really don't get on with hand building clay) i might start thinking of developing it out of my designs.  Another thing that really excited me about all three of these images is that they're all monochrome.  I really like stuff that hasn't got colour in them...i don't know why, but i've always struggle with it, and i find it unnecessary sometimes.

WOAH, the Hokey Cokey!!!

Hellooooooooooooooooooooo!
It's been a fair few weeks since my first post! But here I am, back to tell you all about my exciting new work...and hopefully I'll give you some regular input from now on!
I think I'll begin by explaining to you what I'm about...that would make the most sense i feel!  From the title of my blog i think that you've gathered that i work in porcelain, and that there's something to do with patterns and pins in there, but you've not quite figured what they're about yet... WELL, here are some images of the work i made for my final project in the last academic year (I am now in my third year of studying Ba (hons) Contemporary Applied Arts at Hereford College of Arts) -

As you can see from these photos i like giving my porcelain a surface pattern (this particular one you see in the photographs was made by rolling the clay onto a plaster board that i'd scratched a pattern into that i'd taken out of my drawing sketchbook), but i also push pins into the clay and fire it with them in.  The firing makes the pins go very fragile and they turn a matt, blue-grey colour, which in my opinion is a fab contrast to the porcelain!

I have recently had a revelation on what my subject matter is!  Originally i thought that it was seed pods, and things that have multiples of things on/in them...this is what i'd tell people, even though it sounded really boring to me! I have realised that it's not this...i mean it's not too far off, but it's not solely this.  My subject matter is basically beautiful and abnormal things i find in my daily life...so i won't go out of my way to find seed pods, or objects covered in dots, i just like finding things. I love the element of surprise, and the nice feeling i get when i pick something from someone's garden (shshsh!) to photograph and draw.  So these things could be something like the biggest leaf i have EVER seen in my whole entire life!!! (i am a complete child)...or it could be a branch covered in tiny and beautiful seed pods...finding things makes me feel so happy!

Ahem...*recouping dignity* so now i have explained my subject matter, here are some of my favorite photos...

Now that i've filled you in on what i'm about i think i'll leave you with an image of a more current piece of work for you to ponder, and i shall explain more soon!

Nos dawch!!! XxX