It's raining, BOO!

Back!
Been at work selling glittery trinkets at Claire's!  Must admit, i do love my side job!
So now i'm back i will tell you about the experiments i have done for different types of ends! It's all very exciting, i made 20 different ones, i've picked a couple that i particularly like - i didn't think of taking photos of them unfortunately, i only have a group photo of them all...

i really like the natural ones - so the ones that i've torn, or the ones i've kept the way they were when i rolled out the clay.  I also like the end with the galvenized nails (top 3rd from left).  I'll take a decent photo of it, but  basically underneath the top layer of bobbly nail heads the metal has kind of raised and has gone really wrinkly and fluid looking, it's really beautiful.  I also like the end with the pins all over (top 2nd from right) it's all gravelly and just completely the opposite to the porcelain, it's really great...  I don't really like the printed ends (i pressed some of the ends into a piece of sand blasted wood, so they picked up the grain) I followed this grain with some of the pinned ends, but i don't like these as much as the one i've just been talking about.  I also don't like the more literal ends i made, that's just not what my work's about...

I really like this piece, i love that i didn't pin the pins in all the way...like ivy on a twig.

Now this looks amazing, it looks like moss!  I love it! Admittedly it was a happy accident, a really happy accident!  Basically the fibre blanket i have been using to try and stop the metal from getting onto the kiln shelves (unsuccessfully) and when the metal melts onto the fibre blanket i don't know what happens, but there's a reaction between the metal and blanket that makes the blanket stick to the metal and it turns a greeny brown colour.  it is really rather beautiful.  

This is a handful of my small scale pieces that i'm going to display on a plinth.  I'm really happy with how these are turning out, there are no problems with them (so far) so i've been able to get on with these and get a decent amount of them so that i can pick and choose the best ones when it comes to it.

Just a couple of photos of the twig ends i've been drawing...

This is a very sad photo.  This beautiful part of one of my pieces is stuck to a kiln shelf.  I can't get it off, it is positively fused to the shelf, so it's going to be ground off, leaving no evidence that it existed, apart from some rather hideous gouges in the shelf. I just put too much metal in the piece... In the middle area that's quite spotty the heads of the nails have bubbled off of the nails and whilst handling this bubbled shell has been cracked off revealing the nails underneath.

So here is the beginnings of my large scale final piece, some of these might not end up as any of the pieces that are used, but they are potentially the ones.  Exciting times!  Now for some more drawing, tech jounaling,  analysing and CV-ing...so, so much work...! Tara for now!

There's a silver lining to every cloud...or to every ruined kiln shelf...

Haia, I know it's been a while, but don't worry i have definately been doing work... lots of experimenting, making miostakes, drawing, and as the title says, ruining kiln shelves...Eek! I started the kiln shelf ruining with some copper experiments, looking at colouring the porcelain naturally, without having to touch glazes - they are very scarey things...

You can't see very well from this photo, but the middle of this end is an amazing honey comb texture!

Even though i made little beds for them to go into the kiln on, the copper still ate through the clay and made an aweful mess of the shelf... With this in mind, i decided to stop experimenting with the copper, because i was losing more by using the copper and having a smooth surface instead of the nice lumpy texture i get with the steel.  It was nice to have a mess around with it though, i might have a little more of a play in the furute, to try and get the green into the porcelain...maybe by combining the steel with the copper!
Be right back, have to go to a pricing workshop!

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.