Studio Saturday

Big event of the week, indeed of the month, was the arrival of not just the stacks of plastic boxes, to go under the table, but the much-longed-for cubbyholes to go at the back of the table, which the Domestic Carpenter got on with as soon as he got back from a short "holiday" - during which he did carpentry for his father.

I was very, very, very pleased with the clear surface and even this superficial amount of organisation. "Less is more" - and it looks like materials are being pared down to some sort of minimum.

At home I'd been using hexagons, printed on paper and wrapped around sinamay, for various ideas

including perforation (how will this interact with the wet clay?) -

One template had small hexagons, another had large ones -

The small one is stitched with thin metallic thread; the large one has the large stitches wrapped with metallic thread -

In the studio, cleaning up the bases of some of the pots - this is beyond help but it's been noted, so let's see what happens with the rest of the pot.

Final touches and documentation of the pots already dipped continues.These are ready for firing at the next opportunity -

Next week I'll be away, doing a drawing course at West Dean - updates will be posted on Instagram. So that I can experiment with drying times etc, more dipping will have to wait till the week after - quite a few pots are ready, but I'm making a lot of very simple ones, to get some experience of how thick the slip should be.

Late in the day, a small moment of quiet relaxation, stitching something simple -

A little grouping, or rather, a grouping of little pots-to-be -

Inspiration (?) this week -

Having seen this work by Debbie Smyth, made in 2014 and looking so confident and "finished" - and interesting! - I feel I'm reinventing the wheel ... or adding a fifth wheel. Aesthetically, I like the balance of light and dark, and the texture of the wire elements. 

Work by Debbie Smyth (via)

Wall display, interesting... (via)

Surely these are made of rolled-out paper clay rather than dipped in slip? Is there still a niche for me? Seeing Debbie Smyth's ceramic work certainly made me look harder at my work and methods -- and it's made me very impatient to get some pots fired!