Studio Saturday

The first part of the week was eaten up by the need to get the windows painted, but on Thursday I spent the entire day at the studio.

First thing in the morning, Tom and Kyle put in the trunking and cable for the new kiln. Next week a proper electrician will make the connections and provide a certificate.

While they stepped on my desk (etc) I sat, away from the action, and got quite a lot of knitting done.

Later there was a bit of photography of people's work that was sitting around, thinking ahead to making an invitation for the Open Studio on Saturday 24 November. More info later, such as timing, but I can reveal that the address is 3 Wedmore Street, London N19 4RU, off Holloway.

Lindsay

Kate M

Jackie

Kate D

 As you can see, we're a diverse lot of potters/ceramicists.

Meanwhile my claim to being a potter/ceramicist took a small step forward as I looked carefully at what came out of the latest firing -

some 32 pots, 18 of which were ok structurally, though some of those did have broken bits upon close examination.

First each pot was photographed (for the record) and then I looked closely at it and thought hard about it and made notes, and gradually a list of "what to try next" formed in my studio notebook. (The little pot holds the shards. Those need recording too.)

More pots that are shards - or implosions - or "interesting" in that they can be treated in different ways, perhaps playfully, perhaps transformatively...

As the day wore on, I kept wondering "Will it arrive?" - and finally, after 4pm, it did the kiln was delivered, all the way from Stoke-on-Trent -

 Thanks to the helpful driver, who made sure it got safely into the studio -

 We unwrapped it ....

 ... and put "Aurora" in the kiln room, where she'll have to wait till next week to be connected up. And then the test firing. And then the real stuff can start!

More than a dozen dipped pots need tidying up before firing, and another dozen or so are stitched but not dipped. That's "the old stuff". 

Going forward, the list of what to try next (in the studio notebook) contains, as subtext, an implicit list of what not to bother with henceforth. For instance, I find the texture on the crochet pots too textured, generally (but they were easy to make, something to do while travelling) - instead I like the subtle textures of the bias pots, which unfortunately have a tendency to fall apart at the rim or crumble under less-than-gentle handling.

Also I'm (still; always...) thinking of ways to display - how about pots on "magic carpets"? -

 These are scraps with stitched marks - asemic writing, sometimes inspired by overheard one-sided conversations, interminable monologues on mobile phones in a train carriage...

Such conversations could erupt from the tranquility of the pot ....

On Friday, various rearrangements of the unbroken pots for the publicity shot for the Open Studio invitation 

 and yet another new arrival - some heating!

In fact we have two of these oil-filled radiators. I'm rather dreading the cold weather and it will be lovely to have somewhere to warm up the frozen fingers...

Yesterday in the studio

A parcel was due to be delivered - this book, which I ordered from the US just over a week ago, after blogging about Hedi Kyle's blizzard book. I found out about the Festschrift from one of the websites encountered while researching the link to her work - and when it came I thumbed through from middle to end and beginning to middle. What an interesting mix of ideas it contains -
The little red book was a little black, cheap, convenient academic year diary that cried out for a cheerier cover. While clearing up the studio (CUTS) and waiting for the post, I found a bag of leather scraps and crudely glued a red chunk over the black plastic cover. It's hardly fine binding, but when it gets tatty I can simply re-cover it.

CUTS also turned up these strokable pieces from Karina Thompson's workshop at the CQ summer school last year - if time permits (or the mood strikes me), I'll add some fabric (wool?) round the edges and make them into cushion covers ... yet another project... -
Also seeing the light of day was "Searchlights", a small piece made for a regional day challenge, way back when. It's hand pieced over papers (one piece of paper cut up, carefully labelled to help with the putting back together) and is about 18" tall. I still like the idea but can quite understand that people might find it "enigmatic" or even "baffling". Maybe one day it will become a book cover? -
What to do with my headless Korean costumes - they use my first-ever microwave dyes, which Ann D showed me how to do - many subtle colours due to overdyeing. I also made some with tall collars that look (slightly) less odd. Perhaps they can be pincushions, or would that be too voodoo?
CUTS included much sorting through papers - like these leaflets left after a visit to Barcelona several years ago - I can recommend the maritime museum, Palau Musica, Miro Foundation, Pedralbes monastery with part of the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection, romanesque art at the Catalan art museum, the Picasso museum - lots to see. Also the science museum, way up Tibidabo hill, is excellent, as is the aquarium.
How easy it is to get sidetracked...

While the studio is being rejuvenated, I've set up a sewing machine and laid out the project in the front bedroom -
It's the japanese quilt, and in between bouts of CUTS for a change of pace I'll be working japanese style - pretty close to the floor, or maybe even on the floor.

The joy of socks

Thomas often wears the "nautical socks" (red for port and green for starboard); Kyle's just happened...and he probably has another pair just like them at home...

Book du jour (sort of)

Actually it's a cube box, a container for a square book - the "thumbhole" (there must be a real name for that?) is a half-circle punched out with a circular punch - first time I've used this one, and it can barely handle two layers of paper. Hmmph.

The instructions (by printmaker and book artist Claire Van Vliet) are in the Hedi Kyle Festschrift book -
Sorry about the fuzzy picture. While trying to sharpen it up just now I finally noticed the arrow showing grain direction ... will have to try it again with the correct grainline ...

In lieu of Studio Saturday - blizzard books

Another book from the very short book making course at Morley - this time it's a blizzard book, a structure invented by Hedi Kyle one day when snow kept her from going out to her job.

This - made by Hedi herself - was our model, with lovely envelope interiors tucked into the "pockets", and cover made of painted tyvek (I think) -

 A biggish one and a too-small one, which looked a bit like a fierce bird with a ghostly body -

By the end of the evening I'd made a few more, and cases for them -  and happened to have my "blizzard box" with me to add to book-storm -

Making books (summer school) - 4

This structure is called the "blizzard book" and it's folded out of a long piece of paper. A big sheet of thin Japanese paper (costing £2.25) made 7 books of various sizes. The largest uses half the sheet and ended up about 7" high. The folded triangles hold the sheets of paper, and covers can tuck into the spine.

I used a couple of the small spines for some of the "crayon" books, putting coloured paper between blank pages -
It's called the blizzard book because it was created by Hedi Kyle one morning when she couldn't get to work because of a blizzard. Instructions for making one with fewer pages and a different kind of cover are here; instructions for the 16 fold version (8 "openings") are here.