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02 May 2015

Ceramics, the final outcome

The final firing from last term's course has come home, and rather than procrastinating I set to photographing, measuring, wrapping for storage -
The strangest thing - and I don't know how this could have happened, as all my pots were in a sand trays, taking up all the room in the tray - is this creature ...
though from one angle it looks fairly normal, no sign of the hanger-on -
These little pots (they have bottoms so are pots/vessels, not "chimneys" like the gathered and dipped ones) are made of paperclay and are up to 7cm tall -
Inside this one, metal threads embedded into one side of the rolled out clay -

The rest are porcelain dipped, and the black is due to the metal threads or metallic fabric. Sometimes I added stitches in thickish threads.

First, the "lumps" -
Damaged, but I love that line of stitch, metal thread added after gathering

Subtle metal threads, distorted by the dipping process

Fabric gathered into a little topknot

Collapsing into itself
Slightly more elegant, these "chimneys" aren't gathered up, just stitched, and contained varying amounts of metallic organza -


Circles made from metallic threads released by tearing the fabric
("waste nothing")


Some areas are very thin and translucent

My favourite - the inside was painted with glaze and (somehow!) has hints of turquoise
Also some flat things -
Tiles made in the first week of the course, glazed at the last minute
Coloured slips, shiny glaze
Damaged ... but in the best place possible
"Four Fields" - about 16cm wide
Now it's a matter of matching the "before" (fabric) and "after" (ceramic) photos. But first I'll wrap them all up and put them AWAY for a while, till the next course. The hexagonal tiles might find their way into the garden.

(This post is linked to Off the Wall Friday.)

9 comments:

  1. Oh Margaret...this work should be in a museum. I just adore your ceramics. If you ever felt so inclined to send one of your little vessels over to the States, I'd be mighty proud to rehome one! Have a great weekend. Keep up the outstanding work!

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  2. How lovely these are! - every one of them, lumps and all! The idea of stitching clay with metallic thread is just devine! I used to throw pots years ago and still have many that we use every day ... But they are all useful craft objects not beautiful pieces of art like these.

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  3. It has been fascinating to follow your progress with this process. I had no idea one could do this, let alone get such interesting results.

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  4. Love the way you are pushing on with your own way of working with ceramics. I wish there had been someone like you in the class I did, it would have made me think more widely, I just accepted things we were shown or told about and did not think to push my boundaries, as a result I hated working with ceramics.I did not keep one single thing I made, they were so boring.

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  5. Lovely work, Margaret. It's a shame they are not in a gallery or museum as they would be great for sketching on a Tuesday!

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  6. these are wonderful!! hope you will find a way to keep on with the series even though the class is over.

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  7. Hi Margaret, I have really enjoyed following this exploration of combining two media from your artistic practise. I too hope you get a chance to continue exploring.

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  8. Amazing design and textures. Beautiful!

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  9. They came out wonderfully, I'm really liking the lines made by the metallic thread.

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