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:

Cate Rose said...

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!

Charlton Stitcher said...

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.

The Idaho Beauty said...

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.

irene macwilliam said...

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.

M said...

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!

Kathleen Loomis said...

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

Stitchinscience said...

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.

Julie Bagamary said...

Amazing design and textures. Beautiful!

Linda M said...

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