Go with the flow...

Here is my new perforated fruit bowl...

It is called Go With The Flow, because I wanted it to have the dual function of being a fruit bowl and colander in one, so water will flow through it. It has holes pierced through the surface to allow you to wash, drain, display and serve fruit.

When I made it I was thinking about water. Not just the water that would eventually run through it; different types of water. Frothy gently curving waves, bubbly water and sails and flags on boats as they catch the breeze. Deep sea green colours, fluid curves and ripples...

The bubbly texture and shape make it good to hold even with wet hands.

What do you think of it?

Facebook...

OK. I surrender. Today I joined facebook... Facebook 1, my resolve to never join facebook nil.

Here is my Prince Design UK page. Call in and become a fan! And I would love for you to invite your friends too!! My fans list is looking er... short... Well hopefully it will pick up soon and stop me from feeling like a loser ;-) It is only day one after all...
I'm not sure why I have had such an aversion to facebook. Perhaps I'm getting set in my ways! Now I've done it it seems silly not to have done it ages ago. I'm going to be doing a few offers to facebook fans in the near future, so it'll be interesting to see how that works out :)

Wish me luck!

A little while ago

I did a pottery workshop in a nursery school. It was different to workshops that I had done before, in that there was a larger emphasis on the experience than on the end product. The first children of the day were for me the most challenging... the two year olds. All my previous workshop experiences had been with older children, and so this group were tricky for me. Working with clay is a very tactile and sensory experience, and this was the main focus of this age group. I was pleasantly surprised at how much they got out of it, they dipped their fingers in water and felt how the clay softened when they added water to the surface, how it became slippery and easier to change. They hit it with plastic spoons and in some cases poked holes through it. Although nothing recognisable was produced, each shild learned that he or she had the power to change the form of the material.
Next up were the three year olds, who on the whole decided to make "cakes." Or should I say one child decided, and the rest followed suit.
Here are some of them....

Each child selected from a range of objects in the centre of the table, stones, spoons forks etc, and made individual decisions about how to decorate their cake. I like how they picked the forks and spoons as candles.

Every child was encouraged to make what they wanted to make, and the nursery owner specified that I should not come armed with any kind of project. The items were not to be fired, and this meant that all kinds of other objects could be included in the pieces they made. Here are a few images of what some of the older children made. The children were aged up to eight years, as the after school club were included too.

I loved this crocodile :) I asked her what she thought might make the texture of crocodile skin and she selected something from a range to create the texture. Good choice!

And this fab catarpillar! Again, here the child himself selected a number of identical milk bottle tops to create the rhythmic form, and this was his idea.

These hedgehogs were amazing too. Again, a great choice with the straws to make the texture of the spines.
There's something fantastic about seeing a big table full of children's creations....

All in all we had a great (if exhausting) day. I really hope they took something valuable away from the experience. I know I definitely did :) A BIG thanks to all the children who were really lovely and very well behaved!

Nature...

Makes far more beautiful things than I could ever dream of. The hydrangeas are in full bloom everywhere at the moment and they are absolutely stunning. I wish I'd had my camera today to capture these - apologies for the image quality, they were taken with my phone...

For a while now...

I have been experimenting with mixed media. It began with little things, colaged birthday cards made with pieces of pottery, found objects, sentimental scraps and bits of thread. I made them for my friends and family, and then began to work on a few small pieces as artworks in their own right. I have always loved textiles and embroidery, so stitching into the ceramic seemed like an interesting idea. Here are the first few that I have produced for my shop....



I have kept the scale deliberately small for a number of reasons. Firstly, the idea began as cards and gifts for loved ones, and so the scale was small for that reason. Secondly, the stitched aspect makes them quite intimate in many ways. To me at least, embroidery and stitching are intimate processes, they require that you are close up to the piece you are working on, they demand that you hold it close to you and tinker with tiny details. Somehow to me, less is more with these. When there are a few stitches, you notice each and every one, whereas with an item that has thousands of tiny stitches, say a piece of clothing, they are no longer noticeable in their own right; they just become a part of a larger whole. I am after all a ceramicist adding some stitch, not a dressmaker adding a couple of ceramic buttons...


I have enjoyed making them, but they have been hugely labour intensive and fiddly, and so I fear that in the future they may again be reserved for gifts for loved ones rather than for my shop, but these ones at least are for sale as a limited range. I used porcelain as I felt that the pure, smooth white surface made a more interesting contrast with the thread than textured clay. I have created texture in the surface of the smooth clay and glazed areas sparingly so that the thread adds another dimension but does not have to fight to be heard.
As always... comments welcome!