Lacy blue birds

Hurry up spring! We're nearly there...
To speed things up I made these springy lacy blue bird dishes which are now on sale in my PrinceDesign shop.


The texture is made by imprinting vintage lace doilies into the surface of soft clay. The soft blue glaze was rubbed into the surface to emphasize the detail, and I love the colour contrast with the creamy clay.
As ever, feel free to comment!

Thanks Indie Quarter!

For those of you who haven't seen it, Indie Quater is a great blog about design. It's beautifully designed itself, which makes it a pleasure to read. Check it out here.
They were kind enough to run a feature on my etsy shop as part of their stocking filler features before Christmas. You can see that article here.
This week has been quite busy so far in my shop; evidently other people are more organized than I am when it comes to Christmas shopping...
I have added a couple of new pieces this week, and they are selling fast! One I am particularly pleased with is this Blue Lagoon droplet dish.
I have a bad habit of smashing wine glasses, but at least I can recycle them by putting them in the bottom of things in the kiln to create this pretty crystalline effect!

A pocket full of posies

Welcome to my day.... Things are set to get more and more manic today, I can feel it...
I was lucky enough to be featured in an article in etsy's storque magazine which is shown on their front page, and goes out by email. Read it here.
Great publicity, especially as the piece they picked is in an article where it is suggested in a gift guide.

Here's a new piece I have just uploaded to my shop; a pocket full of posies!

Each little flower was stamped by hand into the clay whilst it was still soft, and then the circle was dropped into a mold.
I am also pleased with the glaze, as I mixed it myself, making it a little more individual than shop bought glazes.
Comments welcome!

Waterlilies

Waterlilies are gorgeous hey? They look so delicate floating on the water...
I made these ones with white clay and recycled glass in the bottoms. The bases are curved, so that they look like they're floating even on a table.

Textiles

Here are some images of work I have made that has been influenced by textiles. This bowl was a bit of a labour of love, and was far more difficult to make than I originally anticipated... After several broken attempts, finally I got the technique right, and it was worth the effort!
Other ways in which I have combined textiles and pottery have been to roll fabric and lace into the surface of clay to create pattern and texture. Sometimes I have used the resulting slabs to create vases (like in the detail image below) and plant pots. At other times, I have cut the slabs into little shapes, and used these to make jewellery and buttons.

I first began working with lace for quite sentimental reasons. The lace imprint you see above was actually made by my grandmother. After her death, I felt quite sad that I had not learned how to make it with her, so I decided to get as much mileage as possible out of her work! After that, I found that for jewellery even finer detail was possible to use, and began rolling delicate embroidery into the surface of porcelain to get fine detail with a vintage feel. I particularly enjoy mixing the vintage texture with a contemporary shape such as the bird brooch below...

As always, comments welcome!

Back from my break...

and fighting a cold with some chilli and lentil soup...
Here are some photos from September's pottery workshop at the Heritage Open Days in Liverpool.

The workshops were a great success, and the children who participated made some amazing artwork. Little ones love to get their hands into mud! At times we had to ask people to come back later, as there were more children than we could cope with!
We had a range of shapes for them to cut out of rolled out clay, and then they decorated them by stamping in texture, cutting out shapes with biscuit cutters, pressing in their hands, or drawing into the surface of the clay with pencils. The football shirt shape was a big hit with the boys, and the girls made some gorgeous hearts and flowers.



I was able to fire some of the pieces and send them by post to the children. We pierced little holes near the top so that they can be hung on the wall by ribbon, and I think they'll make lovely artworks in the artists' homes. The fired pieces can be painted with acrylics or just left as they are.
A big big thank you to those who helped me on the day, and to John for the invite.
The Heritage Open Days were organized to raise funds for the renovation of the Old Christ Church in Crosby, and the building is spectacular. They are holding a Christmas fair on 22nd November, and I would recommend anyone in the area to go and check out the building and perhaps buy a couple of Christmas presents.
They are hoping to run some more craft activity days in the Spring, so all being well I'll be back there for those.

Chasing chickens

Here are some of my recent bowls, flocks of little chicks chasing each other in a spiral around a bowl... Or should that be a brood rather than a flock?
Either way, I think they've come out pretty well...

100% organic free range chickens, no battery hens here guys...
Comments welcome!