beachcombing

beachcombing, originally uploaded by c-urchin.

I found this on Flickr this morning - they are made by hand with porcelain, fired and unglazed. I've been watching c-urchin's work for a couple of years now and it just gets better everytime I look in on it. I just want to print it off and laminate it for my own studio wall to remind me of the JOY of clay.  Her c-urchin pages on http://www.flickr.com/photos/c-urchin/ give an indication of her working methods.

Here is c-urchin ie Lisa Stevens - Artist Statement

Through many years of creating, I have experimented with many different media, both 2D and 3D. I have found it very difficult to focus on using one material, but after joining a ceramics evening class six years ago, I decided that clay would be my material.
I was already used to working in three dimensions as I have had a long standing career as one of the senior sculptors/model-makers at Aardman Animations, working on projects such as “Chicken Run”, “Wallace and Gromit-Curse of the Wererabbit”, “Angry Kid” and “Creature Comforts”. After leaving Aardman to have my baby (now two and a half years old) I have found some (limited) time to develop my own style and techniques in ceramics.
The main body of my work, the sculptures and sculptural jewelry, are primarily influenced by the clay itself. I do not fight with the clay to make neat edges and smooth, even surfaces, preferring instead to leave the tool marks, the raw edges and the natural texture of the clay. The same applies to the glazes I use…I would like to experiment further, but so far I have found that I am most comfortable with matt stoneware glazes, that show different colours according to their thickness. I also have a penchant for silicon carbide, which when mixed with a glaze causes bubbling and blistering, and also iron oxide spangles…..a few thrown on causes lovely rust spotting, but add them on a little heavier, and the effect is a wonderful sparkly pewter. When possible, I also take part in Raku firings.

I also take reference form sea creatures, such as coral, jelly fish and of course, sea urchins. I love working with textures and a lot of my work is pierced. I do not smooth the piercing, but instead choose to keep the barnacle effect as the clay splits as the tool moves through it.   I am a hand-builder, mainly making pinch pots, of which I have an obsession to make as thin as possible. I also use plaster press moulds. These are mainly hemi-spherical and I then add texture and alter the forms from this base.   For the ceramic pendants, I also work in brighter, shiny earthenware glazes. Depending on the size of the piece, they are either simple designs, or elaborate patterns made with my own handmade clay stamps, and the impressions filled with multi-coloured glazes

Lisa sells her porcelain jewellery on http://www.etsy.com/shop/seaurchin

JOSEPHINE PITTMAN an-ti-bod.y

I have been waiting to hear from my pal Josie Pittman about her forthcoming exhibition

an-ti-bod.y

Showcase Gallery, Corner Aberdeen and Beaufort Streets, Northbridge, Perth.

Opening 6.30pm on 12th February and runs till the 26th.

Josie and I are friends from the ceramists group Clay Feet. I've been looking foward to this show a lot, I own one of her smaller works and want more. Josie handbuilds in Southern Ice porcelain expressing her interest in, well how would you put it, life at a biological cellular level resulting in exquisite cool, smooth, satiny, polished, unglazed, porcelain sculptural pieces .................... well ScrummY stuff. More later .....
Check out her lovely website .... http://josephinepittman.com

Catch up....

I was intensely busy over the last few months preparing work for assessment at ANU Distance Diploma Residential School in Canberra and the Clay Feet exhibition in Heathcote Gallery. The run down to Christmas entailed more end of year 'events' than usual  as my three sons were graduating their respective schools.  By Christmas, I was 'over it'.

I've just returned to stonking hot Fremantle from stonking  hot Canberra, where I was reunited with many clay pals on the same course, ate out a lot, and had a brilliant time. There were some new students starting the course and a whole lot of Korean ceramic students visiting with their Professor Lee InChin.  They were a little shy at first to use their english, and nobody else spoke Korean but we all got along well.  They were doing the sculptural workshop and making self portraits, with a twist, and they were so good! 

Some of us in the final phase of our projects spent time working out kinks in our throwing skills and had Ian Jones http://www.oldsaintlukesstudio.com.au/Ian%20Jones.html and Lee InChin standing by to demonstrate, correct and generally support our throwing.  It was an unexpected treat to have such calm and kind and GOOD teaching support- we totally LOVED it and appreciated every second. 

I was thrilled to get a high mark in my glaze technology exam, so Ican breathe easier now that phase is over.  The assessment of my Interim Work Proposal (IWP) was very positive and useful.  My final project for ANU produced the large handbuilt  'nest' forms pictured above, covered with images using multiple Print On Clay techniques.   I still love what my friend Samira called my NEO-MODERN forms BUT I have't got the balance right with the strength of the surface treatment and the scale of the work.  I will use the forms for another series of work, once I finish this course at ANU.

On to the next phase - thrown one piece double-walled soft pillowy nest forms (as above) but still printed - and smaller than the ones I've recently finished.  I aim to make the surface imagery simpler and  monochromatic - I wonder if I can stick to that, I am a natural embellisher, don't know how to stop.  

I practiced making these when in Canberra last week, a little tricky, but I like the results.  I love when a fired ceramic piece convey's the impression of softness.  These are the size of a bread and butter plate, Ian Jones made a lovely one larger than a dinner plate - which is this week's aspiration. Years ago my tutor at Claremont School of Art, Drew Armstrong  showed how to throw annular forms (doughnuts to you and me) and I thought I'd never master that - but now look at me!  Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

HOPE

If you look at the image at the heading of this blog, a porcelain blossom with copper glaze inside it,this is a project I have been wanting to revisit and I tried to last week. I decided to make more 'lilies' and 'lotus blossoms' with Southern Ice porcelain but I forgot how tricky the stuff is to work with. It seduces us with the promise of whitest of white porcelain surfaces but frankly, it is like throwing cream cheese and it requires very, very slow, careful drying, cracks very easily and has a massive shrinkage rate. But still, I LOVE it and am waiting for the two surviving blossoms to dry out to be fired.

I lost four big pieces of work in the last two weeks, intended for LUMINANCE at Heathcote. I decided that as they were very large and took a lot of drying I'd come up with something less demanding. So I made some laser decal porcelain vases and rain catcher gizmos I've been toying with in the visual diary in my head, you know, when sleep is what you need but your imagination is keeping you awake.

My other blog is a ......

Clay Feet has a website and a blog

have a look at ..............http://clayfeetpotters.blogspot.com/

and at .....................http://www.clayfeet.com.au/

but come back and check in here often too please.