Its been a whopping six months since I last updated my blog, mainly due to being in lockdown yet again but also due to a lack of planning and prioritising time to get the job done. At the end of last term I crammed in all my blog entries in one go, have leant from that and I am trying to get back in the habit of doing it weekly - yep good luck with that Kath!
We have been back since mid April. The atmosphere is better than it was when we returned from the last lockdown in September with more people on campus, filling the surroundings with energy. This is obviously helping with my makes and I am definitely glad to be back with a clearer direction of travel and a plan of where I am trying to go.
So first day back, went and gathered all my work that had been fired, trying to climatise myself back into university life. First of all note to self, if taking pictures of your tests and results make sure you do not delete the photographic evidence to free up space on the phone! I did a load of inclusion tests back in December which had now been fired but have no idea what proportions and combinations had been concocted in my ten test slabs. So annoying. Some day I hope to remember what this picture relates to!
Other work had been glaze fired. I appreciate the rich tones of the clay body from reduction firing and the melted brick shale inclusions in the piece below aswell as the malachite texture on the surface. The form is not right for what I want to achieve but the build is helping to shape some ideas (see picture below).
The following pieces were coated in my glaze formulation on top of vulcan coarse black clay/brick shale inclusions and reduction fired. The iron content has totally drowned out the lovely shades of blue, yellow and green, leaving the pieces shining and metallic looking, definitely not what I am after.
I also displayed my maquettes seeing which ones resonated with my vision and mentally noted what was interesting and what I quite liked!!! :)
In the picture above my favourite pieces were the two on the left. The general shape/form of the bottom left one is very pleasing plus the rugged texture and torn areas add depth to the form. The one above is made from layered slabs producing a weathered and rotten look to the form. Some of the other pieces look more contrived or have lost the texture due to handling.
Onwards and upwards, I have a clear plan going forwards to upscale my work to see what making methods best suit me and my work plus identifying what challenges I need to overcome when building to a bigger scale. Let the games begin.
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