Lichen

I found this tiny ball of lichen walking home from a friend's place....inspiration for a ceramic sculpture perhaps?
In the meantime, here is a great artist already taking her inspiration from lichen! Elin Thomas

coral evolution

Over the past few years my work has evolved, and although I love the pieces I make now, I do feel that I have lost some of the original alchemy that was present in my work when I first started working with clay.

Part of this feeling comes from the fact that I have recently had a bit of work from Aardman, which is so tight and precise. When I first started ceramics it was a release from the detailed, symmetrical puppets I was creating at work and it was a chance to loosen up. As the years with children and making my own pieces have gone by, my style has tightened up somewhat. Not a bad thing, but now I'm itching to experiment again!

It has also come from reading tinctory's blog. She has been experimenting with slow dying fabrics with natural materials....I used to put any old thing in the kiln to see what happened and I must try this again! Her Etsy shop is worth a look too...she's closing down, which is a shame...but there are some bargains left!

In the meantime...here is a piece of coral I have been working on for my Mum's fishtank, not finished yet...a few more pieces to make before I can fire the kiln again!

It's been a long time...

Well a lot has happened since I last blogged....part of the reason why I've let this blog lapse!

We moved....from Bristol, to a village on the outskirts. The Boy is now five and has started school and he now has a little sister! She is now seven months old and she's a very happy baby :)

Work wise, I have a small amount of work from Aardman (Wallace and Gromit, etc) where I used to work before having children. Nothing exciting, just cleaning up the seam lines on foam puppets, but it's good to get my hand in again...also there are no minimum hours, so I can just do as much as I have time for. I'm afraid I can't tell you what I'm working on....or I'd have to kill you! ;)

I guess my ceramics have probably moved on a bit too. I am no longer at college in the evening, so all pieces are made at home. This is a bit limiting, so there are less sculptures and a lot of pieces are unglazed porcelain. This is not necessarily a bad thing.

I can hear some grumblings from upstairs, so I shall quickly add a link and a photo!

I have some coral beads in this auction to raise money for the relief effort in Haiti...please take a look http://kookiedesigns.web.officelive.com/collectivecharity.aspx

Resurrection

I may....possibly....resurrect this blog! It has been a long while, and a lot has happened (new house, and new baby to name two very important episodes in my recent life)

A little taster of some recent work....I'm working a lot with unglazed porcelain at the moment.

Lampwork beads made by http://pinocean.etsy.com