Exciting Progress

So now there is only a week before we take over our studio at Wimbledon Artists Studios.  I am so excited that I can hardly sleep at night.  The prospect of being able to spend the time that I want developing my own personal style and being part of a large community of over 200 artists is almost to huge to believe. 

Important date for your diary: 16 - 19 May:  Wimbledon Artists Stduios,Open Studios event.  Be there!


I have spent the morning searching for a kiln and deciding that I shall almost certainly go for a new one.  Second hand ones seem quite expensive given that they don't come with a guarantee so I think I shall spend a bit more and be sure of some advice and support.  I have also spent a happy few hours sorting out my portfolio in readiness for my interview for the ceramics diploma course.  The interview in next month and I need to be able to wow them with both my 2D and 3D work.  I really do not know how I shall struggle to college through the rush hour with half a dozen very fragile pieces and an A1 portfolio tucked under my arm! 

I shall go for a trial run on Monday when I take it all in so that I can go through it with my tutor and decide what to leave out or add before the interview - all these courses!  Will I ever stop?  The thing is that I am really hoping that once I have done the diploma I shall feel really confident to have a go at most things ceramic, including a bit of teaching.  Then the career shift will finally be complete.  Happy days!

Call it Serendipidy

Thrown bowl glazed in transparent green
over blue slip with sea green interior.

What a difference a week makes. This time last week I was wondering how I could take my ceramics to the next level now that the workshop plans are no more.

Slab piece inspired by a project on shoes.

Thrown open bowl glazed
in buttercream and sea green

So a chance conversation with a friend at college last Monday and a visit to Wimbledon Artists Studios on Thursday mean that we are now the proud joint tenants of a small cupboard with a window in which I plan to create more and more experimental pieces. There have been many sleepless nights since Thursday - I keep coming up with other things that I want to try - and the excitement levels are somewhere up in the stratosphere.   One of the great things about joining WAS is that we can take advantage of their lectures, visits and open studios. I am off to an afternoon on Internet Copyright tomorrow which probably comes under the heading of Boring but Important.  

 

Slab piece inspired by beach
 combing textures.

 

In the mean time I wanted to update my blog with a few recent successes.  I have never really bothered much with colour in the past but am enjoying playing with glazes and taking the risk on what the outcome might be.  I have used test tiles but to be honest I love the feeling of just dipping a piece whose shape I llike and hoping that I will still like it when it re-emerges from the kiln.  Once the studio is up and running I will not have access to quite so many glazes as at college so I need to know which ones I really likebut there is something very liberating about trusting to luck and you do get some wonderfully pleasant surprises!

 

 

 

The first Open Studios which I will be involved in is in May. I will be there and the kettle will be on.  Hope to see you. 

The best Ideas of Mice and Men ...

Oh well, it was good whilst it lasted! My great plan to set up a workshop for amateur ceramicists is currently lying amongst the clay turnings on the pottery floor.  I pulled the plug on it this weekend.  The premises that I had been intending to buy was becoming less and less a good idea.  There were issues over how the electricity was going to be serviced and you cannot run a kiln without a sure supply of power.  It also transpired that there were issues about the ownership of the area just outside the front door.  It began to look as though I would be trespassing every time I visited the workshop!  All that added to issues about who was responsible for the maintenance of the access road, the restrictive covenants controlling what kinds of activities could take place there and the minor point that according to my sources the premises was vastly over priced - I really had no choice.
Now I am back to square one.  Not only am I not now creating a place for other people to work in.  I also have nowhere to work for myself.  How frustrating is that when a couple of weeks ago it all looked so exciting.
So now I am on the prowl.  No garage or garden shed within a 5 mile radius is safe from my investigations as I search for a place to set up the potters wheel that I had already laid my hands on and the kiln of my dreams.  I have reached a stage where the clay is well and truly under my finger nails now and I do not want to stop making things.  I know that my skills leave a lot to be desired and I need a place to practise in order to become the next Ken Eastman or Alison Britton.
Wish me luck and, in the mean time, lock up your sheds if you see me approaching . . . .