Getting Down and Dirty at last

Mass producing thrown pieces
 because I felt that I must!

It has taken me a few weeks to start to settle into the idea that I have a space to work now.  One in which I can do what I like, when I like with no comebacks.  To begin with I was stressing if I wasn't in the studio for every waking moment.  Then when I was there I had to be making things.  I was throwing pot after pot in a frantic hurry to get them made and completed - silly really as the kiln is not arriving until later this week. 



Now I have relaxed a bit.  I have reminded myself that I do not actually enjoy making functional pieces all the time.  What I do is play and experiment.  I love coming up with challenges for myself; just how thin will the clay go, how tall, what else will it do and so on.


With that thought running through my head I opened up my buckets of porcelain slip last weekend and began to pour it and shape it.  I wanted to develop ideas which had their birth in the FdA course at Bath Spa and to extend some of the sampling techniques that I have been using at City Lit.  The net result is a totally new way of working which, at first sight, I am really pleased with.  I have always been drawn to contours and geological folding.  Here are the beginnings of a series of experiments into how the clay will behave if I fold and curve it.  None of this work has been fired yet so I am probably jumping the gun but I am quite excited about the results so far.

At the same time I have been chasing my dream of getting onto the ceramics diploma course at City Lit for September.  I know it is going to challenge me in so many ways and I want that chance so very much.  I now feel the need to know clay and glaze techniques well so that I can push what the clay can do as far as I can imagine.

My interview was today.  I know that I am up against a host of people who already really know their stuff so I am not expecting to get on the course but for the next four weeks, until I get the result of the interview, at least I can hope!

A Rose by any other name....

Suddenly I have a bit of a problem!  As many people will know Frankie is not my real name, I use it for my art for three reasons.  Firstly I like to keep my art separate from other parts of me - it is a very special part of me that needs treasuring carefully.  I also like the idea of working in the name of my grandmother who, as a fairly determined Cornish woman, was accustomed to having her own way.  I began using Granny's name so that I could protect my identity because my husband was either embarrassed to have an artist as a wife or was concerned about security - probably the latter!

I have got used to explaining the distinction and I am perfectly content to do so.  However, I now have a smart, shiny artists studio in a proper, professional artists community.  I keep meeting lovely friendly people and introducing myself by my real name. 

So what happens when I then stick my name on the door.  Bit peculiar really because they will have just got used to calling me something else.  I know it doesn't really matter but I am wondering if I should just call myself Frankie and get over it!  I don't suppose that I am the only one, its just that, as someone who is largely quite a conventional animal, I am finding it a bit strange.  However, I dont mind at all if my faithful blogger followers feel like making a comment on this!