Sneak Preview

I'm coming in from the grey Bristol weather today to photograph, pack and price work.  Here is a sneak preview of some of the new work I'll be showcasing at Hereford Craft Fair 2011...

Dark Monday Nights brightened :)

At last I'm really looking forward to a new series on BBC 4 documenting the history of British ceramics.  The first episode was from medieval times onwards but there will be a programme on contemporary practitioners like Grayson Perry and Edmund de Waal.  Hopefully it will help boost the industry and educate people of the often overlooked skill and dedication of these artists.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b015ssf2/Ceramics_A_Fragile_History_The_Story_of_Clay/

Garret fever

Its not all honey and roses in the world of the artist.
The old romanticised legend of the artist starving in a garret is alive and well.  After having my best ever month last month I am feeling pretty defeated by having all my income sucked up by accountants bill, stand fees and this morning bill a from the Inland Revenue because THEY overpaid me.  I know I'm lucky that I do something I enjoy when so many people work in jobs they hate but I have dedicated the last 8 years to developing what I do and honing my skills and before that I went to college.  I'm 38 and would like to feel some sort of financial acknowledgement.  It was easier to be a single parent with a part time dead end job than it is now...sniff* sorry  Rant over and oot

A journey to the land of Shambala

I have just returned from Shambala land, a festival of surreal delights.  It was a working holiday helping to take a time machine to the craft area!  Next door to us was a clay workshop I tried to resist but couldnt help leave my mark.  Here is a pic from the site see if you can spot my figure riding high.

CRAFTS Magazine Shops and galleries guide

Just had a lovely surprise.

I am working at my friends contemporary craft

gallery Brook Street Pottery in Hay-on-Wye and after having done some rearranging and selling of some beautiful pots I have flipped through the CRAFTS Magazine Shops and Galleries guide 2011

to find I have an image of my work featured!  This is great as the guide is given with every Crafts Magazine and is issued for the whole year...Chuffed

Creating a monster

Ive been doing the summer holiday sight seeing thing over the past few weeks.  Picking out shapes and forms here and there.  It comes fairly naturally now and before I know it I am pulling the threads for a new theme together.  Ive been to the seaside and visited a few museums and been to an original steam powered funfair in Weston-supermare which all trickles down to inform the next piece.

At the moment Im looking at Victorian keepsakes and souvenirs such as glass shell specimen domes and Staffordshire Flat backs.  The Victorians did sentimentality so very well.

Summer gives me time to make bigger, slightly more experimental pieces.  Ive just emerged from the shed having created a monster.  This piece could be a hideous monstrosity or a triumph.  Not sure which yet.  Its based on the glass domed specimens and is a messy mound of symbols and shapes I use.  As I type the county has started to riot and this piece reflects the chaos all around us.  I plan to include satelites and enclose the whole with a glass dome.

The journey continues

Ive been a Ceramic artist for 8years now. I make a small porcelain world that has continued to develop and grow into a small business.  It is an organic and introverted world that can be easy to get lost in so at every given opportunity I look for new and different experiences to inform the work that I produce.

This Blog will no doubt document the ebbs and flows in my creativity and embellish to those that are interested what I produce from the shed.

Speaking of which Id better get in there.