Monday 25 April 2011

31...Almost there and Spooky Bears

Side view of new lime green pom pom
May is now almost upon me, and I haven't time to make another thing....I'm completely potted out. However, I am now finishing off and glazing all the work, and the kiln is on all the time...even (eek!) during the day when it is not cheap electricity. I have lost a couple of things along the way...mainly because the weather has been so extrodinarily hot that one or two bits dried out too quickly. I only have time now for 2 more glaze firings before I have to pack everything up and bring it over to Brighton. The set up for the Open Houses is next weekend, and then I have to finish off all the work for the Chelsea Flower Show.

Still, it hasn't been all work this weekend. My friend Chris who is also a ceramicist ( http://www.chrismurphy-ceramics.com/) has been over here for a few days to help me out with glazing etc, and on friday we drove over to Veules les Roses for the day.

This is a lovely town on the coast with the smallest river in France...just 1100 metres. It is famous for its watercress which you can see growing here.
Just before you come into the town, there is this house with two life size bears outside.

Chris being a bear himself couldn't resist checking them out. This house also has mosiac over all the planters outside, and all around the front door,


 What a lovely, cosy looking cottage, you think to yourself......but then you notice,
Spooky bear
this bear has got REAL teeth!  I kid you not.

Needing some excercise and making the most of the georgeous weather, H and I headed off for a cycle ride on sunday. It is bliss cycling around here, the roads are so quiet, and the french drivers so courteous to cyclists.
The views are.....interesting

Le Quesnay
and the houses splendid. Actually, I lived and worked in this Chateau a long time ago when I was but a young girl.

collecting Chicken of the woods
and on the way home, we found this great profusion of funghi which is delicious cooked in butter...dinner sorted!

Sunday 17 April 2011

30...Round and about in Longueville

This weekend I have been showing my work at a small exhibiton in the village. The private view was on friday night, and is a different affair from a PV at home. For a start no one gets a drink until some speeches have been made. This entails all the artists standing together, usually with the mayor or similar dignintary starting off proceedings, and then all the artists in turn talking about their work. It can take quite a while...and not even a glass of wine to hand! Although asked, I managed to avoid having to speak this time...what a terrifying thought, speaking french to a group of people I don't know. Still, it was all good fun, and I got to meet lots more locals who have seen me cycling around for years but didn't really know what I got up to.

Looking through Quince blossom to my studio
I heard them say on GQT last week that the blossom has been particulaly splendid this year and I have to agree. I can't remember a time when the spring looked so good as this year, perhaps partly because it was a long cold winter...or it seemed like that because of the early snow in november, but whatever, it does seem like a really lovely spring.


Hazel window in hedge

My friend Hamish comes out once or twice a year and sorts my hedges for me. Not being a person to to do anything conventionally, he makes little windows in the hedges to frame certain aspects of the house or garden.

Orchard in front garden
Many houses in France lay their front gardens to vegetables or fruit...I love this idea, and this is one of my favourites. It is on the route I cycle from Dieppe, and I think it looks just georgeous.


looking south down the Scie


looking north up the Scie

On the way to our house you have to pass over a little river. It is kept really tidy and clean down there, as most of rural Normandy seems to be, and is a great place for a picnic in the summer.

Hamish's houseboat
Last week I had a 'Warmshowers' cyclist staying with me in France. He is an American, touring through France and Britain on his bike. He came back to Brighton with me and I took him down to see my mates on the houseboats in Shoreham....well, you can't come all the way from Americay just to see the usual tourist sites eh?. At the moment I think he is wild camping somewhere in rural Wales, eating cold oatmeal and fish from cans. Hope you're keeping warm Ryan?!

Friday 8 April 2011

29...Hoddern Primary School Sculpture Garden

Today I officially opened the lovely sculpture garden (mentioned in the last blog) that has been created at Hoddern primary school. This has been a great project, and the garden is fantastic with living willow structures, a large sculpture created especially for the school by Anvil Ironworks, and these flowers made by the children.


































We had a proper ceremony and cut a ribbon, making it a real event for the children. I think they really enjoyed it and hopefully it will inspire some of them to continue to enjoy making in the future.


This was only able to happen because of their enthusiastic teacher Nicola, and a head teacher with a progressive outlook.


















It was great to see them happy and proud of their work.  Well done all!!

Find me now over at http://theceramicgardener.com

Sunday 3 April 2011

28...Ceramics and Education

 
Ceramics have been with us for thousands of years. As soon as the first person picked up a lump of clay and realised how pliable it was, it has been shaped and made into myriad forms. It is more versatile than any other medium....and the longest surviving. 

But the real magic of clay is the alchemy that happens when something is put into the kiln. It transforms from a handful of mud to an object that can be used daily or a beautiful piece of art.

In Britain we had a wonderful period when studio pottery thrived, through the 50's to the 90's, but since then ceramics in schools, colleges and Uni's has suffered from budget cuts and whole ceramic departments have vanished. So, last year it was great to be asked to do a workshop in a local primary school.
The art teacher of these children is a lovely, enthusiastic lady called Nicola. They have a small kiln in a cupboard at their school, and she was keen for the children to experience making and firing something themselves. The project focus was South African flowers and I had coincidentally been to SA just a couple of months before, so I had plenty of photos to show. The idea was for the children to design a flower, and then I would come in and help them make their design. All the flowers would then be put on metal rods, and displayed in the new garden created in the school grounds.  The workshops were hectic....the time alloted for art even at primary level is low, and we had 3 hours for 50 children to make a flower each. However, mad as it was, we managed it and the children were really excited, especially on the 2nd workshop where they were able to paint bright colours onto their flowers. We had just about 100% success rate on the flowers...amazingly, and poor Nicola has spent most of the winter glueing all 50 flowers onto metal rods. Anyway, next friday I will be officially opening the garden and I can't wait to see all the flowers together.

Further on down the line I have been corresponding with a lad from Northern Ireland called Colm who has been researching organic form in clay. This is obviously a school with a healthy ceramics department as he has produced a lovely piece of work based on the juxtupositon of a chestnut and a morel (wild mushroom)

 A gold star Colm!

















By the time you get to University the choice of degree courses that offer ceramics specifically is now confined to england and wales...scotland has lost all of theirs...and even then it is more likely that you will have to choose a 3D course and specialise in ceramics. This isn't necessarily a bad thing as you will get a more rounded education, but it does mean that tutor hours for throwing are exceedingly low, and it is a skill hard won, especially if you are trying to teach yourself. In my opinion it is definitly one of those 10,000 hours skills. So, this is why I offer places to work exerience students, it's great to be able to move them on really quickly after a few weeks of one to one tutition.....and if I'm lucky I get a lovely student like Jade to help me with my own work.

During the time that she was here she made some lovely bowls,

and after practicing her round forms,

made a couple of great teapots!



This week I had a new little sculpture finished...it's based on a chestnut rose hip. I'll be showing these with my other new sculptures in my Open House in May. http://www.fivewaysartists.com/

Chestnut Rose Hip
In the garden things are hotting up. I planted loads of seeds this weekend..most of the veg that will get me through to autumn. Already in the raised beds are cabbage, lettuce, strawberries and beetroot bought as plugs from the market. All my gardening knowledge is gleaned from books, Gardeners World and endless conversations with my buddy Jane. It's hard sometimes to know quite where to start with it all, especially when you're trying to keep a hectare in some sort of order...but when something you have read about works out well, it's so exciting! A couple of weeks ago I had a couple of Rhubarb leaves poking through, and an old chimney pot sitting around, so I thought I would have a go at forcing the Rhubarb. I popped the pot on top and put a lid with a large flint on top (saw Monty doing that) and lo and behold, literally a week later the Rhubarb had filled the pot and pushed the lid off,
The structure in the background is our pallet palace
Last autumn I invested in what seemed like a huge order of bulbs...in this space of course they didn't go very far, but I've been excited all winter in anticipation of them coming up.

And here is one of them looking just like a pair of pink frilly knickers!