54...Getting ready for the autumn shows

This is the beginning of a busy autumn period now with 3 big shows on the horizon. I have to be thinking up new designs all the time so that my displays look fresh..and because some people come to most of my shows and want to see new work. Sometimes I have ideas bumping up against each other in my head, usually as I work on something else and other times my mind is a blank and I have to go out with the camera or reluctantly get out the sketch book (I'm a terrible drawer and can only really work well with charcoal). This week I started a new sculpture that I have been turning over in my mind for a month or two.

Like much of my other work this design relies on an understanding of the Fibonnaci sequence. This one was coloured as I went in a two tone of dark and lime green, it will be finished with a translucent blue glaze. I was pleased with the finished form (I'm not always!) and decided to make a collection of these, but playing around with colours.

Starting blue seedcase

So today Megan (my work exp student) and I started on a blue one. The internal form is thrown a couple of days in advance. We have to have a little production line going as each sculpture uses hundreds of little components that have to go up and down in size, so we sit together listening to Radio 4 and get stuck into a day of close work and building up of form.

By lunchtime after an intensive morning we are halfway there,

and by tea time it is assembled. Now it has to sit and dry for several weeks before it can be biscuit fired and glazed. Next week I want to make another one in a third colour, but I haven't decided which just yet.

Trombonchino

Out in the garden my monster squashes are inching their way towards the house. This variety are Trombonchino's and they are becoming a favourite. They can grow up to a metre long, and are both a summer and winter squash. I have been baking them in slices all week with olive oil and rosemary....delish!