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!
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,
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/
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| Chestnut Rose Hip |
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| The structure in the background is our pallet palace |
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