My students' work

Autumn 2011 Student work.

2012-01-03T02:47:00.000-08:00

The Autumn jewellery class produced some nice etched work, together with some photopolymer plate / sintered silver. The yellowish etched items were in nickel silver, rolled, masked with nail varnish, then etched in ferric chloride / citric acid solution by Jenny Smit and Rebecca Gilbert. The white pieces are fine silver, the top-most one was a pressing of silver clay into a photopolymer mold made from a Greek freize design. The lower ones were silver clay pressed by Jess Winchester from commercial rubber molds.
Magda Brzezniak made the plain sterling band with a soldered section of copper tube, ready for setting a stone, in the right-hand photo.

Spring 2011 ceramics & jewellery work

2011-06-20T06:28:00.001-07:00

The ceramics class was full (it has been on a wave of popularity for some two years or more) whereas the jewellery classes were only sparsely attended (again, a trend of the past couple of years). Nonetheless some very interesting pieces were produced in both classes, pictures below.
The two heads are by Michael Storrs, in porcelain paper clay, as yet unfired. These are followed by an unfired buff earthenware / stoneware clay hemispherical pot with lid (it actually has three small peg-like feet below) by Clotilde Passalaqua, and a selection of fired tiles with slip-coloured relief design by Maggie Boyle.

Below we have a heavy hammer-finish copper bangle by Michelle Wong, then Anna Galica modelling her brass hammered bangle in our art room, followed by a close-up of the bangle. Finally there is a fine silver (PMC) flower form with ear wire and sapphire crystal by Magda Brzezniak.

Winter term 2010 - metal work

2010-03-22T04:07:00.001-07:00

The current high price of sterling silver grain meant that only PMC (fine silver) items were made this term, along with quite a lot of pewter. Below we have a series of words (and a couple of charms), made by Eleanor Rogers in soft wax, moulded in silicone rubber, cast in PMC then fired and polished. Next to it is a picture of an earlier stage, where the words were cast in coloured epoxy resin together with a PMC charm, and a stamped trinket. Then there is a picture of a very heavy-gauge copper bracelet, by Michelle Chan.

Winter term 2010 - ceramics

2010-03-18T06:33:00.000-07:00

I took nearly 50 photos of ceramic and metalwork made this term, so will have to severely edit them down for the purpose of this post. First there are two small unfired clay sculptures; one of Susanne Esperey-Clarke made by Emily Fussell, then the mean but none-too-lean ram by Mary Winchester (see more of her work and website details below). The third item is a bowl by Mathieu Doublet, with a handsome wax-resist design.

It was somewhat surprising that so many ceramic items were made this term, since the unusually long, damp, and cold winter meant that they took much longer to dry than usual. Below are three examples of the work of Marco Toro, an established artist and teacher.

Next we have three pots by Massimo Saltini; first a terracotta bowl covered with blue slip, scratched through in places to give a fluid diagonal design; another larger such bowl, with red slip, also scratched away in places; and finally the first bowl with blue glaze fired onto it (apparently applied on the green clay).

Uta Saatz made the next three items; a hexagonal bowl with a variety of textures and colours, two 'shell faces', and finally a small glazed animal form.

Next we have two bowls (the first is a square pot on spherical feet, and is a lot nicer than the photo suggests; the second has a blue-stained crackle in a yellow glaze) by Melodie Wong, and a ceramic plaque by Rochelle Scrivner.

Below we have a picture of the art room, with Elena Nemtseva finishing off a clay version of a Tetrapak carton before drying and firing.

Autumn term 2009 - silver items

2009-12-28T14:30:00.000-08:00

Below we have sterling silver strips by Alan Reynolds, all roller-textured, together with a PMC (fine silver) leaf with an added CZ. Then there is a sterling bracelet, roller-textured by rolling through the mill whilst bound with brass wire by Joanna Harris.

The bracelet in fact suffered damage subsequently on being worn; it snagged on clothing and split along one of the rolled indentations furthest from the open ends. This would probably be because most stress would be concentrated at this point, and because this particular indentation was very deep. Fortunately, it soldered extremely well to make an invisible and perfect repair, although only time will tell whether it will still be liable to damage.

Autumn term 2009 - bright ceramics

2009-12-28T14:04:00.000-08:00

The late autumn and winter season brought out some very colourful ceramics, some of which are shown below. The beads are by Cathy Mallay, and consist of glass glaze on top of ceramic-glazed hollow terracotta. Then follows a rather wonderful sampler of textures on a glazed tile, followed by two examples of work by Julia Didenko. The open-work bowl has delicate patterns etched into the glaze before firing, and the detail of the following plate shows an evocation of forest fruits.

Abstract flora and a polar bear

2009-09-20T11:35:00.000-07:00

The three pictures below are floral-themed ceramics by Chris Coggins from the Summer 2009 ceramics class.

Then below there is a very dynamic crimson glaze on a hemispherical bowl with free-form edges by Harriet Bartlett, and a polar bear and coil pot by Anusha Luchmun-Roy.

Mercat, silver droplets, and creative bending

2009-06-01T12:43:00.000-07:00

The Spring 2009 jewellery class most-interesting efforts were perhaps the 'silver droplet' rings by Joanna Harris, the folded sterling silver ring by Alan Reynolds, and the roller-printed copper bangle by Delores Clarke.

This folded ring was a considerable challenge to get a single tapered band of silver to bend until the smaller end could neatly fit into a pierced slot at the larger end, whilst simultaneously ending up with the correct size ring! It's a little unprofessional of me, showing the rings before they have been properly sanded and polished, but I thought I had better grab images while camera and ring were to hand.

The "mercat" above, by Segal Patel, was actually designed as a clock face (hence the visible spindle hole). Next follows two picture frames (one atop the other), also by Segal, and two views of a dynamic flower-form pot with a striking glaze by Samantha Board.

Finally, above are two plates and one small crackle-interior bowl by Tammie Quai.

PSAD revisited

2009-03-24T05:05:00.000-07:00

Another (5-week this time) stint at Putney School of Art, now in temporary premises at The Old Library, on Wandsworth West Hill while the home premises are refurbished. The room doing duty for sculpture from life is now smaller and with different light, but quite satisfactory. The pieces illustrated below are (unfired) interpretations of Matthew Oghene. The one on the left is by Reiko, made in terracotta-rich mixed body. The purplish colour is the unfortunate effect of posing it against a yellow background and letting the camera's 'auto' setting work out a rendition (i.e. I should have taken more care).

After wiring the sculpture in half down the middle then hollowing, Reiko and myself felt it was interesting in two halves as displayed and didn't need welding together again. The piece in the centre is by Sally Shillito, in this case the colour balance properly shows the terracotta of the source clay. The third picture, shot against the light in moody monochrome, is an early stage in sculpting Matthew by Amanda Marsh, and the last picture is Matthew in unfired terracotta by Renata Ward.
Meanwhile, the Winter 2009 Jewellery course had interesting pieces including the pewter mythological creature & skull by Michael Knight.

End of year, 2008

2009-02-16T04:26:00.000-08:00

Although a lot of student work has been done, I have very few photos to show for it, partly because my most-recent camera was out of commission for a while. There are two pictures of green wax carved, one for a large snow flake which was subsequently cast very successfully in pewter, and another for a series of arabesque shapes which were mostly carved in pewter with at least one being cast in silver. Unfortunately, I have no photos of the metal versions. And there is also a photo of a nickle-silver ring by Claudia Gonella, fabricated by rolling with a wire for texture, and soldered to show the reverse side. This was very successful.

A delayed tumble

2008-09-26T13:25:00.000-07:00

Pictured is a silicon-bronze chess piece cast by Jason Visser on my previous jewellery course, then a cast sterling silver ring. Although both were made in the August course, I only got round to tumble-polishing them when I got back from holiday, just in time for Jason to pick up on the new course where he left off. He then finished the enamelled pendent with the silver flower in the centre; the border of this was fretted from copper sheet then rivetted with fine silver wires. The last picture is another casting of the pig by Alan Reynolds, this time in silicon bronze on the lower parts and pewter on the upper. Not intentional; the initial bronze casting failed, the mould was repaired and the fill completed with pewter, with intriguing results.

Goodbye to Putney

2008-08-19T09:20:00.000-07:00

I have now finished a complete year of Fridays at Putney School of Art, teaching sculpture from life. Quite possibly I will be remembered most for three memorable models I managed to find - Helen, Matthew and Omarius. Below from the left is Omarius, then Matthew, by Elizabeth Font; Omarius by Donald Mead; Wendoline by Imogen le Marquand; a sphinx by Caroline Dashwood; a sculpture with gilded necklace by Merkhaba Mukergee; and a horse relief in resin bronze by Sue Kochalski.

Both head studies were completed in a single 3-hour session (with a 20-mins break for coffee). The sculpture of Wendoline was completed over a couple of weeks, whilst the sphinx was done substantially away from the studio with only occasional references to a model. The resin bronze started off as a green clay original. A mould was made in Tiranti paste silicone rubber, then cast (outdoors) in resin bronze with an inner core of resin iron. Subsequently it was patinated using acetic acid and salt (not pictured) to give an aged and corroded effect.

Work from late spring and early summer

2008-06-24T13:49:00.000-07:00

A great deal of student work has passed through my hands over the past couple of months; sculpture, pots and other ceramic forms, casts in resin bronze, jewellery in sterling silver, fine silver, silicon bronze and pewter, some with enamel. The works of Barry Denman and Jacqueline Watson are illustrated in the right-hand column.

The pendent (left) is fine silver, sawn from sheet (which incidentally was earlier prepared from sterling scrap by refining, casting and rolling), roller-textured and finished with files, sandpaper and finally a tumbler machine, by Halina Panopoulos. The chain is threaded through a sterling tube on the back of the pendent.

Since I have no better forum for her work, I have also illustrated Mary Winchester's latest horse, here seen (left) as unfired & fired stoneware clay. My involvement was mostly limited to advice over drying and firing. See the paragraph on her work below in older (previous) posts.

End of Spring term.

2008-03-05T08:57:00.000-08:00

Some of the memorable events of this term have included in particular the ingenuity of the ceramics students - it also seems that the course for next term will be fully booked already, and I am wondering if I should run an additional course.

The jewellery workshop classes chose to have some rings and pendents cast in silicon bronze, because I recently took a shipment of some reasonably cheap silicon bronze rod. This is in contrast to the increasing difficulty of getting my usual art bronze (a leaded tin bronze known as LG4). The item shown left is my small gas furnace for melting silver or bronzes; the burner is on the far left, the thin rod in the foreground is a small thermocouple and the woolly hat is a home-made ceramic fibre blanket 'lid'.

Left is a silicon bronze pendant made by Wendy Mitchell; next an etched sterling-silver oval pendant made by Kathryn Crooks; a silicon bronze ring by Anna Stevens; and finally a pewter pig made by Alan Reynolds (still with sprues and crucible attached). All except the etched pendant were made originally in wax and cast with the lost wax process.

Casting day looms!

2008-02-21T02:03:00.000-08:00

It is now nearly the end of spring term, and metal casting is scheduled for next week on Monday and Wednesday evening. Silicon bronze, silver and pewter are the three metals chosen.
But before then it is necessary to burn the waxes out from their entombment in ceramic shell, which I hope to do in a couple of days time at our new workshop. This new location was not chosen with the needs of metal casting in mind, so I am somewhat nervous about burning out about twenty wax shells in the open in a new (and predominantly residential!) neighbourhood.
(As it happened, I found the burning-out to be quite straightforward, with the advantage that I was not restricted to week-ends as formerly).

Patination of silver

2008-01-09T04:44:00.000-08:00

Courses start next week, and the ceramics and jewellery ones are full or nearly so already. I am looking forward to having new students and new work to publish. Alan Reynolds, who has more work illustrated below, has recently sent me a picture of the patinated silver necklace he made at the end of the previous term.

The necklace consists of ten domed and patinated silver discs alternating with bought glass beads (some black, some white) and utilising bought sterling chain and findings. The matching earrings use a single disc each. The patination is well sealed, otherwise it could leave unwanted marks on light clothing.

As you can see, Alan understands the importance of presentation! The white satin-lined case makes an excellent contrasting display setting.

The silver was patinated by suspending the discs for about 30 minutes in a sealed container with some ammonium polysulphide solution in the bottom. This liquid emits fumes of hydrogen sulphide, which demands good ventilation to avoid health problems. It is also quite caustic since it contains free alkali, so gloves and goggles are also necessary. The result should be that the silver turns dark and somewhat iridescent (although the rainbow colours are greatly reduced on sealing). It is washed, dried, then sealed with a conservation-grade hard wax.

Putney School of Art & Design

2007-12-29T12:42:00.000-08:00

This school, usually abbreviated to PSAD, has been going for over a hundred years, and is found behind Putney High Street. They don’t at the time of writing have their own website, but are hosted on a page provided by Wandsworth Council.
I have been teaching Sculpture from Life there since February 2005 . The students are drawn from the general public, and some have been attending for some seasons, in some cases over several years, booking their slots well in advance. Their interest in the school and their practice of sculpture is quite refreshing. Below is work done by Annie Barclay (first two) and Margaret Maitland (next two).

In October 2006 I ran a one-week course on silversmithing, and am hopeful that there may be further future courses. Below are examples of some of the work produced on that course.

Below we have work from Janet Hill, Sally Shillito, Sue Kochalski (two pictures), Leslie Watts and Alison Conwick.
The last photo, with Alison, is the only record of a quick burst of creative effort, giving supple and accurate modelling in very limited time, since the piece was consigned to the clay bin after being photographed.

Experience for the asking...

2007-12-28T15:18:00.000-08:00

I am pleased to be able to put the spotlight on Mary Winchester. See her web page here. I am as much one of her students as she ever was of mine, although she did attend a bronze casting class I gave some years ago, maybe 1998. Now retired from teaching, her incisive and capable mind has mastered many things over the years, not least sculpture and painting. The two pictures on the left illustrate a winged horse figure, in clay before firing; and the next was a commission for a 'dog portrait', again before firing and seen in situ in the kiln. The fourth is of a cow's head in miniature, cast in bronze, and the last is "kneeling bull", work in progress (subsequently fired).
However I wouldn't like to give the impression that her art work is restricted to animal motifs - her series of turbanned Arab heads, among many other types of work, have been very popular.
I have always found Mary's experienced views on art and aesthetics very useful to my own work; so hopefully the allotment where I imagine she wields spade and scythe will not pre-empt all her time.

John Lewis Partnership Ceramics

2007-12-20T04:15:00.000-08:00

The John Lewis Partnership has been financing staff to go on art courses for over seven decades, but sadly this sponsorship is due to finish at the end of 2007. For the past six years, I have been priviliged to run a ceramics class for this group, and a very small sample of their work is illustrated here.

This handsome head (the one being held that is) I am told is a 'woodwose' (Anglo-Saxon wudowosa, Wikipedia), a kind of hairy 'wild man of the woods'. It has subsequently been fired and glazed, and looks quite arresting. It was made by Barry Denman (holding it) who also made the striking fish bowl.
Bridget Pavitt had a series of specialities, starting I think with exotic fungi, travelling through bowls and planters, and ending with very life-like sinuous fish which are now installed in a stream at her home.
The lazy group of terracotta seals was made by Alan Reynolds, shown before firing and glazing. And the next picture features a panda, ready for firing in the kiln, made by this very prolific artist.
Pictured are two sets of Spanish-Columbian or Aztec style silver crosses, both originally carved by Alan in hard wax, then cast in sterling silver.
Finally we have Jan Andrews, an absolute whiz at artistry, holding one of her deeply-fissured and oxide-stained pots.

Skulls galore

2007-12-19T03:29:00.000-08:00

A series of small human skulls were carved in hard green wax by Wolf Winter. They were cast in sterling silver in two or three sessions after investing with the usual ceramic shell binder (see tutor's site) - the reason for the multiple sessions was that some didn't cast well.

On a side note, another student took a very-well carved wax skull to a casting place in Hatton Garden, and was later given in return a badly-damaged result in silver. He was rather annoyed and felt he was treated in a very off-hand way - I have not mentioned the name of the company since I am uncertain of the liability issues involved. However, it does perhaps highlight the fact that casting is more of an art than science, and never guarantees perfect results all the time.

Anyway, the skulls were sanded with a sanding stick before polishing with metal polish, well cleaned in soap and water, then threaded with jump rings and a lobster-claw to give a rather heavy but effective bracelet.

Doctor, ceramicist, artist,,,

2007-12-18T12:57:00.000-08:00

This posting is my tribute to the talents of Carl Chang, a GP who attended my Open Studio sessions some ten years or more ago. He is a very talented individual, who runs a large and thriving practice in Enfield, but has 'other lives' as an artist. I wonder if I can persuade him to send me photos of the dark and disturbing Chinese funereal pots he made at the time of the Open Studio classes.

Fortunately for me and the world at large his mood lightened after a couple of years, and he developed his own œuvre, a little of which is illustrated here. One of his particular skills (apart from general flair on the wheel) is that of free-hand decoration round the rim of his bowls, whether painted or fretted. Carl has also spent a considerable amount of effort on portrait painting in oils, but I don't have any photos.

Three necklaces

2007-11-30T15:10:00.000-08:00

A trio of very appealing necklaces were made by Alan Reynolds. The first used some of the fine silver recovered from scrap (see tutor's site) was melted and cast into a couple of ingots; these were then rolled into sheet. Alan rolled some of this sheet down to about 1mm in thickness, with a layer of copper mesh between the fine silver and the rollers.

This imprinted a mesh pattern. Then he hammered out a series of discs from this textured sheet, in sizes ranging from about 5mm - 18mm. Each disc was domed by hammering carefully into the appropriate depression in a doming block, and then came the tedious bit - drilling a 1.8mm hole in each dome. Finally the domes were arranged onto a carefully-chosen sterling chain with jump rings. Two of the domes were used as ear rings. Unfortunately the photo is a little out-of-focus, partly the problem of coping with the contrast between the black velvet of the presentation case, and the fine silver - sorry Alan!
The second necklace was made from a collection of American nickels he had brought back from the States; we were uncertain of the composition but felt they may have been zinc-rich. At any event, they didn't behave well under a jeweller's torch! They were domed in a doming block then polished in a rotary tumbler - in many instances this revealed a coppery tint round the periphery. Finally they were centrally drilled then strung back-to-back in pairs on a chain.
The last necklace made use of some bought Pozzuoli volcanic spheres, and some ceramic beads made by Alan; after firing to biscuit, they were glazed with matte black with a central portion of mirror-black 'pewter' glaze. The volcanic rock spheres (which are very light due to the amount of air in the structure) were threaded on a chain with alternating ceramic beads, using jump rings as spacers.

PMC - Precious metal clay

2007-11-30T06:31:00.000-08:00

PMC is the name given to a product originally patented, marketed and named by Matsubishi Industries, consisting of fine pure silver powder obtained by reclamation of silver from the photographic industry. The powder is mixed with an organic binder and water, and sold as a kind of grey putty.

It can be shaped by most of the same processes as any other plastic medium. After drying, it is then made permanent by 'sintering'; in practice, this means baking it at a dull red heat for some time (the time depends on the grade of PMC and can be as short as a few minutes or as long as an hour or so). The leaf illustrated here was made by Sarah Cohen, (I think) a post-doctoral bio-chem lab worker; seen here modelling it as a pendant. This low-tech method of sintering produces fine silver which is light and strong enough for jewellery, but cannot compete with the strength of fabricated silver.

Moonlighting with a purpose

2007-11-30T06:27:00.000-08:00

The picture is of a ring made by Abby Bentinck. She was attending the class with a friend, Tamsin Silvey; both were studying for their BA History of Art at university, and temporarily working at Earls Court over the summer period. During this time they attended one of my evening jewellery classes, and Abby came up with what seemed to be a nice but fairly unremarkable carved wax. However on casting into silver and polishing, it really turned from duckling into swan.

Variation on a theme...

2007-11-30T06:16:00.001-08:00

The picture on the left is of a sterling silver pendant designed and made by Beth Simpson. She made a variety of things including the sterling silver dragonfly, centre. However she fell out of love with the pendant and it hung around in the studio for a couple of years. In a mood of mischief, I rolled it much flatter, then used it as an exercise in setting 4mm cubic zirconia, as on the right.

Electro-etching and other texturing

2007-11-29T10:34:00.000-08:00

The picture in the middle is of a copper pendant, formed and hammer-textured, by Dr Sian Renfrey. She also has some recent work involving electro-etching of a sandwich of copper and silver sheet. An early example is shown on the left, also as a pendant. The picture on the right is a wedding ring in white gold with a leaf-texture pattern rolled into it, neatly soldered along a diagonal edge and with a legend stamped on the inside, by Merrin Jensen.