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 head was made in the sculpture from life class by Sam Knight over several Thursday evening sessions using a life model. The piece seems to have a a sense of meditative spirituality.
This 15" high terracotta sculpture was done by Patrick McFadden over several Thursday evening sessions using a life model. A professional carpenter, he has an expert eye for proportions, and all the patience and attention to detail that figurative sculpture demands.
The illustrated leaves were fairly chunky items carved from nearly leather-hard clay by Catriona Wright. The veins on one were carved in intaglio whereas on the other they were moulded in relief, using D-section extruded clay.
After glazing they were rather more impressive than in my photos, and suggested several avenues for exploration of the theme; for example, embedding a series of them (perhaps on a smaller scale) as a mosaic in a sheet of clay.
This is a jewellery design course under way in our art room, and if nothing else, serves to show that I have no good photos of the place in which I have spent so many years!
The second picture is of the small furnace in use, with the larger dome replaced with a smaller fibre 'hat' for casting smaller items.
The maker here, Damien Mazzone, was trained as a mechanical engineer and worked for Ford's of Dagenham as a designer. When I next ran into him a year or two later,
he had become a graphics designer instead, leading me to feel that it was another example perhaps of the migration away from craft and trade environments to office jobs. Both of the pictured items were made in wax first, then cast into sterling silver. The anvil measures about 2.5" long, and the chain perhaps 3".
The two dark metallic-looking bowls were made by Melissa, a Thai woman who worked for the John Lewis Partnership, a couple of years ago. Both have been glazed with a pewter glaze, but additions of clear glaze and oxides have helped to transform them. 
I also have John to thank for a series of photos of the ceramic shell process, taken on one of my courses.
After she was satisfied with the general design of the elephant, she attached it to a wax crucible (the pink upside-down bowl shape), then covered it with ceramic shell (a fire-proof coating).
Finally the wax was burnt out, and molten pewter poured in. After being allowed to set and cool down, the shell was broken apart to remove a nice shiny silver creature! Who's name is pink! Strangely, the maker claimed to have 'no making skills whatsoever'.
The critically delicate framework left behind was fired, then coated with pewter glaze and fired again.
Ben's profession as a psychoanalyst would not necessarily have led you to expect the precision skills he displayed when making various items in the silversmithing class he attended; but he told me his surname pointed to a family tree of people accustomed to using their hands and tools.
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