Late autumn 2014 ceramics

Back to busy classes, three sessions per week this term. Below is a selection of work by Hilary Wise, Sam Bowhay, Mhorag Forbes and others.

Winter 2014 ceramics

The ceramics classes have always been busy, usually I have had to run a second class each week, however this Winter saw a marked drop in intake; possibly the doldrum (at best) state of the economy, coupled with depression over the fairly-unique flooding situation along the Thames and elsewhere. I post therefore only three pictures, two of Ana working on her bust in low-fire black clay based on a New Guinea 'Nimba' mask of the 20th Century, and Andrea with one of her small but sophisticated coil pots, in a high-fire black clay ready for drying and firing.

Some ceramics in early 2013

I must apologise for neglecting to update this blog - I can only plead overwork. Being on the senior side of retirement age has not meant a reduction in work or in the number of projects I am involved in, for which I am only partly grateful! Another problem is that my photo hosting site (Flickr) has chosen to make changes which I (and many others too I suspect) find difficult to adapt to.
Out of all the excellent work I have seen over the past year or two, I have chosen to show two pots by Ana, and a woven basket by Saho Mumakata, partly because these photos were recent, to hand, and attributed.

Autumn 2011 Student work.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.