Today I found myself looking through my old university work looking for inspiration for working in Slip ware which is something I have been looking to work at doing differently, and I still have so many questions as it isn't really a way I have worked much, but I am saving all that for Part 2.
Part One is about where my Stoneware Pottery Comes from, this isn't all my workings just a small part from my University days and includes drawings, mindmaps and Mood Boards. Yes it is going to be full of words and pictures.
Step One - Mind Map
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| Mind Map on Food |
I always start by just getting rid of the words from my head and organizing them on paper so I can stop worrying about them, words can be a burden but also help you focus before the project starts. I had several mind-maps all exploring different aspects of what I was interested in. The Project I set myself was "English Stoneware for English Food" so I started looking at what we ate here in the UK, and how we ate it.
Step Two - Mood Boards
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| Sketchbook Mood Boards on Bread |
From the Mind Map I took a section I am actually interested in such as bread and tried to find what it was I liked about bread, I had previously done a project which was "thrown and altered" and I called that work "Torn Apart" I ripped apart bowls to make dipping vessels for bread, I didn't want to take the project any further and the images were rescued from mood boards of that project. So as this was a dead end I decided to carry on.
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| Mood Boards looking at Rustic Food and One Pot Cooking |
So I looked at rustic food and one pot cooking and decided I was going to made sturdy, heavy duty, honest pots (not that I had a choice on honestly my skill levels just weren't there).
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| Mood Boards looking at a Colour Palette |
Looking at Colours rather than forms in this mood board, I knew from the start I didn't want something that was stark white or 1970s brown as it were (though saying this I now have some 'brown' pots I love) but I still wanted something earthy that would be broken up with another colour which ended up being blue.
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| Looking at puddings, seascapes and patterns. |
Just a quick two mood boards on the sea as my life as a youngest revolved around the sea and puddings because a have a sort spot for them and wanted to create something that would look good on them. The Patterns were my initial development work on trying to find something I could incise into pottery or decorate with slips or oxides.
Step Three - Develop Forms
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| Development Sketches for Jugs and Teapots |
Despite wanting to throw I seemed to have an insistence to design not what I could make but shapes I found interesting.
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| Development Sketches for Bowls and Vases/Vessels |
Once again bowls designed with the purpose of not having a straight rim, I even tried making the bowl forms but it never went well.
Step Four - Surface Pattern
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| Developing a Brushwork Language - Quink and candle |
I have sheets and sheets of these sheets and even had a roll of paper that I worked on that was metre after metre and had various ink colours on too, at one point I wanted to get it printed into a wrapping paper to wrap my work in, I wrapped my work in some of it and other parts ran when it got wet in the rain going to a show. I was developing brush strokes and the line quality I was aiming for.
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| Rough Layout for dinner service |
This was a sheet showing an example of what a dinner service could be like with a plate, bowl, side plate and cup (I didn't put a handle on because I wasn't happy with the ones I kept trying to draw).
Step Five - Production and Redevelopment.
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| Platter based on the Brushwork, hake and bamboo brushes |
There is something I always liked about this platter, it was one the decoration worked well on, on a lot and the smaller forms it was just too cramped, these sorts of brush strokes need space, and don't work too well on the outside of cups. So I spoke to my tutor and I decided to simplify the pattern
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| Simplifying the Pattern |
So the pattern became a broad swipe with a hake brush which works well on the small forms, but doesn't work well on the platters as I don't have an 8inch hake brush. It is something I never resolved.
Step Six - Reality
Despite being a Pottery student for 4 years at the point of graduation, I still
didn't have a big knowledge of pottery and potters and it was only after
meeting Kevin and Jack that I realised I didn't know anything or anyone
in the pottery world. So it was on leaving university and actually
gained a love and understanding of pottery and other potters. Hence the
reason there is no real pottery mood board in the above pieces, with "I am inspired by..."
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| How the Pattern works on Oxidation Pieces. with two overlapping brush strokes. |
When I left University I bought my own kiln, but due to costs, convenience and trying to run a business six days a week, I got a small plug in electric kiln. This kiln suited being able to fill a kiln quickly and very full when I have lessons, but still too small to work at any sort of production and by the time I finished at the shop I could make enough work in a day to fill it and could make pieces that wouldn't fit inside its 30cm by 30cm diameter.
- I also made the mistake of buying in glazes, which I don't do for my standard ware any more.
- I am thinking of reducing the number of items in the standard ware and try and share some kiln space and do some reduction firings on some stacking bowls.
- Stop doing tea bowls unless someone orders a sizeable amount.
- Redesigning the Bowls so they are slightly more pleasing and more like the one I made for my wife that I found buried in my kitchen
Coming soon:
Part 2 - Developing an Earthenware Range
