Ship's horns

Da de dum so continuing with my obsession of all things mariner, I wanted to try and make some ship's horns out of clay.  This proved to be quite difficult, however, so they became a kind of hotch potch of clay, metal and plaster, with some spray paint thrown in for good measure ;) Originally I wanted them to speak,  maybe bellowing out sea shanties in a drunk-on-rum kind of way, but I didn't want any technology to be visible so I ended up abandoning the idea.  I took some abstract pictures of the Cork Docklands, however, and painstakingly collaged them with lasertran (not an ideal task for a person, such as myself, not too well-versed in the art of patience ;0)

This was the result, with one guy saying they reminded him of his mother-in-law and another saying they were straight out of telly tubby land ;)

However, they ended up in our third year show and on the opening night I found these guys with their ears pressed up against them, and when I asked them what they were doing they said they could hear the sea in them, which was kind of cool ;)

Anyway, since then one of them has unfortunately succumbed to a mysterious attack from an unknown source, however I suspect the culprit was my mad animal, Sputnik.  Here is he pretending to look innocent, but we all know he's not ;)

So I guess it's good to know that ceramics isn't just about plates and cups and ashtrays...clay can be whatever you want it to be, which is the fun part ;)  Thank you for reading this, until next time!  ;)

Buoys

I live near the Cork Docklands and I love watching the huge ships   go past my bedroom window on their way in and out of the port.  I have taken probably thousands of photographs of the Docklands, partly because the area is prime real estate and all the old warehouses and grain stores are in danger of being demolished to make way for riverside apartments and swanky hotels, but also because there is just so much cool stuff there. There is a wealth   of inspiration for textures, colours and shapes to be found.  For a start, there is all this mad machinery.  I am always more interested in a machine if I can't immediately guess what it's for...

There is also an abundance of rotting paint, rust and graffiti which I am also always drawn to...

However, what I really love about the Docklands is the atmosphere, especially as the light changes in the evenings, and this is what I tried to convey in my ceramics.

I was also inspired by Betty Blandino's gorgeous textured vessels, and the dreamy quality of Adam Buick's moon jars.

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I started making buoys of various sizes and using different coloured clays in an attempt to capture the haunting feeling and the changing moods of the Docklands.  Some of these were glazed, some saggar-fired in a raku kiln, some smoke-fired in a beer barrel which had had the top cut off ;):

Some of them definitely proved more successful than others, however ceramics are always a case of trial and error, I think ;)Anyhoo, if you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me.  Thank you!  ;)

Standing Stones

I was born on an island called Arran on the West Coast of Scotland, which is a completely wild place, with nothing much there apart from sea, mountains, deer and sheep. And seals, of course.  Love seals ;)

There is a place called King's Caves on the North side of the island, which is a group of caves hidden along the shoreline.  It's where Robert the Bruce is said to have met the spider, although there are lots of caves in Scotland where he is said to have met the spider.  Maybe he just met a lot of spiders.  Anyway, there is certainly enough room to hide a few horses in these caves.  Inside the caves, mixed in with all the graffiti, are some actual ancient cave paintings which you can see if you bring a torch, which is quite exciting.  What I really love about this place, however, is that some local guy comes down and builds these stone towers all over the shoreline outside the caves (probably, admittedly, because there's not much else to do...)

Arran is a great mecca for geologists, and there are all types of rocks here, from great sculptural sea-whipped sandstone formations to hard granite.

Arran is also littered with Pagan worshipping sites, with fairy dells and standing stones all over the place.  The most famous of these are the great standing stones on Machrie Moor, which are located in a great bleak valley surrounded by mountains.  Depending on the weather and the time of day, they can either feel extremely foreboding and ominous or really sun-warmed and friendly, but it is always apparent how ancient they are, and I have long been fascinated by them.

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Ireland, of course, has lots of standing stones too, and here in Cork we have the Ogham Stones, which are housed in the University College Cork. Stones like these were found all over the coast line of Ireland, as well as in Scotland, Wales and Cornwall.  The Irish ones were inscribed in ancient primitive Irish, usually with people's names and the tribes they belonged to.  They are kind of like an ancient form of Who's Who. 

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I started making my own ceramic versions of standing stones, scored and textured like the Ogham stones and vertically jagged like the Arran ones.  I cut them into pieces and fired the pieces separately, then reassembled them so they were not all one colour.  They were saggar-fired in a raku kiln and mounted on slate.

I'm hoping they give off a bit of the brooding presence of the Machrie Moor standing stones. Spooky...;)

Beach Combing Rambles

Hmm well I started this blog in order to share my love of all things earthy.  I'm in the final year of a ceramics degree at the Crawford School of Art in Cork, Ireland, and I'd like to be able to share some of the things which inspire me, and hopefully be inspired. I will also no doubt go off on a complete tangent at times as am quite prone to pointless ramblings, but hey ho ;)  I'm completely new to blogging, so will see how it goes, but I think it will be fun ;)

Recently I've been doing a lot of beach combing (which is where I met this lovely horse)...it's amazing what you can find washed up on the beach. Quite baffling too...how do giant tyres get there?? However I found some lovely pieces of driftwood, which I took home and washed, dried and sanded, and then finished off with beeswax.  They look lovely...can get gorgeous colours in driftwood, but not sure what I will do with them yet!If I had the power of ten men and maybe access to a shire horse I could have hauled this home, but I don't, so I couldn't ha ;)

It does look a bit like a person who's been on the sauce and toppled over, but it did have some lovely speckly patterns in it:

I also picked up some stones, which I think might be a little bit illegal but nevermind ;)  I'm a little bit addicted to stones...especially really smooth, sea-polished ones because they feel really comforting in your hand, and ones with mad shapes and stripes.  

I decided to make some ceramic versions from a mould of a stone. They were made from porcelain and sanded until they were very smooth.

These ones were covered in slip and then scratched through before being fired.

These ones were saggar-fired in aluminium in a gas kiln, with seaweed, sawdust, copper wire, steel wool, salt and copper carbonate. I love the way the fire plays over the surface to give these effects.  

Anyhoo, that's it for now as am feeling the need for caffeine.  Hope you've enjoyed reading this, and any comments, discussions or suggestions are most welcome ;)