Facebook Page

Well I have finally got round to making a Facebook page hallelujah! Not quite sure how I'm supposed to link it to this blog...there are probably far more professional ways of doing this! But if you fancy liking it then it would be much appreciated ;)

Tinderbox Ceramics Facebook Page

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!  ;)

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 ;)