Axeheads and Driftwood

Cor well I am limping to the end of this year...only one and a half weeks to go before assessments and I still have quite a few sculptures to make when the pieces come out of the kiln eek!  Still, I am really going to miss this college as it has been an amazing time, and I just hope I can find a way to keep making after I finish.

I thought I would share some of the pieces which will be going into the final exhibition ( I hope!)  There is still more to come but these are a few that are actually finished ahem...;)

I became somewhat fascinated by axeheads last term.  There is something lovely about their swooping shapes and once saggar-fired they look lovely with the silver birch.

This term took me on a hunt for more seasoned wood and I ended up on the beach hunting for driftwood.  I found some lovely pieces of wood and an old washed up frame, so I decided to try and do something with them.

A friend of mine also hauled these two pieces off the beach for me...they are massive and were very wet and soft, but I have scooped them out and dried them off and sanded them, so hopefully will be able to use them for something ;)

All the plastic I found on the beach will be made into wall pieces with the ceramic discs, and I have made hanging discs with ceramic versions of the plastic to highlight their colours.

And I made a couple more with some driftwood and shells...

And a dish, for good measure ;)

Anyhoo, hopefully it will all come together in the end and not look like a complete dog's dinner...there could well be more culling to come before the final cut, but I've enjoyed the journey I've been on this year and there are elements of the work here which I would like to expand upon in the future.

If any of you are in Cork and would be interested in coming to the exhibition, feel free, as it is free and there will also be free booze available ;) It is on the 7th June in the Crawford College of Art, and more information can be found here...

http://www.crawfordexhibitions.com/liminal2013/index.html

It'll be great craic ;)

Plastic Soup

Hmm so I have been woefully neglecting this blog lately as have been bogged down with thesis, work and college stuff and sometimes it doesn't seem to matter how fast you go you never seem to be able to catch up.  However, I thought I could share some of the stuff I've been working on lately with you.  I have been indulging in a spot of beachcombing, again, recently and I have been horrified by the amount of plastic to be found.  The beaches in East Cork are covered in the stuff.  The plastic lies like bright pops of colour amongst the seaweed, bottles, old ropes and fishing nets that also litter our beaches.  They are sea-worn and very smooth, and strangely beautiful even though the presence of it in such large amounts is extremely disturbing.

Whilst googling the possible causes of all this plastic, I came across this guy Jurga Rakau, who has recently spent six months photographing plastic on Irish beaches that apparantly originates from all the immense masses of crap floating around our oceans. (Source)

I have started making pieces which I hope will bring some attention to how shocking the existence of all this plastic is.  They are not finished yet, but I think I am going to suspend some of them in a Calderesque manner, and some I will make into wall pieces.  In the meantime, every time I go to the beach now I take a big sack which I stuff with as much plastic and faded old bleach bottles as I can, and I take them home and recycle them.  It's not much, but it feels like a start ;)

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.

(source)

(source)

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!  ;)