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

Ceramic Art London

Hmm so I was in London last weekend for Ceramic Art London at the Royal College of Art, which is always worth a visit as they have established names alongside newer emerging talent, and I always come home filled with inspiration and a renewed sense of enthusiasm and can't wait to get stuck back into clay again.  I took some photographs, which I don't think I was supposed to do so it probably makes me a bad person, but I wanted to share some of the highlights for me with you :)

There were lots of animals this year, however I especially love Stephanie Quayle's lifesize ones, which are sculpted from heavily grogged clay and bursting with animal quirkiness:

I also love Susan O'Byrne's patterned wildlife, which are made via a painstaking process of layers of porcelain clay stretched over a wire frame.  I also like the fact that she is also Scottish, so perhaps I am naturally biased ;)

Katharine Morling had some of her large sculptures on display too, and I love the narrative aspect of her work and the fact that the figures could have been drawn on paper, except they are lifesize and 3D:

Other highlights for me included wondrously slapdash colourful works by Elke Sada and Barry Stedman, and these beautiful vessels by Clare Conrad which evoke the kind of peeling paint and decaying surfaces I love:

Mette Maya Gregersen's work has a lovely fluid flow and movement to it, and is achieved by burning out wooden structures:

There were also gorgeous smoky vessels from the likes of Jack Docherty, Antonia Salmon and Joanna Still, stunning jewellery from Luca Tripaldi and a whole host of other wonderful works by artists too numerous to mention.  However, I would thoroughly recommend a visit if you ever get the chance.  I only went for one day this year, however I did manage to catch a talk by Adam Buick where he talked about a film he had made where he stuck one of his unfired moon jars on top of a hillside in Wales and photographed it every 33 seconds for 10 days.  The pot slowly weathered away under the onslaught of the elements, and the resulting film is quite beautiful.  Entitled Earth to Earth, here is a link to a clip of it:

Adam Buick Earth to Earth

Anyhoo thank you for reading this, and thank you to all the artists who were exhibiting for their inspirational work.  Keep it coming ;)

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!  ;)