Tag: Ceramic

Pottery closure

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There was a pottery in Burslem where they let you paint your own designs.

Unfortunately like many other ceramic factories it has closed. The cost of gas and electricity means that a once thriving local industry is dwindling. Stafford pottery was one of the latest victims.

There are still excellent potteries that create designs and pieces of art for the 21st Century. Portmeirion, Emma Bridgewater, Wedgwood are a few that continues to produce beautiful work. It’s hard to say whether they will still be producing ceramics in a few years time. We also have a company called Lucideon which undertakes research and development of ceramics for such things as electrical insulators, non slip tiles and other diverse uses.

Hopefully this city of potters will continue to survive well into the future.

Finally in progress

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I started this at art group last November and I hadn’t touched it till today’s art group. That’s about 2 months. I feel guilty that it’s taking so long but with illness and one thing and another it’s taken me this long to get going again. It’s a work in progress and I want to try and get a better feeling of three dimensions to the teapot.

I working the pattern out as I go along and I need to take into account the lighting aswell. It’s been four hours and I didn’t want to stop, but the session only lasts till 2.30pm

BCB piece

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Another from my photos of the BCB, British ceramic biennial that was held in Stoke on Trent a few weeks ago.

Some pieces were more beautiful than others, some seemed to have more significance. Some like this seem playful. A piece that has been twiddled and twisted, creating a root like structure but with almost a trumpet bell on the end of it.

Simply placed on a surface in front if a window, the object casts interesting shadows.

I don’t know what I think of it, but it was worth documenting.

Where are our frogs?

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Image from BCB exhibition

We were in the garden today topping off the new bamboo fence with chicken wire to extend the height. As we stood next to the old pond I wondered if the frogs have snuggled down in the mud for winter? We need to replace the liner, but it’s going to be too cold for a few months. Perhaps we should wait until after frogspawn season.

Frogs seem to have controlled the slug population, we have Hostas happily growing next to the pond, and the leaves look healthy. Now we’ve got on top of the fencing issue I feel a little safer.

Although a man did walk along the alleyway today as we were working, hubby told him to go away in no uncertain terms!

More BCB ceramics

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One of the things to do at the British Ceramic biennial was to have fun making clay tiles that will grow in a wildflower meadow next spring. We made unfired tiles made to look a bit like Minton floor tiles. The clays were chosen to be different acidities so that they suited wild flower seeds. The clay was mixed with hay and pushed into moulds, then we had to make holes and push the seeds into them. Finally we pressed a shape into the top of the tile and fill the resultant spaces with different coloured slips.

Weighed

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Plant pots on scales

In the washroom at Spode studios site. A series of plants and objects are clinging to life on the old brick windowsills. I like this in particular. The two ceramic pots just look right sitting on top of the weighing scales. The frosted glass sets it off. It’s OK in the summer but in the winter it’s freezing. The plants still survive though.

Canal boat

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Photo taken outside Etruria Industrial museum. This is not a colourful tourist boat. Painted with castles and roses. But careful lines have been painted on it to delineate it’s shape. I think its part of the industrial museum exhibit? Perhaps it was used in the past to transport the flint and bone that had been ground into fine powder at the Jessie Shirley flint mill. This is the main part of the industrial museum. A stationery steam engine called Princess was used to provide power to do the grinding. The boat or barge might have transported the powder to the local potteries to add to clay and produce fine bone China pottery. So much history in this city of ours.

Flower head

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Pottery head I made over twenty years ago. It’s planted up with straggly snapdragons this year but this photo from two years ago looks better. I really need to get out in the garden but I don’t seem to have the strength to sort things out at the moment. I’m fed up and I know gardening would help but the heat over the lost few days has made me really weary. It’s been close to 30°C. At least my hubby has been watering plants. Today? We are expecting heavy rain showers, so the plants will get a little water.