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Tag: Pottery
Backstamp
If you turn over a cup,
a mug,
a teapot
a jug?
If you look under your plate.
you may find a mark
light or dark.
Pottery thrown
Or molded?
An indented word
or a print of a symbol
so whatever you think,
you can see
who made your sink
your teacup
on the table
underneath?
A label.
A backstamp
to tell you who
made it.
Cupboard, USK S-O-T challenge day 6.
DAY 6 in the new Urban sketchers Stoke-on-Trent challenge. I used gold glitter and purple pen to cheers this up. I should have let the glitter paint dry. It clogged up my 0.5 ink pen. I used permanent black and purple pens to draw and add shade…. Noticed I’ve got a lot of egg cups and extra mugs tucked away in there.
“Cupboard” isn’t the most inspiring subject, so instead of drawing cans I decided to draw crockery, pots, glasses and egg cups.
X
Short walk along the canal and Westport lake.
Long title…
We went for a walk along the Trent and Mersey canal, from the road up to Trubshaw Cross at Longport, Stoke-on-Trent, along the towpath, to the lakes at Westport. I was not at my best so we only walked round the small lake, then back along to our starting point.
The day was blustery, but I could feel some warmth from the sun. The old bottle oven round the back of Price and Kensington (facade allowed to crumble so much the council had to demolish part of it). It was sad to see all the rubbish and wood stacked up on the yard waiting to be burnt. The owners regularly light fires, not small ones, and cause a nuisance with smoke. I worry that the buildings may be irreversibly damaged by this behaviour. As you walk along the canal towpath the image improves, although there are places that are derelict and that made me wonder what would happen if the facade of a building were to fall into the canal.
We found the entry to Westport lake easily enough. We popped into the cafe to get some duck food, than a nice stroll round the lake. Stopping to chat with a photographer who had a really long lens to take pictures of the birds on the lake.
I need more exercise and this helped!
Jug photo
I was visiting the Waiting room gallery today to take in my two new paintings. I saw this jug (is it sprig molded?)
It looked classical, it might end up being a pottery painting. The dark green really brings out the colour of the jug, while the shadows help give it a three dimensionality. The shelf it is on is white painted wood which gives it a nice texture. It’s owned by my friend Alison. I think she said it might be a Portmeirion piece although there is no backstamp or other marks on its base.
Taken in natural light from the gallery window on my mobile phone.
Cat plate present
I’ve been given a couple of these cat plates by a friend recently. I really like them. They remind me of Victorian illustration, but the sepia toned cats are on a nice blue background. The back stamp says PrintRun.co and made in China. Microwave and dishwasher proof. That doesn’t give you much information. I could investigate further, but I don’t think I will.
There is a thing which people who live in Stoke-on-Trent do, which is to look at the backstamp on pottery and see where it was made.
So anyway sorry to be quiet, busy trying to learn lines!
Where have you been?
Through the door into the dark shadows, light shining through dusty windows, shafts of sunlight with dust motes dancing through the beams. We were exploring, looking at the racks of plaster molds, stacked high on racks, above head height. Hundreds of them, all shapes and sizes. For slip casting pottery.
In the back of the store room something stirred. A figure unfolding, grey with dust. Semi transparent, like a ghost? We saw it as it lurched to its feet and grasped at the racks of saggars. It spoke. ‘you don’t belong here’ it shouted ‘get out’, and we did! We turned tail and ran, through the door, through the yard and away. We won’t be going back there again!
Teapot at the potbank..
Photo my friend took on February 2018, I think it was up until 2019. Its also been exhibited at the Waiting Room Gallery. I liked doing these pottery ‘portraits’, but they are imagined, using pottery patterns and marrying them up with teapots or plates or bowls etc. It’s also about creating imagined backgrounds.
Acrylic on canvas, created, 2018, for sale…
Tile
Probably a mid 20th century tile. I don’t know but it appeals to me. It’s tidy and subtle, a nice pinkish grey. It’s the sort of thing you would find round an old fireplace in a three bedroom semi-detached house. I guess it’s the sort of thing that would have been a favourite of a middle aged, middle income family…. Now it’s retro! 
Two years ago
I was painting this a couple of years ago. It came out really well. I have a photo of the finished painting somewhere. It was called Ivy jug.
It’s not very often that you get paintings of pottery, I don’t know why, I guess it’s a strange type of still life…. 
I have also done murals of pottery… 
It’s turning into a collection!
