My focus during the CAL visit was on colour, although I still have some questions on form and glaze, I am trying to narrow down my options on colour. I have left colour to last in my deliberations, partly because I love colour and feel more confident about choosing a colour palette. So far I have chosen pale clear, bright colours, celadon-like, although I would like to add lanthanide colours to the blue and grey I have.
Getting it out of my system?
Barry Stedman
The first artist I visited was Barry Stedman, I love the vibrant colours he uses and expressionistic marks. He uses terracotta clay, which he covers in white before adding his colours, then fires to 1080c. I am not sure whether these colours are right for my forms and concept, but I would like to own one of his pieces. I had some advice from my former tutor David Binns on this question. He told me to try these colours out, they will either feel right, or I will get it out of my system. That is what I am going to do
Anna Silverton
I then spoke to Anna Silverton, Anna is a thrower who produces beautiful elegant tall forms and large bowls with a satin finish. She told me that she adds eight layers of glaze with slight variations in the shade of each layer, she also adds bone ash to her bowls and this causes glaze to pool. She uses a matte dolomite glaze, and fires to stoneware. Some colour inspiration from her website and instagram account below
I looked at several other artists that I admire, with a range of colour palettes, but found that up close they would not work with my own project. So, it was a useful exercise to close down these colour choices, and narrow my focus.
One thing that came up repeatedly from all the artists was the complexity of the colour combinations, many had layered slips, oxides and glazes, and fired multiple times. I think that I have been a little unambitious in my colour applications so far.
Two areas to continue
Firstly, during the self-initiated project I made a number of test tiles with black incised into white, and vice versa. I also incised a white line into a large black pot, and liked it very much. I want to incorporate lines in this project in some way. I tried incising lines using ES40 test tiles, but was very disappointed with the result, as the grog scratched the inlaid lines and ruined the crispness. Rob suggested this for my lines, and I told him what had happened. He said that he could overcome this. I talked to Chloe Dowds about her fine incised lines in porcelain, and I would like to follow this up with Rob, especially as I plan to try porcelain next week.
Secondly, in practice 2, I started work on weathering using oxides. I have always used oxides, and last week tested three new oxide washes on a large thin slab with celadon and titanium white. I looked at Tricia Thoms work and loved the colours in the splash of oxide she had used. One of her pots had a celadon glaze, and the oxide was beautiful. She uses clear or pale transparent glazes on porcelain and has a clear and light aesthetic that I like.
Three inspiring artists
The first two artists have combined colour and texture Wenqi Lui's corrosion vessels is on the left, and a customer admiring Helen Johannessen's work is on the right. I particularly liked the combination of subtle texture and oxides on the two rectangular pieces in black frames by Johannessen. The piece on the right is from the exhibition of student work in progress and is by Ruby, Cheng Wai Sin, her theme is connected to memories, and she has used oxides on porcelain. She included a notebook with her work and invited visitors to record a memory.
Comments