Fungi & Shell-form

Another off-cut of wood given to me by Meir Weiss was this lovely piece of spalted beech.

Once again I wanted to use the wood in combination with a ceramic form which would compliment the wood. Since spalting in wood is colouration caused by fungi, I decided to create some ceramic 'fungi' which would emerge from the wood; I enjoy looking at fungi when walking the dog so had a pretty good idea how I wanted this to look.

Fungi - Ceramic and Beech (30x30cm)

I made a mount for the work from MDF and 10x18mm plywood which I primed with White Gesso Primer. I had planned to paint a mottled green background for the work, but decided that this would detract from the simplicity of the ceramic and wood forms, so have simply painted the mount with white acrylic. I sanded the piece of beech to a fine finish then polished it with beeswax before gluing the wood and ceramic fungi to the mount. Mounting the work has taken quite a lot of time, however, I feel that this has been time well-spent.

I have also been very busy making a mount to display another new ceramic piece.
The starting point for this piece was from an image shown to me by my tutor, Sue Mundy of some work by the ceramicist Anne Hirondelle called 'Sixfold', shown below.
 
I liked the shape and played around in my sketchbook with various ideas building upon this image; the more I drew, the more my images looked like giant cowrie shells! So I decided to continue with this 'shell-form'.

Here is a picture of the piece before firing

I had thought that I would mount this work on a plain white MDF board, but when I had prepared the board and put my the ceramic 'shell-form' on to the plain white I realised that more background would enhance the finished piece. After a lot of work with filler, metal scraper, sandpaper and paint I created a mount to compliment the 'shell'.

Shell Form - Ceramic & mixed media (30x30cm)

My intention was to create the ripples in sand left around an object when the tide has retreated.
Funnily enough, after completing this mount I came across the work of a silversmith in Wales, Rauni Higson who creates beautiful silver objects inspired by nature, one of which is this silver platter which is inspired by the sand ripples left by a retreating tide.

Logo

Having decided to give my work the name 'Koru Craft'. I felt it would be appropriate to have a suitable logo. Unsurprisingly, I designed a logo using the Koru form, and since I like the heart shape created by two touching Korus I have also used this.

Koru Craft Logo

Having drawn the logo neatly by hand, I have been able to scan this in to the computer so that I can manipulate it and include in any printed material that I produce, such as business cards.
Whilst designing the logo I was doing some research on the web and came across a New Zealand Maori artist, Sandy Adsett, who often explores new arrangements of koru shapes in his paintings. This triggered me into designing a painting based on my koru logo. I had great fun getting out the paints again (I have not painted since completing my Access course in 2004), finding an unused canvas in the attic and producing the following painting.

Koru Hearts - Acrylic on canvas (30x40cm)

Wood you believe it?

In September 2011 I was invited to have a stall at the Thrive Open Day; which proved to be a very fruitful day in more ways than one. I met a lovely couple who were intrigued by my driftwood whittlings. As our conversation progressed it emerged that the gentleman was Meir Weiss, a local wood artist who had made the fantastic abstract wood sculptures that I have always admired at Thrive. Meir very kindly offered me some of his off-cuts of wood to work on. A visit to Meir's amazing workshop in Mortimer saw me return home with several off-cuts of yew and beech and buzzing with ideas on how I wanted to work with the wood.
Here are some images of one of the pieces of yew in its 'raw state'.

I decided that I wanted to find a way of combining my ceramic work with this beautiful piece of wood and played around with several ideas in my sketchbook, gradually coming to the idea that the wood should emerge from a ceramic pod, like a shoot emerging from a germinating seed-

A little more work on refining this idea gave me the following sketch to work from-

I started by working on the piece of yew, leaving one drilled face of the piece largely untouched, smoothing the other drilled face to be gently undulating and working the flatest face to a really smooth finish. After a lot of work hand sanding the piece with increasingly finer grades of sandpaper, I polished the wood with beeswax to enhance the beautiful colour of the wood.

My next job was to make the 'pod' from clay. I made this by coiling the clay into an oval pod then cutting off a section to provide an opening into the pod. Here is a photo of the work in progress-

Whilst the clay was in its greenware state I coated both inside and outside with coloured slips. I also burnished the outside of the pod. After firing to biscuitware I took the pod home and 'smoked' it in burning sawdust, then polished it with beeswax whilst still warm. I was delighted with the finished result.

'Germination' - ceramic and yew (h~32cm, w~23cm)

For Christmas I asked for some woodworking tools so that I had a little more than just a penknife, surform and sandpaper. My requests were satisfied, so now I have a few basic tools; good saw, round surform and a couple of rasps, so no excuse not to work with more of the off-cuts that Meir gave me!
Below are images of before and after of a piece of spalted beech.

 

Spalted beech on slate (~26cm)

 I have yet to decide whether I leave this piece on the simple mount of slate or make a ceramic piece to compliment the wood.

Odds and Ends

Most of the items I make have no particular use other than to give me the enjoyment of making them and to please the senses of others (mainly visual and tactile); though sometimes I make things which also have audio appeal, such as my 'rattle stones'.

Rattle Stones

These 'stones' have small clay beads wrapped in newspaper (to stop them sticking to the inside) inserted when I make them. When they are fired the newspaper burns off the beads, they then 'rattle' when shaken, each one making a different sound depending on the size of the 'stone' and beads.

Occassionally I will make something for a specific purpose in the house, such as this gravy boat.

At other times an item, which would appear to have no specific use, is employed; Ken (husband) took this spiral shell form into school to use as a pen/pencil holder.

 I have been trying in previous postings to categorise my work under appropriate headings. Today I am grouping together items which didn't fit under previous categories and did not warrant individual postings, hence the title 'Odds and Ends'.

On our last trip to New Zealand (Christmas 2010), I had fun looking around the craft shops in Taupo and picked up a few more ideas to use which resulted in the following pieces of work.

Crazy Daisy (1) Ceramic and wire (~70cm)

Butterfly plaque (~28cm)

Crazy Daisy (2) Ceramic, wire and bead (~70cm)

In this second version of 'Crazy Daisy' I softened the edges of the flowers and added beads to the wires.

I often collect pebbles when beach combing and have masses of them scattered around the house and garden. Last summer I looked for pebbles which were the right shape to paint as ladybirds ready to put on my stall at the Thrive Open Day in September 2011; they proved to be very popular and not just with the children!

Weaving

In June 2011 I spent a very enjoyable afternoon with a friend visiting a lot of the artists on the Whiteknights Studio Trail. I was enchanted by the work of the textile artist Caroline Marriott and succombed to the purchase of some weaving sticks. Here is a picture of some weaving that I have produced using the weaving sticks. I have worked in to the weaving afterwards with more wool, embroidery threads and beads. The weaving has then been hung between two seed-impressed slabs of clay.

Wall hanging - wool, thread, bead and ceramic (10x33cm)

The enjoyment of this weaving spurred me to create some ceramic 'weaving frames'. On our annual holiday in Pembrokeshire, I regularly visit The Waterfront Gallery in Milford Haven to feast my eyes on the skills of local artists. On one visit several years ago, I was intrigued by the woven pictures created by Michelle Williams which she weaves within her own hand made ceramic frames.
To date, I have made two frames and woven within them, again adding more interest and detail with embroidery and beads.