Looking forward to returning once again to Bilston Craft Gallery in Wolverhampton.
New photos
Photographer Ieva Mihelsone has been working with us over the past 6 months or so capturing the magic of what goes on here at Eastnor Pottery. She’s taken some beautiful shots of our course participants both young and old. More recently she played around with some of my pots and sculptures with different effects and backgrounds etc. The results are amazing and transform the objects in all kinds of ways. I’m planning to publish a lot of Ieva’s great work in the not too distant future. In the meantime, feast your eyes on this photo of a couple of my ‘rattle pots’.
Artist’s cafe @ New Brewery Arts
Once a month creatives in and around Cirencester meet up in the evening at The New Brewery Arts to network and enjoy a good cuppa. Last night, in my capacity as the Gallery’s featured artist I gave a talk about my career and influences. Artist and lecturer Richard Webb interviewed me in front of a select gathering of local artists.
Having been asked to comment on my earliest encounters with clay, I recalled the story of hurling lumps of sticky mud on the end of sticks at next door neighbours brick wall, totally fascinated at the adhesive properties (they stayed up there for weeks!)
Big thank you to Roger, who gave a name to this activity – pugsticks! He’d had fun as a boy throwing ‘pugsticks’ at his mates – nice!
Sensational Clay at New Brewery Arts
Those of you who didn’t get to see my multi sensory solo show of ceramics at The Bilston Craft Gallery in the Summer have a second chance at New Brewery Arts in Cirencester.
Have just returned from a wonderful opening event where over 200 visitors got to play on my ceramic drum pots, smell the scented sculptures and of course play with some clay. I enjoyed meeting and working with every single one of you! Have a look at some of the photos!
Sensational Clay runs untill 29th April.
Made in the Middle
Private views are great for networking and catching up with old acquaintances but near damn useless for taking stock of the exhibits. Although I attended the corporate , viewing of Made in the Middle, I still hadn’t felt like I’d actually ‘seen’ the exhibition. So after workshop duties at St Thomas’s on Tuesday last week I headed down to the MAC to experience the show for real.
I was encouraged by a small crowd of visitors around my musical drum pots, gently tapping out rhythms and notes. (I secretly had reservations as to whether punters would interact with the work in a predominantly ‘eyes only’ show) The positive comments on the post-it note evaluation provided more evidence the pieces were being well used. Have a look at the photos on our Facebook page.
The exhibition runs till the 15 April at MAC then it goes on tour through-out the Midlands.
Sensational Clay take down
I spent yesterday and today collecting work from my exhibition ‘Sensational Clay’ at The Bilston Craft Gallery in Wolverhampton.
Saturday 3rd Sept was the final opportunity for visitors to experience the touchy, smelly and rattlin’ works of ceramic art.
I’ve been really pleased with visitor comments and a handfull of people took the time to blog about their experience of the show. Please take a look at what they had to say:
http://little-blossoms-childminding.blogspot.com/2011/07/sensational-clay.html
http://cultureofthrift.wordpress.com/2011/08/09/childs-play-bilston-craft-gallery/
End of an era?
Many of you who I’ve had the pleasure of working with over the past 15 years will have come across my ‘stripy doughnut bottle’ (I regularly use the piece to introduce my work and sources of inspiration.)
Sadly, this week saw the demise of ‘SDB’ – it just rolled off my trolley as I was hauling kit towards the flying potter van.
It wasn’t the first time the piece had been in the wars. In 2005 the pot toppled over in a school and broke in two – fortunately, on that occasion, the clean break was remedied with a blob of no more nails. Not so lucky this time!
After I had gotten over the initial horror, I was slowly filled with a sense of relief – how many years had I been upholding that piece as an example of my ceramic practice? I have plenty of new & improved pots, much more illustrative of current preocupations.
In a way the breakage was an overdue release from the ghosts of yester year’s pots!
Sensational Clay delivery
It was handy working in Birmingham in the build up to my exhibition.
After a day of clay play and messing around with mud at the fabulous St Thomas’ Children’s Center, I was able to whizz up the M6 and deliver several consignments of pots and sculpture – spread over five days.
Phew! final week of frantic preparations.Sensational Clay at Bilston Craft Gallery
Sensational Clay
Bilston Craft Gallery
9 Jul 11 – 3 Sep 11
This fun and thought-provoking exhibition has something for all the family to enjoy. Sensational Clay is an exhibition of ceramics to stimulate the senses by Hereford-based potter Jon Williams.
The works have all been inspired by the five senses, and all have a secret to discover, from tiny hand-held items to huge one-metre wide pots! Explore the pieces to find out more – lift lids to discover hidden treasures, shake the musical pots to make some noise or try to guess the smell coming from the scented vessels!
Celebrate the opening of the exhibition on Saturday 9 July with lots of fun, free activities for all the family, including workshops with the artist Jon Williams.