Sketchbook

I created some displays on a large table at home, but found it tricky to photograph, as more distant shots lost the tangibility and texture of the work. So the results are more close ups.

It is interesting to have started the year with wool wrapped round pegs and having done little with it during the year, I have finished with my own coloured wool wrapped around porcelain shapes. I feel happy about that.

Initally, the spiral shapes were my least favourite, but with wool added they have transformed. As well as the texture I really like the double effect of the movement from the spiral itself and also from the wrapped wool. The is something quite dancer-like about them.

Although I enjoy working with grids and order, I found that it didn't serve the discs very well. I much prefer them less ordered - perhaps because the wool designs are quite geometric and are enough of a contrast with the circular shape.

The entanglement with a mix of smaller spirals, wool, tubes and discs is something I will need to spend more time with. I know there is something in there to discover but can't quite appreciate it yet.

The gap tubes are far from where I would like them to be. The artefact type layout didn't work for me, but bringing them closer together, side by side began to offer something more.

Finally, the cupcake, discs and rope feel very hopeful. With more rope and more cupcakes I am really interested to see what kind of huge heap can be created.

These were some of the conclusions that were not so successful, but might hold something for the future.

Before I removed the copper wire from my wall, I tested out using it for some of the thin porcelain tubes which I'd made a hole at the start to ensure I could hang in some form. For some reason the wire is really tricky to photograph and I wasn't too impressed with the actual display but I can see it could have potential, especially if the tubes hung over a cut out, empty space, which I think would act as a frame.

The 1:1 workshop with Ceramicist Anna Thompson in Hasting was exactly what I needed. She explained various clays, the stages of drying and what can be achieved at each stage and the process of slip casting. We created 2 vessels, one with a second layer of coloured slip. She also showed me how to create an accurate colour gradation, which was very exciting. I am so pleased that slip casting does exactly what I hoped it would in terms of shape, texture, colour possibilities and finish - a very light sanding can produce an almost velvet feel. I will be so much more confident to take my work forward in this area next year.

My first attempts! A Kadinski inspired tile and 2 wheel thrown candle holders which were supposed to be vases but the tops kept breaking off. Definitely harder than it looks. Glazing next week.

Brilliant website by the artist Jennifer Lee.

The second artist was Toni Losey, who creates all the individual shapes of her pieces on the wheel and then joins them before spraying and firing them up to 10 times to create the amazing shades of colour. The shapes are so inviting and the surface looks like a soft flock but is hard ceramic.

Depth of colour, pattern and repetition, porcelain repetition, ideas for mounting and display, coloured stripes, slip cast boxes that hold items and are part of the work.