2009 September | Charlotte Hupfield Ceramics

Busy couple of weeks

I am enjoying everything that is going on at the moment… I’ve been really busy!

My solo exhibition has been going really well, I got back from the gallery at the weekend after discussing a commission that has been requested by one of the galleries customers. He wants me to make 4 large ceramic ‘half’ frames to go around a couple of old wooden church pew ends that he wants to display in his house. I’m in the middle of making some samples at the moment. I think this commission is going to go on for some time, but I’m really excited about it!

I also had a gallery in Bristol contact me, wanting to stock my work. The gallery owner said she has been researching various different ceramic styles, but has found nothing that she prefers more than mine, which was a huge compliment! So I’ve got lots of work to sort out, and maybe even make, to take there.

I got a big delivery of clay this week. Have had to store bulk loads in different places for now as theres not enough room in my workshop! Even after completely reorganising and tidying all of it – which is only going to go and get messy again soon. I got some new casting slip, can’t wait to start using it. I love mixing it up before I use it, it looks a little bit like runny chocolate! Shame it doesn’t smell like it though. It’s gonna be vase city in my workshop once I start using this slip.

The work I’ll be stocking up on is going to be ready for one of my Christmas craft fairs in November – The Contemporary Craft Shopping Experience – details in an earlier post. The website is more up to date now (check out the image of my work on the main page!), and I have been handing out loads of leaflets in preparation for the show.

I received my free sample of business cards from Moo the other day. I’d really recommend them, I was very pleased with the quality. I chose different images of my work and personalised the back with my banner and details. I got 10 sample cards completely free in this cute little pouch – ideal for keeping in your handbag to prevent your cards getting grubby!

Latest Commissions

I’ve been working on a few personalised commissions lately, and now finally have them all complete. All thats left to do is get them packaged and sent to the customers, I really hope they are going to be pleased!

This is a dish for a lady I met at one of my local craft fairs, the Bishop’s Tachbrook Horticultural Show in Leamington. She had a jewellery stand opposite me and came over at the end of the day to ask if I could make a dish for her Mum and Dad’s ruby wedding anniversary.

She really liked the melted glass effect in the bottom of some of my bowls on display, but I wasn’t sure it would look as effective with the engraved writing she wanted in the dish. So I said I would try it with clear glass rather than coloured, and it has worked well, with the wording still visible. I’m pleased with this one!

Next is one of my sculptural vessels with more engraved wording. This customer wanted the words engraved into the surface from the song she danced to at her wedding, as it is an anniversary gift to her husband. She also said that her husband loves wood and trees so I rolled the sections of clay onto my plaster mould with a bark impression in it, before constructing the form.

I didn’t have much to work with because the customer only gave me the name of the song, the preferred colours, and her budget – she wanted me to come up with my own design and form of the piece. In a way this was good because I didn’t have to work towards an exact requirement, but it was also quite scary because I wasn’t sure if she would like it or not! I’m hoping her husband will be pleased too.

Here’s the piece in my workshop when the making process was complete. At this stage it hadn’t been coloured with oxides, glazed, or fired yet.

Lastly here’s another ceramic plaque for someones workshop. This commission was actually for someone who saw the other plaque I had made in a previous post on my blog. I already posted this one last week and the customer loves it, so thats one less to worry about!

I joined Flickr the other day, is anyone else on it? I didn’t realise how good it was, it’s like having your own extra site with a profile, contacts, groups to join, and loads of space to store and show off your images in folders. Thats another new thing to add to my list of things to keep up with now! You can click here to view my Flickr Photostream, and view some of the albums I’ve created.

Better photographs!

I was reading a really interesting blog today by Alison of AMI Designs (fantastic beaded jewellery maker), who gave away a few tips on how to improve the quality of photographic images.

I’d always had trouble photographing my work, as I could never seem to show it off to its full potential. I have now learnt that the way to do it is to edit your images using a free downloadable program called Picasa – it’s brilliant! I’ve been having a play, and have found that Picasa works wonders for my images, especially those with a white background. It’s also a good tool to use for cropping.

These are some of my favourites, which I now actually feel confident to show off!

I’m really pleased with the results and will definitely use Picasa to edit future

photos.

Thought I’d also show off this huge new cast iron fire burner for outdoors. It’s my Dad’s, one of his new big boys toys although this is not a toy!! It’s great for keeping warm whilst sitting outside in the garden, especially now the evenings are getting chilly.

While at my Dads yesterday we cooked homemade pizza’s in the top compartment – the bit with the sun engraved is an open flap that comes down. It’s supposed to be a stone-baked pizza oven as well as a fire burner, but my pizza tasted a bit smokey! We did wait for the fire to calm down a lot before putting the pizza’s in, but mine went in first as the tester, and I think it was too early! It was fun though.

Afterwards we baked these homemade brown floured rolls above which cooked much slower, and tasted much nicer!

I’m off to play ‘chase the ribbon’ with Molly before she goes to sleep

Molly

I got a kitten on Sunday!! Molly is 9 weeks old and loves playing with strips of ribbon. Her fave food so far is roast chicken and pumpkin by Applaws, its good stuff! She’s very dependant and seems to always follow my feet wherever I walk, bless her. I’m enjoying buying her lots of little treats – the latest is a mat that she can scratch her claws into, and a fleecey pet blanket so that she stops sleeping on mine!

Isn’t she adorable?

My Exhibition & Open Day

As part of the Northamptonshire Open Studios 2009 programme, I took part amongst up to 100 other local artists/designers who have their work on display at different venues throughout September. I chose to showcase my work at The Evergreen Gallery in Daventry, where I had full use of these four glass shelves…

The gallery held an Open Day last Saturday, where I was there for the day making new work. I also had an article about the exhibition in last weeks Daventry Express. Members of the public were invited to come along and see me at work, and were welcome to ask questions. It turned out to be a very successful day and I really enjoyed the experience.

The gallery did a great job of promoting and advertising the event – I was very impressed with these flyers that were being handed out in the town centre.

I worked on a few slab built constructions throughout the day. People seemed amazed at the transformation from seeing the initial state of the raw clay made into a finished fired piece.

A collection of my work will stay on display at The Evergreen Gallery throughout the rest of September. Meanwhile, a ‘launch’ exhibition of a selection of the Northamptonshire Open Studios artists/designers’ work is on display at Canons Ashby House for the next 2 weeks, where I have 3 pieces on display. The Elizabethan manor house is surrounded by tranquil National Trust gardens.

Both exhibitions are worth a visit, I couldn’t have asked for more stunning venues.

I also had some of my large collograph prints on display next to where I was working in the gallery. It was nice for people to see how my surface designs and ideas on paper are ‘translated’ onto the surface of the clay, before being built into forms.

I’m looking forward to begin working on the commissions I received from this exhibition open day! Details will be posted soon, once details are confirmed.