I’ve always used sketchbooks as a way to start new ideas and develop existing ones. My sketchbook ideas, notes and quick sketches are the basis of a lot of work in progress, which preliminary form a possible future finished piece. Several revisions of the works in progress may be issued before a finished piece is made, where I like to document and record such progress along the way.
Developing ideas into fruition is very rewarding for me when the finished results are accomplished.
How is an initial idea developed?
As a very simple example – above you will see a quick doodle of patterns found on the surface of a tree trunk in one of my sketchbooks, exploring qualities of line. I have taken the basic elements from my original sketch and transferred them onto clay in an abstract design below…
The decorated clay sheets have then been formed into a bowl.
This is just one of the methods I use for transferring my observational sketches into a surface design onto clay. I also use some of my own photographs of things I find inspiring (such as landscapes, rust and other weathered surfaces, rock formations, peeling paint, organic objects, shapes of leaves, plants, the seaside, dandelions…) and pin them up on the walls of the workshop so that I am surrounded by inspiration. This allows creativity to flow when I’m working from scratch, and often new forms are produced.
Glazes
Glazing is important for vessels as otherwise they would be unsuitable for holding liquids due to porosity. Documenting which glazes or glaze combinations are used for each piece is important, especially in my case as I often find that it can be difficult to recreate the same effect again.
I have found myself being asked on different occasions to make a piece using the same glaze qualities as a previous piece, and usually have to explain to the customer “I’ll try, but it could turn out differently”… but I think this makes my work more unique.
If I’m ever feeling stuck for inspiration it helps to flick through my sketchbooks to generate ideas. Seeing an old idea that has not been developed can trigger new designs when approached again after some time.
Sometimes the best light bulb ideas hit me when I’m in bed trying to sleep!
When using new glaze recipes for the first time I like to create different samples and texture tests until I’m confident I know how the glaze is going to turn out when applied onto a particular surface. Sometimes it’s exciting not to know how a glaze will turn out, but its particularly best to know if the glaze will ‘run’ or not – otherwise you could end up with a vessel stuck to a kiln shelf!
I LOVE using combinations of glazes layered up on top of one another, this can create some really interesting effects.
And again, if the order of which the glazes are layered are not documented it can be tricky trying to recreate the same effect.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this little snippet showing part of my working process. More to come soon!
