Category Archives: Designers Features
The Hayrack Gallery – Shout out for new Designers
I paid a visit to one of my favourite stockists yesterday – The Hayrack Gallery in Upper Stowe, Northamptonshire at The Old Dairy Farm Craft Centre. It’s around about this time each year that I take some new stock and swap a few things around, although I haven’t been making any new stock for a while, its too cold out in the workshop! I’m determined to get back out there soon though. Either that or I’ll bring some clay into the house!
So I’ll be taking over lots of new stock to The Hayrack Gallery in a couple of months. My current stock that they have in the gallery is getting a bit low now. They sold a lot of items last year, and I found out another vase and a bowl were sold in January. I think the display will look much better once I make some new sets of coasters, plaques, clocks and maybe some letter racks to go with the current vases, sculptural vessels and bowls.
My favourite designer at the gallery is fused & slumped glass maker Carrie Anne Funnell. One of my main reasons for visiting the gallery is to see what new creations she has made. This photo was taken in the gallery last year, and not many of the glass pieces are left now. Carrie Anne Funnell has been travelling for 12 months and is just about to start on her new glass ideas, I can’t wait to see them. How amazing is the green and red glass lamp?!
The Hayrack Gallery is on the look out for new artists, designers and makers at the moment. They do like to ‘vet’ any new work before they decide if it is right for the gallery, but if you are interested please let me know by leaving a comment on this post.
Fabric Folksy Finds
Lots of lovely goodies have caught my eye on Folksy recently, and they all seem to be made of fabric. Here are just a few of my favourites:
This Jam Jar / Tin Can Wrap by The Cotton Potter is absolutely gorgeous, and such a nice idea. I want to buy one for someone for christmas but may buy one for myself to wrap around one of my little vases and keep my pens in it.
This Christmas Tree Garland by Kirsty Elson Designs is really pretty. It would look great across a fire place and would brighten up any room.
I also found this cute fabric brooch made by PANTSANDPAPER, I’m thinking of buying this to pin on my new bag that I’m getting for christmas!
Folksy is going great for me sales-wise, I think a lot of buyers have been buying my ceramics as gifts for christmas. I am always restocking my shop, check back for newly listed items!
Autumn – Four Folksy Finds
The evenings are slowly starting to draw in now, its definitely scarf and glove weather for me! I’ve noticed a change in the drying process of my work, each item takes twice as long to dry completely out in this cold weather. I suppose thats more of a good thing though, because the slower the clay dries out, the better – it gives me more control over it. A lot of my new work in progress is very seasonal. I get a lot of my inspiration from the natural world and the change in the weather this year has given me new design ideas. Since I can’t show any of my finished work yet (watch this space!), I thought I’d share four of my favourite autumn finds from Folksy.
Look what I’ve had made for me!
I had spent ages eyeing up the gorgeous recycled gifts made by Kaz of Kazzells Crafts, and finally decided to ask her to make me one of her ‘exploding boxes’. Here is the result, which will be greatly treasured!
From the above hexagon shaped box, opening out to this…….
The design literally ‘explodes’ out into your hand, and its packed full of photos, meaningful words, and decorated with embellishments – all carefully and brilliantly handmade, it must have taken ages.
It was a present to Dave for our anniversary and he absolutely loved it, even after being scared that something was going to jump out at him at first! It’s such a great idea for a unique and personalised gift. Kaz can make these boxes in all sorts of colours, sizes etc, as well as many other fab recycled gifts. One of my other favourites are her recycled tea bag boxes, which is where I fell in love with the colour scheme for my exploding box. I’m already planning my next gift for Kaz to make for an xmas pressent.
In return I made this ceramic wall plaque for Kaz’s den, which is where she creates all of her wonderful things. Click here to read what Kaz thought of it and to see an image of the plaque hanging up on her workshop.
I’ve also made this plaque for someone else – a request for another workspace sign, which are proven to be popular at the moment. I took this photo during the inbetween stage, the outcome will be themed green as requested.
In the meantime I have been busy with fairs, deciding where to go on holiday next year, and sorting out my new car which is currently being made in production as we speak! So excited to see it all shiny and new!The Work of Exhibitors I met
I had to share the work of these crafts people with you, its all stunning! The following work was created by some of the exhibitors I met at the Bristol Balloon Fiesta last weekend.
First is Richard Clatworthy, creator of beautiful boxes. Richard was my neighbour at the craft village, and kindly let me borrow one of his much needed fans during the hot weather! He makes a range of wooden items including hinged nests, boxes with lift-off lids, bookends and tealight holders. This special multi-compartment box above was carved from a single piece of yew, amazing! Check out Richard’s website here to view more fabulous examples of his work, as well as a section about yew. Richard and his wife Di also rent out luxury self-catering barn conversions in rural Devon, see more details on the website.
Next, here’s the work of ‘Creative Thorp‘ – Mary and Steve Thorp from Banbury, Oxfordshire. After many years working as sensible professionals, Mary and Steve have decided to indulge their creative compulsions on a permanent basis and are now the Creative Thorp’s! Mary’s images appear in a range of beautifully made cards and art card boxes that are mini works of art themselves. Many of the images are also available as mounted photographic prints and canvases. Meanwhile Steve writes simple, direct and visual poems which are available in poetry boxes and pamphlets. Check out Mary’s beautiful collection of images here, which include trees, marsh, grass, sea, still evenings, sunsets, sky, surf and more.
I also met the lovely couple Maureen and Michael Hutton of Pol Amber. Together they have developed a fabulous collection of unique jewellery, each piece containing amber – an ancient gem formed from fossilised pine resin found in forests. My favourites are their prehistoric insect pieces, where you can see the forest debris and insects trapped inside the amber.
Finally, meet Mary Thorpe (yep, another one!). This Mary specialises in hand painted silk laminates, and is passionate about surface design. Mary was our camping neighbour at Bristol!
Her work is created by trapping sheets of brightly coloured painted silks between sheets of acrylic, achieveing really eye catching results. Mary makes sets of coasters and placemats, wall block panels, jewellery, splash backs, paintings, and also new to her range are guitar scratchplates. She creates pieces to order in any colour and style you can imagine! Here’s a peek inside Mary’s workshop where she gets her creative juices flowing…
Feeling inspired? I am!
Dave’s Bowl
Don’t you just love this handmade “Bits and Bobs Bowl” that Dave made? Considering he hadn’t ever really made anything ceramic before, he did really well making this. Especially keeping it all joined together without it breaking or cracking. I love the way the light shines through the gaps, creating a pattern on the surface. The colours work really well together too.
This is my attempt at a hanging basket I put together a couple of weeks ago. I think it was a bit late in the year to plant the flowers but they seem to be growing happily in there. I would have liked a wider mixture of colours but a pink selection had to do, as the garden centre didn’t have many left.
Meanwhile I’ve been preparing for my 4 day show at the Bristol Balloon Fiesta this weekend. I’m really excited, I’ve been busy making lots of new stock, leaflets, cleaning up my workshop, preparing food, packing and organising. The car is going to be absolutely packed, I could do with a van!! We are leaving tomorrow morning to set everythig up early and explore the grounds. We’ll be camping there for 4 nights, I just hope the weather brightens up for it!Ceramicist’s work I love
There are so many to mention but here are my top 5…
In 2004 I went to work with Kate Malone at Balls Pond Studio in Islington, London. How was I lucky enough to do this, might you ask? Well I was at college at the time and had always been an admirer of Kate’s work. One day whilst focusing on my research I decided to send Kate an e-mail from her website. I explained that I was a student specialising in Ceramics and wondered if she would be kind enough to help me with a few questions. I remember literally sending her a long list, including questions like “Can you explain your typical way of working from a day to day basis?”… and sure enough she replied giving full lengthy answers to all of my questions, even explaining how she juggles her life in London with her other home in the South of France, taking her daughter to school etc. She asked if I would be interested in visiting her studio for the day in the summer, to help her with a large commissioned project! I felt as though Christmas had come early when she had replied to my e-mail, so you can imagine how I felt when she asked that!
When I’d arranged to go down and stay in London, Kate was working on a commission for the Children’s Library in Bristol. She had made hundreds of these big ‘sprigs’ that were going to be displayed on the wall in the library, in shapes of dice, snails, skittles, balls, sweets etc, (Can’t find any images of it online but I know there are somewhere!), and as she glazed each one she then passed them to me to wipe off any excess glaze that had dribbled onto the bottom. I was basically her slave for the day, but couldn’t have wished to be anything more! I loved every minute of it – seeing the environment she worked in, exploring her studio, having an insight into an internationally famous ceramicist’s work place and how she did things. It was very inspirational.
Kate Malone’s work is all inspired by her travels around the world. Her book ‘A Book of Pots‘ (which my copy has her signiture in!!), is absolutely fascinating and I would really reccommend reading it.
What I love about Kate’s work are the wacky glazes and quirkiness to her fruit and sea inspired pots. One of my favourites are her huge pineapple pots. One of which ‘Queen Pineapple‘ is on display at Manchester City Art Galleries.
Next up is Cathy Fleckstein, a German ceramic artist making large wall pieces with built up layers of coloured decorating slips and engraved marks on the surface. She also makes other forms with similar decoration. I love the way she builds up the texture and appearance of surface, as this is similar to the way I work.
Don’t you just love these hand-thrown jugs by Kyra Cane? Her work is often very delicate and subtle, with brushmarks fading and blurring, and inky opaque bands of colour changing to pale fresh air blues. See Kyra Cane’s forms at The Bircham Gallery, they are soothing yet so powerful!
I love the drawings Kyra creates, which influence the surfaces of her ceramics. The marks built up on paper in different materials reminds me of the process and techniques of Cathy Fleckstein’s work above. There are some great articles written on Kyra Cane’s work here, have a read!
Jim Robison is next on the list, with his amazing collection of handmade studio ceramics at Booth House Gallery, Yorkshire. I admire his large scale works and really love the way each piece is made. Individual slab pieces are created through a process which includes using an antique mangle to roll and re-roll prepared sheets of clay . This creates broken edges and areas which are stretched and stressed, generating their own feeling of history. Slips, which are painted, combed, sponge printed and stencilled provide contrasting colours and these are emphasised by applications of up to six glazes and the firing in the reduction atmosphere of a large gas kiln.
I found this interesting quote by Jim Robison about his work: “Process refers to both the act of making (what happens during the manipulation of clay, slip, and glaze always with one eye on the possible effects of firing!) and an awareness of the passage of time, Changes that occur with events of nature and history.“
Lastly let me introduce you to Ewen Henderson, who I think may be my biggest inspiration of all. My work relates to Ewen’s is many ways, such as the overall organic, rustic and natural look, the slab built process, and the form of each piece. Looking at these images has made me want to get back into the swing of hand building more sculptural vessels. I’ve always liked the fact that Ewen always pushed the boundaries with his work, he never really stuck to ‘the rules’, and created some beautiful works by exploring the material in his own way.
Sadly Ewen Henderson passed away in 2000, but his ceramics still remains well known and will always be an inspiration.
Hope you like this collection, feel free to leave comments and let me knw what you think! Which work do you like best?
Impulse buy!
I was mooching through some of my favourite shops on Folksy today, and couldn’t resist buying this stunning “Summer Mobile Phone Sock”, handmade by Tamsyn G. Can’t wait for it to arrive, my phone is going to look nice and cosy! Although it won’t really need it in this hot weather.
What do you buy on impulse that you can’t resist??
