Nature | Charlotte Hupfield Ceramics

Patterns in Nature

January 16, 2013 Charlotte No comments

I think these amazingly close up images of tree cells and cross sections of tree roots are stunning! I’ll be using them as inspiration for some new designs… I love the different sized circular shapes bundled together in little patterns.

Posted in: Inspiration, nature, nature photography, organic objects, surface decoration, surface design, surfaces Tags: surface pattern

Refreshing Inspiration

September 10, 2012 Charlotte No comments

Here’s a little snippet of soome of the images from my pin board that are inspiring me this week.

Simple and elegant… I’m still in coastal seasidey mode!

The sources of these images can be found on my pinterest boards. Hope they inspire you too!

Posted in: Inspiration, nature, sources of inspiration

Botanical Garden

August 01, 2012 Charlotte No comments

Thanks to one of my lovely customers for sending me a selection of photographs from her visit to a botanical garden on holiday in Tenerife. These are a few of my favourites that have been a great inspiration for my work.

Posted in: nature, nature photography, photography

Sloes & The Countryside

October 04, 2011 Charlotte No comments

I’ve been enjoying a lot of the local countryside recently, and have found long walks in the fresh air a good way to clear my head. The gorgeous weather and beautiful blue skies over the past week has helped very much too!

Last year I wanted to make my own sloe gin using this recipe, but I never got round to it. This year, luckily enough whilst out enjoying the countryside I found a few trees with sloes on them. I managed to pick a small handful but it wasn’t enough, I think other people had beaten me to it! Then the next time I was out walking I purposely tried a different place to look for sloes, and I was suddenly in sloe heaven!

It was like finding treasure, they were everywhere… so I managed to pick a huge carrier bag full, and now probably have too many. The sloes are currently in the freezer, as you are supposed to wait until after the first frost before they are picked. I’m going to make sloe gin and also sloe vodka with this big batch of sloes!

Hopefully they will be ready just in time for Christmas. Can’t wait to try them!

Posted in: countryside, countryside walk, nature, sloe gin recipe

Nature Inspiration

September 12, 2011 Charlotte No comments

Isn’t nature beautiful?

These images were taken from my Pinterest Nature Board ~ Click each image from there to be taken to the source.

Posted in: Inspiration, nature, nature photography

Natural Inspiration

February 17, 2011 Charlotte 5 Comments

The inspiration for my ceramics comes from the natural world and many of the organic objects and surfaces around us. Nature is a huge source of inspiration for many artists & designers, but we all take something different from it in our own way, with how it is interpreted in our work.

above – Sea Urchin by Marie Cloke

Not only do I love this arrangement of cut apples above, (the different forms, how they are grouped together, the subtle greens from inside of the apples and the deep reds on the skin), but also the distressed paint in the background, what a gorgeous surface!

This photo by ‘redmegan‘ below is equally as beautiful, I love the layers of thick leaves with that burst of colour.

This beautiful pattern that has been formed from sand erosion reminds me of an impression in clay. The detail is amazing. The photo was taken by Ken Douglas on Flickr.

Next up is this carefully arranged cobbled pathway, which reminds me of individual sheets of clay that are pieced together when constructing my sculptural vessels.

I found the image above on this blog. I was particularly inspired by the following quote, written by the author of the blog;

“Natural fractals can be found in so many forms, shells, snowflakes, crystals, wildlife, the coastline, trees, leaves, plants, germs. As with fractals’ pattern inside another, the list goes on and on.”

I saved the best image til last

Don’t you just love the crevices and rock formations? The photograph above was taken at Shore Acres, Oregon Pacific Coast, and was one of the many striking images to win the International Award in Photography for the Conservation of Wildlife. <-- Check out some of the other photographs by following this link, especially if like me you love nature and wildlife, they are stunning!

If you’re interested please also feel free to take a look at my full collection of Inspiration images over at my Pinterest pinboards, more added weekly!

Posted in: Inspiration, natural surfaces, nature, nature photography, organic objects

DIY Nature Wreaths

November 28, 2010 Charlotte 2 Comments

It’s a lovely frosty day today, the grass is still crunchy from this morning. We’ve had a little sprinkling of snow this weekend, but nothing major yet. I’m enjoying this relaxing Sunday! Earlier I made this wreath using a collection of pine cones. I got the idea from Maya’s inspiring blog. They are so simple to make – all you need is a circular cut out piece of card and a hot glue gun to stick the pine cones onto it.

When I was arranging the pine cones, somebody had to poke her nose in and get involved as usual!…

Molly loves chasing pine cones around the house! I’ve given her one to play with. It’s so funny watching her run around with it in her mouth.

I attached a hoop of ribbon to the wreath so that it could be hung up. I’ve placed it in various places around the house, it looks lovely anywhere. It will be a nice festive decoration to have out for Christmas, although I’m thinking of keeping it out all year round.

For now it’s sitting on top of the fire.

Hope you are enjoying a relaxing Sunday too!

Posted in: DIY wreath, festive decorations, natural, nature, pine cone wreath, pine cones, Projects, wreath

A Walk in the Woods

September 01, 2010 Charlotte No comments

Today I am pleased to announce that I have a guest post featured on the ArtMind blog.

I’ve been a huge fan of Mitsy’s blog for a long time and it is a privilege to have a whole post featured there. My post is titled “A Walk in the Woods”… head over there to read more!

Posted in: artmind, guest blog post, nature, trees, woods

Collecting Nature

July 19, 2010 Charlotte 3 Comments

I couldn’t help noticing many of nature’s organic objects at our local country park whilst we were out walking this evening. I’m terrible for picking things up, inspecting them, and usually popping them in my carrier bag for use as inspiration. (I do wash my hands when I get home!)

At the moment I’m currently working on some new decorative hanging mobiles, using fired pieces of ceramic, shells, glass, and copper wire. I wanted to use some suitable twigs or branches to attach the decorative hanging bits and bobs, so the twigs I collected from the country park will make good use for that. I wish I lived closer to the sea so I could use driftwood, but I’m going to have a go at washing my collected twigs in sea water to try to create the same driftwood effect.

This week over at Poppytalk, there is an inspiring project going on called Collecting Nature. People from all over the world are uploading their nature finds into this Flickr Group Pool, and then will later share projects using their finds. I’ve uploaded these photos of my organic objects to the group, why not join in and share yours too?

Alternatively you could just browse the images in the group, theres tonnes of inspiration!

Posted in: Inspiration, natural, natural findings, nature, organic objects, woodland objects

Castle Ashby Gardens

July 01, 2010 Charlotte 5 Comments

During the quiet period of the craft fair at Castle Ashby on Sunday afternoon, I took the opportunity to wander around the gardens and take some photos. If you’ve never visited the gardens of Castle Ashby House, I would definitely recommend it as a day out, the views are simply stunning! It wasn’t until I walked around that I realised how big the gardens are, and I almost got lost at one point!

~ The Orangery ~

Beautiful pond swarmed with lily pads and lilies waiting to burst open;

As many of you know I am in love with trees, bark and roots! (view my ‘walk in the country park‘ post). This tree was a whopper!

So inspirational!

Posted in: castle ashby gardens, nature, northamptonshire, trees, Trips

Wordless Wednesday

June 16, 2010 Charlotte 4 Comments

1. Black Eiffel

2. Heather King Photography

3. Ocasiocasa

4. Midwest Modern Girl

Posted in: green, Inspiration, natural, nature, wordless wednesday

Monday Mood Board

May 17, 2010 Charlotte 7 Comments

As well as enjoying a very relaxing Sunday, I spent some time out in my workshop yesterday. Although I wasn’t making anything, I was sorting a few things out, having a tidy up, and photographing some new work in the garden. I often have days like this where I get sudden urges to jot down lots of new ideas and developments.

You may have guessed by now that I am inspired by all things natural and organic, especially trees and bark. I put together this little inspirational mood board of colour, texture and pattern using images from Flickr.

I can’t wait to start making new things!

1. Peach tree bark closeup #1, 2. DSC02068adj birch tree bark, 3. Textured Tree Bark, 4. Birch tumbler

Posted in: Flickr Favourites, mood boards, nature, tree bark