New Works

Some recent works completed in the last few weeks. I have really enjoyed experimenting with Kurinuki techniques, having viewed John Britt's excellent video and coming across the work of Lucien Koonce and Kaneta Masanao online. Both produce the most beautiful works that are created by shaping the outside of a block of clay, before then hollowing out the slightly dried block. 

Lidded pot by Kaneta Masanao

Teabowl by Lucien Koonce

My most recent piece is another large coil pot, my biggest so far. It is made from a Doble's stoneware clay rich in iron, giving it the reddish colouring. Though pleased with the outcome, I need now to give some serious consideration to developing my own style through the application of decorative slips, oxides and glazes.

Recent work

My most recent work, a coil pot completed yesterday, is based on a small scale Korean Onggi storage pot. It's one of my largest works so far, built from a buff stoneware, combined with Doble's DSS stoneware.

Exhibition Time

Last night saw the opening of our course exhibition at The Poly in Falmouth. It is the culmination of the course, and offers us our first opportunity to display our work to the public.

Despite any initial concerns about the worthiness of our work, it all looked great once set up, and seemed to be well received by those at the private viewing. Thanks must go to Penny Clifford, our tutor, who has put in a considerable amount of extra-curricular time in organising the whole event.

Final piece

My final piece emerged unscathed from its initial, bisque firing. The black stoneware clay appears as a dark red, due to the amount of iron oxide used to stain the clay, but this will hopefully darken a little when glaze fired at a higher temperature. The irregular black band around the top of the vessel is from the application of copper oxide between two lines of wax resist. 

 

Moving forward

As my second course comes to a close, and we start to put the finishing touches to our final pieces in readiness for our little exhibition at the Poly in Falmouth at the beginning of July, I realise just how important pottery has become to me. Whilst working full-time, I often find myself thinking about new ceramic projects, considering what glazes I would like to experiment with, and just how much I would like to commit more of my time to this new creative outlet that I have discovered a passion for.

It's easy to waste time wishing that I had discovered this new found love earlier in life, at a time when I could have studied it at college properly, without having to worry about paying the mortgage, or when I could have spent time with my uncle Frank, a man who as a young boy I loved to spend time with on the golf course, totally unaware of what interest I might also have had in the vast knowledge and experience of ceramics he gained from a lifetime working at many of the major pottery firms in Stoke, and teaching at Staffs. Poly. But there's no time for all that.

In a world that is blighted by unrest and distrust, and in a week that has witnessed both the massacre of so many innocent members of the LGBT community enjoying a night out in Orlando, and the gunning down of a young, brilliant MP who had devoted her life to humanitarian causes around the world, it is hard not to despair. Time seems too short to waste arguing and fighting, when we should all be concentrating on pursuing our interests and passions, caring for our loved ones, and doing whatever little we can to build a fairer, more honest society, in which its members can coexist peacefully. So I intend to vote to stay within a community that will support each other as well as those escaping more difficult situations for the sake of their families, do all I can to continue to look after my lovely family, and pursue my creative interest in pottery, in the hope that, one day I will manage to produce work that I'm happy with and hopefully brings some degree of enjoyment to others.

Finally - firing

I've been waiting a long time for this day, but finally it has arrived! The first firing of my kiln started yesterday, and I've just unpacked it, and apart from one slab pot with a thrown neck, which clearly wasn't quite attached well enough, everything else bisque fired successfully.

Over the past few months, building up to this stage, I have been concentrating on producing a range of pots using mostly coil techniques; I have also become the proud owner of a pugmill, courtesy of Ebay (what else?), and spent a warm Sunday afternoon earlier this month reclaiming all the clay waste from the previous six months. Despite being obtained very cheaply, the pug performed beautifully, and will quickly earn its keep, as I continue to strive to produce pots that I feel happy with.

It's a very difficult position to find yourself in, whereby you are creating a craft item from scratch, with only your own thoughts to guide and assess your progress, and in my case, without the benefit of having spent three years at art college, with the freedom to explore and experiment, build your making skills to a confident level, without the pressures of having to find buyers for your wares. Though I have no realistic aspirations to earn my living as a potter, I do aspire to produce work of such a quality that someone, somewhere might consider it of sufficient merit to exhibit it in a gallery, and for it to hold its own against established, trained potters.

However, placing my feet more firmly on the ground, and not getting too carried away with myself, I need to be content with taking smaller steps, and today, pulling my intact, bisque fired pots out of the kiln, takes me one step further.

Its taken a while to muster up the confidence to invest in a new controller for the kiln, but with the assistance of Simon Warren at SM&K Ltd, I now have the ability to bisque and glaze fire my pots. Simon and his colleague were extremely helpful, not only in supplying and installing the controller, but also in taking the time to talk me through the firing process, demonstrating how the controller works and inputting a couple of introductory firing programmes. My thanks to them both.

Now just the tricky task of deciding how to glaze them - a whole new challenge to overcome.

In the meantime, I am continuing to work towards completing the NCFE level 2 course I'm working on at evening class, and the exhibition of work at the end of the course, at The Poly, Falmouth in July.

My final piece for the course, which I producing in BIS, black, grogged clay from Doble's clay pit in St Agnes, is my largest coiled piece to date, measuring 18 x12".

Pot photos

Have spent a fair bit of time taking photos of my more recent pots, all small scale, not got round to firing any of the coil pots yet, due largely to the limited access to a kiln, though hope to have my electric kiln wired up in the next few weeks!! Can't wait. In the meantime, you can see my photos at:
http://alistairwillshawceramics.weebly.com/