Salt pots

A few months a go I signed up for a throwing course and 3 hours at V22 Studio in Bermondsey proved to be pretty productive, despite a slight hangover. I actually got even more 'into the zone' from the slightly muzzy head. Anyway, I produced 4 salt pots which I decorated with blue and white slip, inspired by the crashing waves on the Cornish coastline, where I spent three years at University.
I gave one to my Stepdad for his 60th Birthday along with a pot of Cornish sea salt, which can be bought here.

Day 2 Pinch pots

Seven down, three more to do today. I've decided to start drawing them too, this way I can experiment with textures & colours before applying and regretting. 

 

 

 

Mike Dodd - work

I particularly like his white ash glaze domestic pieces.

Mike Dodd

An all round productive day yesterday as I managed to visit the Contemporary Ceramics Centre. It was love at first sight when I found the work of Mike Dodd. What an incredibly busy and fulfilling career!

 Words from Studio Pottery.com

Mike Dodd

Mike Dodd was born in Sutton, Surrey in 1943. He attended Bryanston School, Dorset, from the age of fourteen and studied pottery under Donald Potter who in turn was a student of Eric Gill. He left Cambridge University in 1965 with an honours degree, and took a post-graduate course in Ceramics at Hammersmith College of Art in London.
Mike opened his first pottery at Edburton near Brighton, Sussex in 1968. He built a double chamber wood-fired kiln and produced ash glazed stoneware and porcelain for four years before moving the pottery to larger premises at Battle, Sussex. In 1975 he moved to Hale, Cornwall where he built a Korean style climbing kiln from local Cornish materials and started producing his own glazes from local granites, clays, wood ashes, irons and ochres.
Mike's experience of building and using the Korean kiln led the organizers of the Amuesha Indian Project to ask him to build a similar kiln in the central jungles of Peru. The project was aimed at keeping the indigenous people in their natural home. He spent six months working with the American project leader, Connie Talbot.
Cumbria was Mike's next home. He had been a Senior Lecturer and then Department Head at Cumbria College of Art since 1981, and in 1986 moved his pottery to Boltongate in Cumbria. Again he sought out local materials for his glazes, using granites, hornsfels (hornsfel is a metamorphic rock type created when igneous and sedimentary rock is subjected to great temperatures, pressures or both), andesites (volcanic rock), irons and ashes.
Mike returned to the south in 1994, this time to Beaminster, Dorset, where he stayed until 1999 when he moved to his present home, Butleigh in Somerset. Mike says that when he moves from Butleigh it will be feet first.
Apart from those already mentioned, Mike has held teaching positions at Farnham College of Art, Medway College of Art, Harrow College of Art, the Royal College of Art, Derby College of Art, Dundee College of Art, Manchester Polytechnic, Preston Polytechnic, and has addressed the International Potters' Camp at Aberystwyth, the Functional Pottery Conference at Bolton, the Landshut College for Ceramics in Germany the workshop at Golen Bridge Pottery in Pondicherry, India. He has written numerous articles for magazines and has been written about just as frequently.
His work is in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the British Craft Council, Bath Study Centre, the Clevedon Craft collection and Ulster Museum.
In Mike's own words . . .

Form, quality of surface, sensitivity of touch, appropriateness of clay and firing incidentals all contribute to a visual and tactile language more visceral than conceptual, which deepens through continual acquaintance and use. To help develop this language I use naturally occurring rocks, clays and wood-ashes in formulating glazes. The complex of metal oxides present in granite, hornsfels, andesite and basalt provide unique and beautiful glazes closely related to Mother Earth's seasonal colours. The search for strong form and for glazes which can enhance and elucidate this formal language requires commitment and continual choice. Finally, the work is surrendered to the fire. Although disasters occur, they are more than compensated by "gifts from the kiln" - those pots that are better than you could have hoped for. These prove the spur to deepen understanding - an understanding, it is hoped, which quietly communicates itself at times of use and contemplation.

Great albums, great artwork 1

Four tet - there is love in you

The Album Leaf - In a safe place

James Blake - Overgrown

Pinch pots

After eventually making it to Jackson's Art Supplies, I purchased a 5kg bag of clay and carried it on my shoulder through the streets of 'Ackney like the Artful Dodger returning with his swag.
Pinch pots are on today's agenda. Some inspiration from found images and the little comedy handles seen on that Greek vessel at the British Museum influenced my first attempt, which can be seen in it's unfired state. I doubt my low quality oven can make it to 100degrees let alone 1000.

My 1st pinch pot. Subconsciously inspired by an avocado I was eating at the time

Nesting pinch pots with pressed hole design

G.Vaudt nesting pinch pots

British Museum

As I said, I finally made it there. Foolishly, it was the first time I'd stepped foot in the place after living in London for nearly 4 years. Amazing, love it and the contemporary Korean Ceramics centre is completely tourist-free and probably one of my new favourite places in London. My only regret is not taking a real life camera as trusty palm friend isn't too keen on taking lots of pictures. Here's a small selection of interesting shaped domestic items from way back.

Greek vessel with tiny comedy handles

Pottery cup with a strap handle. Greek 1800-1550 BC

Chinese serving plate with some kind of crackle glaze & beautiful colours

Greek pottery cup 2900 - 2600 BC Elongated handle looks inviting

Black glazed mug with red bands. Laconian 6th C BC