Echinacea Range
| December 8, 2008 | ||
| 1:00 pm |
After too much lazing around eating chocolate, consuming far too much lovely food and wine it’s always great to get back into the swing of work after Christmas. This year was no exception and I’ve been busy establishing a new range of work started in 2007.
Way back in the summer of last year I spent some time working in the garden at Sledmere House as part of East Riding Artists “Artist in the Garden” project. It was hot and sunny and I spent a delightful day sketching plants and carving sample porcelain tiles. When I got back to the studio I worked on the tiles, testing out textures and playing with lines until gradually the new Echinacea range evolved.
The range features the fantastic Echinacea plants that were growing very vigorously in the walled garden - tall scupltural forms full of life and attitude. I have thrown full round bowls and skinny vases in porcelain then pinched the rims whilst still soft from the wheel to create a deckled edge. At leatherhard stage the outsides are then carved with the echinacea forms and smothered with black slip. Once it has dried the slip is scraped back to leave a delicate inlaid line. The pots are glazed with my usual satin white glaze and highlights on the petals picked out with shiny glaze and oxide - which fluxes in the kiln to a softly bleeding turquoise. The result id delicate yet with a strong form which I hope reflects the character of the plants.
I’ve also developed the test tiles into Wall Pieces. The small and medium sizes feature the Echinacea flowerheads in a clump just as they were in the garden with prominent domed seed heads clustered in stamens. Others are composite pictures of two or three tiles together in a frame. Please check them out on the website - the gallery has several images of this range.
