The year in review

Well, it's that time again when everyone looks back at what they have accomplished over the past 12 months, and looks forward to what they hope they will achieve. I didn't feel like I had accomplished very much until I looked through my blog posts for the past year. Was it really less than a year ago that I completed Swanee and Polo? I suppose that is an achievement, only marred by the pressure I have put on myself to produce more. (I don't know where I got this idea from that I have to produce something new every month, and that every piece has to be bigger and better than the one before) So let's look back over the year in a positive light, and remind myself just how productive I have been...

January As mentioned above, in January I finished making Swanee, my first animal sculpture. I made slip for the first time (although I still haven't tried any slip trailing) and I made my first mixed media piece, using loo roll! I also bought and used some water colours for the first time, which wasn't as awful as I thought it would be!

mixed media piece, inspired by Kathy LaRocco

February In February I started making Polo and also started my portrait of Scott when he was a little boy (which I still haven't finished!!)

March was a fantastic month, because I met Leanne!! As well as the chocolate exchange, I also managed to accumulate 3 pieces of Leanne's sgraffito pieces, as well as a bunny which she left for me to glaze, and her wonderful carving on one of my vases! I suppose that's my first collaboration! I also finished Polo that month, and then went on to make my Tree Fairy Vase (named by Kathy) which seemed easy in comparison!

April After Leanne's inspiring visit I bought myself some coloured slips to try out some sgraffito myself, as well as some slip inlaying. My pieces were obviously not as detailed or amazing as Leanne's, but I had fun!

sgraffito and slip inlaying

I also started my second Tree Fairy Vase that month, which is another project that is still unfinished!

By this time I was starting to accumulate quite a few bisque fired pieces in need of glazing, but so far my glazing had been a disaster!

But then, in May I had a very pleasant surprise with my ivy vase! My first glazing success!!



I then glazed Swanee and Polo, and left their fate in the hands of the kiln gods...

Success!! With June came the revealing of Swanee and Polo, and I was very happy with the results!! And just in time, because then I had my first exhibition with the FPAA, although I only had 3 pieces on display. Unfortunately, the ivy vase got damaged, and I really considered the whole event to be a disaster for me personally, although one artist admired my Polar bear, and he had just come back from being in the arctic for 3 months, so he should know what they look like!




I made a few other more functional pieces during June as well.


Well, I don't know about you, but I'm worn out already! I think I shall continue with the review later, when I shall also write my goals for this year.

You know that your nieces and nephews have stayed over too often when...

...the only channel you want to watch is the Disney channel and you can't stop singing Miley Stewart/Syrus/Hannah Montana/whatever-her-name-is songs!!

I hope you're all having a great time with your loved ones. Here's a little something for your delight.

Just a little something

I'm not going to mention the "S" word. You know, that white stuff that falls from the sky and makes everywhere look pretty and Britain come to a standstill. I love it, but we didn't have enough of it for my liking, so I'm sulking and I'm not going to mention it.

I am feeling much better now. Thank you for all your well wishes. I'm still not 100%, but much better than I was.

While I was ill I was sooo impatient to get my clay out, but I just didn't feel well enough. Yesterday I got my clay out for the first time and thought I would start with some simple pieces that were not too time consuming or physically demanding. So I made a couple of slabs to try out my Marianne design. What do you think?



The top one is slip inlaying. I carved out the image, then painted the slip on top and then scraped it off to reveal the image "inlaid" underneath. The second one is regular sgrafitto. I'm not that good at drawing though (the original drawing took me ages and I used the eraser quite a lot!) so I traced my original drawing, laid the paper on top of the clay, and drew over it to leave an imprint and used that as my guide. They're both slightly different though because I only traced the outline of the girl. Which one do you prefer?

Hey, look at this!

Well, believe it or not, I'm still ill, after nearly four weeks. Needless to say, I am starting to feel quite grouchy. However, this slide show of the exhibition on the Pytchley Village website cheered me up a little. This little slide show by no means shows every picture display, and out of nine tables only two were photographed - one of them being my own! Yay! I'm famous! I'm in the slide show! :)

Lots of waffle and photos - it's the virus talking

In my boredom, (due to illness, obviously, because who would normally have time to be bored?) I decided to try to finish that portrait of Scott when he was a kid. It still looks absolutely nothing like him and I'm not sure if it ever will. In fact, I think it looks more like my brother Robert when he was a kid. Strangely enough, whenever I see my brother Robert I always end up calling him Scott, and Scott, Robert, which he hates, but that's another story.



Scott tells me "It looks nothing like me" and in my mind I'm thinking "Yeah, tell me something I don't know". I'm getting really frustrated with this. So, I'm not a portrait artist. So what. There's a reason why I chose clay over pencils.

Talking of clay, I ordered some samples to try out the texture, colour, strength, ease of use, that sort of thing.


I only managed to try out one of them before I got ill. The one that looks red has a wide firing range, and comes out black in high temperatures and brown in lower temperatures. I wanted to see what the brown would be like, so I made a little something, nothing exciting (and I can't even be bothered to photograph it) so I will find out the colour in January when I get to fire it. I didn't really like the texture though. It was very coarse, more so than crank, and not very plastic, like garden soil with road grit in it! Ok, slight exaggeration! But they do two other clays the same colour and firing range but different textures, so I'll have to try them out too.

I've been having lots of ideas for my clay. More sgraffito mostly. I wanted a rose design that I could carve, but I didn't want to copy Leanne's beautiful design. So looked up some rose images on google and tried to draw a simple rose outline that I thought could work if it was carved on clay. I suppose I won't really know until I've tried it, but here it is, in my little sketch book.


And just to remind you (or just to show off, one last time) here is my vase that Leanne carved for me, with her rose design, now filled with porcelain roses.


Isn't it beautiful? Anyway, I digress...

I drew another little sketch in my sketch book, which I hope will translate well in to sgraffito, but I'm not sure, it might be too detailed. Again, I won't know until I try it. If it comes out well I'll probably use this image a lot. It makes me think of Marianne, pining for her Willoughby (Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen).


While I was looking through my sketch book I came across some ideas that I never did get round to painting. I went through a bit of a phase with triptychs... I only painted the top one of these designs. Remember Nanna's Bulrushes?



You see, I was already testing colours. I think they could be fun to paint too. Who knows, one day... Just like that portrait of Scott... one day! I'd made up my mind to give up on that, but you never know... Perhaps I should just start it all over again? I don't know, it's so frustrating.

Y'know, Mona's and Angela's drawings/paintings have been making me want to get my pastel pencils out and try drawing an animal, but I had soo much trouble drawing Scott's hair, what chance do I have of drawing something covered in fur?!

So that's my waffle for today. I must say, I prefer them with cinnamon and ice cream, but we can't have everything we want. I'll leave you with a couple of photos of Pete's pot, from class. This man has so much patience when he's decorating his pottery, and it pays off!

Out of Action

My silly virus took a turn for the worse last Monday. Well actually, the Doctor thinks I caught another virus on top of the one I already had. So I have been very poorly all week.

Doctors are amazing people aren't they? The one I spoke to on Tuesday was able to listen to my chest with his stethoscope down the phone line! He couldn't hear any wheezing so he said I should stay at home and let the virus run it's course, but to ring back if it got any worse. It did get worse, and I did ring back - four times this week actually - and each time I have been told that they can't do anything because it's viral but to ring back if it gets worse!

So now, on top of the muscle pains, swollen glands, sore throat, blocked sinuses and chesty cough, I also have blocked ears and a perforated eardrum and I can hardly hear a thing. But they can't do anything because it's a virus! (Edit: Add to that an upset tummy, and now laryngitis from coughing so much. Scott has got worse again now too and keeps throwing up) :(

I have trouble understanding the difference between a viral and bacterial infection. I understand that my aches and pains are viral, and even my cough and sinus trouble could be viral, but how is discoloured mucus viral?? I'm not a doctor, but surely there is a point where illness passes from viral to bacterial?

So anyway, I'm obviously out of action. I didn't go to class last week and I won't be going this week either. This week is the last class until January, so no goblets until then :( I shall have to postpone my girlie night anyway because it's less than a week away and I still feel like deaf I mean death. I can't even watch telly cos I can't hear it! So how bored do you think I am, just watching the clock until it's time for my next dose of pain killers?

The Exhibition - lots of photos!

Well, it's all over, and yes, I did manage to get to the preview evening after all. My silly virus has been very up and down, feeling like nothing more than a cold one day and then flu the next, so my sister very kindly collected my unsold pieces on Sunday evening. I say "unsold pieces", but that would be all of them! I didn't sell anything this time, but I'm not put off by that. Once again it was a great learning experience. The organiser (whose name I don't remember), was very encouraging and said that there was a lot of interest in my work but that people are more likely to buy when you have more pieces on display and have become more established, so he said to definitely come back next year. My table did look a little empty this year...


My dear friend Jeanne really liked my Ivy vase and Swan, but since she has arthritis in her hands she wouldn't have been able to carry either. (Note to self: make a smaller Ivy vase and Swan!)

Personally, I didn't think the standard was as high as it has been in previous years. That's not to say that there wasn't some beautiful pieces, and probably there were other exceptionally painted pieces that just didn't catch my eye for whatever reason. We all have different tastes. I know Jeanne and I have rarely agreed on pieces when we have come to Pytchley together before!

There definitely wasn't as many pieces as there have been previously either.

Of course, the first pieces to catch my eye were those of Stella Benford:


I don't know why that always happens. There's just something about her work that I absolutely love. This piece is made of clay and then set in a frame:


I totally love the beautiful colours in this one. I'm terrible for noting artists names though. Sorry about that.


I thought this one was beautiful. Sorry Mona, but there was only one horse painting that I could see, and it was no where near the standard of yours or Angela's. I hope this wolf satisfies you both!


Some of the paintings I like may seem like unusual choices. I don't know what attracts me to certain pieces sometimes, but for this one, it was the texture.


Again, I don't know why I like this one, I mean, it's a bunch of people standing around! But I love the colours.


Ok, I'm a sucker for winter scenes...



And this one is for those of you who love all things needle craft!


This little painting caught my eye because it looked like it was painted onto slate. It's only when I touched it I realised it was canvas.


Anita loved this seascape for it's crispness and colours.


Of course, being a village affair there were plenty of jams and pickles for sale, and even "Pytchley Honey"!


I thought these beehive candles were cute.


By the time I arrived for the preview evening, this table had been set up. It wasn't there in the morning when I had set up my pieces. Suddenly, the green eyed monster appeared!!



There's no getting away from it, the pieces are lovely and displayed beautifully. How could I compete with that? Interestingly this has been a topic on Mona's blog recently. Does the success of one artist have to mean the failure of another? I questioned one of the ladies about how they produce their items. She must have thought I was interested, but no, I was just weighing up the competition! I felt relieved once she told me that these are all made in moulds. I felt superior somehow, because my pieces are all hand built. How awful of me. I'm the first to admit that there are certain aspects of my personality that I have to work on. I don't know why I'm confessing all of this because it doesn't make me any nicer just because I'm open about it! I have to give credit where it is due, the pieces were decorated and glazed beautifully. Well done ladies. I hope you had some sales. Next year I'm going to get me some of that lovely satin material you used for your table!

And that's just about it. There were some artists who have exhibited here in previous years who didn't take part this year, and they were missed, by me at least. I look forward to next year!