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Slip cast bowls

admin — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 22:19:25 +0000

This stag beetle bowl was made using ceramic slip – I call it ‘ The Stag party’. Each section is cast separately and then joined together inside a plaster mould.
You can buy ready made slip in buckets or make it up yourself if you have a big mixer of some sort, or a blunger. We used this technique during a recent ceramic workshop.

First pour your slip on to a textured plaster tile and leave it to dry until its no longer shiny.

Remove your piece of textured clay…

And place it inside a plaster mould, textured side facing the wall…

You can also dip cotton textiles in slip before placing the cloth inside your mould. It is important that all clay pieces are properly attached to each other and that they lie flush against the wall of the mould.

It is a messy old job! Once the bowl is finished you leave it to dry for a few hours before removing it from the plaster mould.

I will upload the finished results shortly. For more information, this is a link to my work shop diary.

Art is for everyone!

admin — Sun, 16 May 2010 16:23:12 +0000

I sometimes hear people say that they ‘haven’t an artistic bone in their body’ and I can’t help feeling both sad and a little bit upset. I believe that art and artistic expression is our birth right; everyone is born creative, curious, expressive and full of joy and exuberance. Most of that is ‘educated’ out of us at an early age. We are taught that for art to be considered ‘good’ it must be expensive and forbidding, the artist should preferably be dead, and his/her work hung behind bars in a museum.
I am delighted to find that most people who come to my ceramic workshops produce expressive, individual and beautiful work and that they have a fantastic time doing so. During one of my first classes a lady psychiatrist in her fifties suddenly exclaimed that she hadn’t had this much fun since she was a child!
And this is exactly what I want to deliver; a space for you to rediscover just how much fun it is to create something with your own hands!

New Ceramic Workshops

Anna — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 21:27:44 +0000

The next ceramic course is planned for Saturday 7th November at 11-13.30pm. This course is a five sessions workshop covering essential ceramic techniques such as coiling, slab building, press moulding and smoke firing. Each session is 2.5 hours long. This course costs £110 + materials (approx. £10).
The groups are limited to five participants only, so book your place early to save disappointment.
To view my current workshop diary, where I’ll show you how to make a fern bowl like this, please go here