Finishing my forms and reflection on this unit

This week I have been creating my chimney forms and also experimenting more with surface texture, sgraffito, oxides and glazes on their surfaces.

I have really enjoyed experimenting with different textures and creating a variety of sizes and shapes for my forms.

I feel that my recent forms, made in ivory stoneware clay with sgraffito on their surfaces, have been very successful as I really like the contrast between the intricacy and the preciseness of the sgraffito drawings and the randomly distributed textures across the surface of the forms.

After looking at my test tiles in my previous blog post I decided that I wanted to create different surfaces, textures and colours across my forms using glazes oxides and coloured slips. Therefore this week I have also been experimenting with applying oxides and glazes to some of my pieces.

I feel that my key motivations for this unit were to explore using the images from the industrial revolution and to experiment with how I could transfer these images onto clay. I also wanted to experiment with how I could evoke feeling from my pieces much like how I felt very strongly when I looked at these images.

During this unit I have discovered that I really enjoy working in ceramics as I was never sure before whether I should focus on ceramics or metal. I feel that my ideas and designs best fit ceramics as it allows me to explore surface pattern (which in this unit I have discovered I am very interested in and would like to explore in the future)and texture and create forms I would find it hard to do in metal.

I researched this project thoroughly from the start and feel that this enabled me to realise what it was about the industrial revolution that fascinated me and what I wanted to explore. I feel that I planned my time well and therefore made the most of all my time in the workshops.

I found that both my individual tutorials but especially the group tutorials helped me greatly as by listening to everyone else talk about their work it enabled me to see how they needed to improve. Therefore it made it clearer to me and easier for me to understand what I needed to do to progress when talking about my own work. I feel that I really developed my self-analysis in this project and I am now more confident in analysing my own work and reflecting on how I could improve it.

I do however feel that I need to improve on my reflective writing as I’ve found it difficult in this unit to get straight to the point in my blog posts and not be too descriptive.

Oxides, glazes and forms.

Last week I concentrated on testing out glazes and oxides on my test pieces of clay with textured surfaces and also on my sgraffito samples.

My ambition is to bring out the texture of the surfaces I create on my forms by using oxides to create a worn and derelict effect on my pieces, much like the bricks of the cotton mills in the industrial revolution.

By firing this sgraffito sample (below) to 1240 the coloured slip, which I applied and in places scratched away, has transformed from chalky dull reds, blacks and oranges to vibrant burnt chimney like colours which I feel are very effective and reflect the industrial quality I want to achieve in my work.

I also feel these samples are very effective as I like the way the clear shiny glaze and the clear matt glaze bring out different colours and qualities from the coloured slip and the oxides.

When making my final chimney forms I plan to use both a clear matt glaze, a clear shiny glaze and just oxides and also to leave the sgraffito bare in places to create different surfaces, textures and colours across my forms.

Last week I also did sketches for my chimney forms and planned out the designs that are going to be on their surfaces. However after making a prototype of a chimney form I realised that I didn’t like how stocky and wide my designs had become so I have now changed my forms to cylinders as I like the way they tower up and more subtly hint towards the chimneys of the industrial revolution. I would really like to make these cylinders of varying sizes, some as tall as me, and would like to create a large group of them so they create an ominous and entrapping atmosphere much like the living conditions and the cotton mills in the industrial revolution. 

These collages below, that I created, portray the kind of textures and colours I want my chimney forms to have with the images in amongst all of these textures.

Here are some sketches I did for my chimney forms before I decided they should be more cylindrical.

Experimenting with textures and images on clay

Last week and this week I have been focusing on how I could transfer the images of the industrial revolution onto clay and also how I could add texture to the clay I used to build my vessels.

Firstly I experimented with scratching an image of one of Lowry’s paintings into a plaster block I made; I then used this as a way of creating a relief print onto the clay. I feel this technique worked very well as I really like the quality of the raised lines printing this block of plaster onto clay produced and the raised pattern it created.

I have also been testing out creating images using sgraffito. I enjoy using this technique as I like the way you can paint the coloured slip onto the clay to create colour for your image and also how you can reveal layers of colour from the layers of slip applied to the clay and the texture created by scratching into the clays surface.

To try and create texture in the clay I was using I investigated how I could add materials such as rice, mung beans, poppy seeds, sawdust and sunflower seeds to the clay. Some of these experiments were more successful than others however as inclusions such as the rice and the mung beans absorbed too much of the water from the clay too quickly and therefore the clay cracked and crumbled. This would be no use for my work as I was planning to use this clay with inclusions to build vessels so I tried to think of another way that I could get the pattern and texture of the seeds onto the clay’s surface without actually leaving the seeds in the clay.

 

I came up with the idea of gluing the seeds onto card and then rolling the card onto the clay so therefore you could peel the seeds off again. I experimented with rolling the seed covered pieces of card onto some relief prints I had created using my etched into plaster block. I feel that this technique was very effective as I liked the pattern and texture the seeds produced and the way the texture of the seeds disrupted and distorted my image. This effect reminded me of the texture of the bricks and the dereliction of the buildings of the industrial revolution so I feel this technique effectively reflects my inspiration for this project.

 

During the remainder of this week I am exploring how I can use oxides to colour some of my samples and how I can create a brick like effect by using oxides that will come out black, red and orange. I am also doing more designs in my sketch book for possible forms of vessels I can create and I am refining the designs I intend to put onto these vessels and how best I can achieve the effect I want to create. I am also going to experiment with the size I could make these vessels as I’d like to explore how big I could make these forms so that they towered above you and created an ominous atmosphere much like the chimneys of the cotton mills in the industrial revolution.

Initial ideas and workshop progress

I had a group tutorial on the 14^th of October and by listening to everyone else’s ideas and also through talking through my thoughts out loud I discovered that I was trying to focus on too many ideas and needed to narrow them down to just one. Kirsteen asked me to think about which element of the industrial revolution it was that interested me the most and I decided that it was the feeling and atmosphere of the time that you got a strong sense of from old photographs I had found and also in Lowry’s paintings.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0YrB8uNZRExcYp9AqXBtPvf3sRBkXmDjUzWCTXZ7eY2DNqui5GM8g-5DsedEsLc6vpHdQ3kYKcNvBZLE5ZKU6G2PF-ruVBJ3m4g0fxlt1pcBj71XGmQ4CTveyJSUOTD0eKWYOsKwe3Eg/s640/Cotton_Mill-India.jpg

http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/Atherton/images/Atherton1950Montage.jpg

http://theredeyeportal.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/cotton_town430x300.jpg

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/images/work/T/T00/T00111_10.jpg

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http://www.tate.org.uk/art/images/work/N/N06/N06032_10.jpg

I like how Lowry utilises colour in his work to portray the dreary and smoggy conditions that the people of Manchester had to live in at this time. I also really like the grand scale of the factories that towered over the workers houses and the feeling of foreboding they induced. I feel I am also fascinated with life at the time of the industrial revolution as I have never experienced life like the workers did.

We then had a morning of ideas generation where we had to draw our initial designs. I found this very useful as it made me:

• Focus on what it was I actually wanted to produce.
• I’m planning to create vessels of a chimney like structure that will have images of buildings from the industrial revolution on their surface. 
• I want to create a series of these chimneys that will tower over one another and create almost a small town of their own.
• I am planning to explore how I can use texture and colour on these vessels to induce a feeling of the industrial revolution.
• I want to experiment with melting metal onto the surface of these vessels to create more texture and a tar like effect.
• I would like to use sgraffito to transfer the images onto my pots as I did some drawings of the pictures I had collected and what I liked most about my drawings was the quality and density of built up lines and I wanted to transfer this line quality onto my vessels.
• Therefore this week in the workshops I am going to test out the melting points of certain metals in the kiln.
• I am going to explore combining certain materials such as seeds in the clay to create more texture to give my pots a more brick like quality. 
• I am planning to try using sgraffito to transfer my images onto clay.

Here are a few pictures of scenes I have drawn of images from the industrial revolution.

 

 

 

 

Museum of Science and Industry

I visited the Museum of Science and Industry on Thursday as I decided that for this new project I would like to focus on the industrial revolution in Manchester. I have always wanted to find out more about it and I really love the city's industrial buildings. The main things that I found that inspired me in the museum was the history about Manchester's cotton mills, the industrial machines and a few items I found in the museum’s collection.

Therefore I feel I would like to explore in this project so far how I could incorporate the history of Manchester’s cotton mills into my work and also I was fascinated by the mechanical movements of the machines I saw and I really liked the metallic, heavy and clunky sounds they produced. I would also like to experiment with using movement in my work, be this by creating kinetic sculptures or using movement somehow to change pieces I create over time, for example; using a machine to splash paint onto my work or acid onto metal?

Here are some research photos and videos I took of the machines in the museum. 

I also was inspired by these objects I found in the museum’s collection and feel their unusual forms may inspire my work in this project.

British Ceramics Biennial

On Tuesday I went to the British Ceramics Biennial with Olivia and Mollie. I was really impressed with all the work there and found it was a very inspiring exhibition which demonstrated many possibilities of new ways to work in ceramics.

A few of my favourite works were:

Hothouse by Miche Follano, I was really impressed by Follano’s work and loved how small and intricate the vessels she created were and also the way she had experimented with mixing ceramics and metal by putting items such as nails though the clay and melting them in the kiln. In this project I would also like to experiment with finding ways to combine metal and clay and found her work very inspiring.

I admired  Luke Bishop's use of colour, his experimentation with mixed media, for example wrapping items such as elastic bands round his vessels, the unusual forms of his pieces and the eccentricity of his work. Bishop has inspired me to be more adventurous with my ideas in ceramics and has inspired me yet again to work in mixed media.

 

I also really liked and admired the quality of Grant Mc Caig’s work and the way he has combined wood, which often had a previous purpose, for example the old handle of a paintbrush, and then gave it a new purpose. I really liked the contrast between the old and battered wood and the new and delicate silver. His work has inspired me to experiment in wood as well as in ceramics and metal.

Finally I was also inspired by Annie Jones's work and the concept of her pieces degenerating over time and therefore changing. I feel her work is relevant to my new project as I am planning to explore using elements to change the pieces I create over time.

 

 

 

Trip to Crosby Beach

I really enjoyed our trip to see Antony Gormley’s sculptures on Crosby Beach on Thursday the 26^th September. I really liked the fact that as you got to the sculptures further out to sea they were more covered in barnacles and therefore more unrecognisable. I enjoyed the idea that the sculptures change over time and would like somehow to involve this element in my work in this project.