Artisan Exhibition. April 25-28th 2012.

 

Before I knew it, it was time for our exhibition.

 

It was called 'Artisan' and was held at Fabrika in Leicester city centre, between the 25th and 28th of April 2012.

This was the first proper exhibition that I've been part of and it was very exciting!! Seeing people take photos of your work and ask you about it is the best feeling. Definitely worth the stress!!

 

Here's a photo of the exhibition and my stand:

 

 

Not only was it a very satisfying end to the year, but also an invaluable experience that should set us up nicely for organising our degree show!!

 

Here's some close-ups of my favourite pieces:

 

Exhibition Project Continued...

Once knew what I was doing and had sorted out my glazes, I could finally start making. And what a pain in the backside the making was...!!

 

 

These were easy enough (I say easy - if anyone works with porcelain, you will know how easily it cracks and how frustrating it can be!!)...

 

 

But these two were a complete and utter nightmare. After days of reparing, drying, spraying, cracking and bucket loads of tears, they both broke due to the pressure on the joins.

I was devastated but I was able to make each one into 2 seperate pieces, so it turned out alright in the end.

 

 

Once they were fired I sanded them with wet and dry sandpaper and then, sprayed on my glaze and fired them again up to 1260°c. One touched another piece in the kiln so has two little marks on it, and another one cracked, but otherwise I'm really pleased with how they came out.

 

 

I felt they looked a little plain as a set so I added some Pâte de Verre to my favourite pieces to represent the rivers on the map...

 

 

... and was absolutely ecstatic with how they came out!!

 

 

Pâte de Verre'd wall maps with their 3D counterpieces.

Exhibition Project Continued...

 

Next, I looked at glazes. I found a few amazing green glazes during the Creative Approaches project and I combined some of these to create my own colour:

 

 

The differences are subtle but I found a celadon green that I was very happy with.

I then started to experiment with different oxides to see how much I could change the glaze, and whether I would like the results enough to put on my final pieces:

 

 

On Porcelain with the addition of Illmenite.

 

 

On Buff Stoneware with the addition of Red Iron Oxide.

 

 

All on Porcelain with the addition of Manganese Dioxide (left), Medium Rutile (middle) and Copper Carbonate (right).

  

 

On Porcelain with the addition of Red Iron Oxide and Tenmoku glaze edge.

 

I had a quick play around with mixing different glazes on the same piece as well. I didn't like a majority of them but I like the bottom piece.

 

 

Different green glazes and Tenmoku glaze on Buff Stoneware.

 

 

Porcelain with the addition of Tenmoku glaze.

Year Two - Exhibition Project

The final project of second year involved coming together as a course and complatetly organising an exhibition.

We divided ourselved into groups and I became head of finance. This meant opening a bank account for our course and keeping track of all the fundraising and incoming/outgoing money and paying the venue/caterers etc.

We also, obviously, had to create a body of work to go into the exhibition.

I concentrated on maps and places that I have lived in.

Here's some photos of my samples:

  

 

Samples based on East Sussex, Brighton, Leicestershire, Leicester and my local area(s).
 

 

I looked at the rivers in these areas and added some Pâte de Verre to represent them. This didn't come out exactly how I wanted it to as I used powder instead of frit.

 

 

It looks good where it sank into cracks but not when it just sits on the surface.

Sainsbury's Competition Brief News!!

FOUND OUT I GOT SHORTLISTED FOR THE SAINSBURY'S PROJECT!!

YAYYYYYYYY :D

There's 5 of us all together and we get to go to the Sainsbury's headquarter's in Coventry to present our ideas to the design team!! So exciting!!

Pâte de Verre

 One of the things I hope to do before the end of my course is to combine glass and ceramics.

During the Creative approaches project, I did some experimentation with Pâte de Verre.

Pâte de Verre translates literally to 'Glass Paste'. You pack glass powder or crushed frit (mixed with water and fusing glue) into a mold and fire to low temperature so that the glass fuses but doesn't completely melt.

I really like the texture this process produces and heard that you can add it to ceramic - an easy way to combine glass and ceramic - so I wanted to give it a try.

 

 

Packed into a female mold

 

Pasted on top of a male mold.

 

 

Applied onto glazed tiles. Stayed very well!!

 

 

SUCCESS!!

 

 

Applied to final pieces.

The pattern represents a river running through a landscape.

Year Two - Creative Approaches

2012 came with my worst project. I just did not understand it at all. I couldn't find a theme I found interesting enough to relate to so it was all a bit random.

However, I did build up a huge base of different glazes which was really useful!!

Here's some photos of my random selection of samples:

 

 

Lots of diffferent ideas for shapes, techniques, decoration and colour.

 

 

Some of my favourites.

 

 

 

Reduction glaze samples.

 

 

'Final' pieces.

 

In the end I started to look at piercing and the placement of the holes in realtion to places and maps.

I really like the tearing and layering effect but didn't want the pieces to be too complicated with the textured glazes.