Our Lady of the Rosary and St Lukes Brick commission

Well at last I have pictures of the installed piece.

Not sure why I have not been to see it yet....time, busyness etc but my mother went to stay at her sisters in Staffordshire and visit her oldest friend in Newport, Shropshire a few miles away from the piece so she went to take pictures. It is actually not far from where I grew up in Shropshire but it gives away the fact that I am a ceramic cliche as I was born in Stoke (it says so on my passport!) My parents are from Newcastle-under-Lyme and most of the relatives worked in pot banks or brick works.  So must be in the blood?

rotating pictures

This has never happened to me before but I can not for the life of me turn my pictures in my blog the right way round. I have always done it before i uploaded them but they have reverted to their original at source....help anyone please.



done it!

you have to do it in picasa web where your blog pictures are stored but noe they look squished hmmmmm.


phew then you go in to edit and revert normal size and choose the size you want a palaver if anything put the guinea pigs are looking good waiting on the finished photos from the  school too.

back in the saddle

First workshop back this term and what a day we had! I went to work at Wheatley Lane Primary school looking at PSHE (?) and looking after things i.e. the class guinea pigs. 

How cute! I was given one to hold called Toffee and to be honest I was very excited! The teacher did say she was going to check my pockets before I left just in case I had smuggled poor Toffee out. There were two class gps which were very young and very cute. Then lovely TA brought in her 'babies' for us to study and draw. 

After lunch we then launched into making clay heads from our drawings.Using basic thumb pot techniques we used a red earthenware add  a little porcelain for definition at the end.

I added a little copper too to enhance the sgraffito designs.

Pendles first Print Biennial

Well that was a full fun packed weekend I can tell you. Will over 700 visitors to the first Print fest held at the Mill and over £3000 worth of sales so all the hard work promoting and cleaning and tidying was worth it. The cakes weren't too bad too....

The soil on the floor was part of a performance piece from one of the international artist Buffy Klama and we all took part as resident mill artists. There is a video but will post links when edited. it was very funny as we all fell to the floor and people just carried on as if we weren't there! 

Though one lovely lady asked if I was ok down there. 

A good do was had by all.

Pendles first International Print Biennial at Higherford Mill this weekend

Anita Burrows Lino print

You are all welcome to the

Preview Evening of the first Pendle International Print Festival this Friday 

31st August 6 - 8 pm featuring resident artists

Buffy Klamma from Berlin, Germany &

Jetta Araneo from Odense, Denmark

Then Saturday and Sunday 10am - 4pm with a number of exhibiting artists featured on the websites

http://www.pendleprintfest.org/

dedicated to the festival 

or our new page on facebook which has an artist featured daily who will be exhibiting at the Biennial.

https://www.facebook.com/HigherfordMillArtists

holidays are over

Back to work this week after short breaks in London and elsewhere. My tan is from a weekend dog sitting in Carnforth and no one believes me, it is I promise. So a bit of paper shuffling and studio cleaning and not much else so I am off to play with clay today as I have missed it.

Carnforth fun with Charlie dog. Before he had his op on his leg! Who knew that such a white dog would have such Dalmatian like skin underneath all that white fur!

London Olympic stadium in Lego! 

Nice London bricks.

Gelato mio oh why aren't you nation wide your sorbet is to die for!

http://www.gelatomio.co.uk/index.shtml 

Potfest in the Park 2012

 

 My stand at Potfest between the lovely Simon Griffiths

 and the lovely Gwen Bainbridge

Potfest Competition on the Lawn

Gwen Bainbridge

 Elaine Peto

 Mark Smith and Simon Griffiths

Mine

Christine Hestor Smith

 

 Wayne Clark

 Paul Young

Fiona Duckett

Potfest and witches 400 it's all go

Well tomorrow is the set up for Potfest and 

today was the last day working on the cloak. 

Am slightly tired which is probably an understatement. 

Work in progress for the Witches 400

So this is a sneak peak at the work I am producing for the Witches 400 exhiition at the Platform Gallery in Clitheroe.

The piece is about Alice Nutter the only well to do woman accused of witchcraft in the Pendle Witch Trails held in 1612 at Lancaster Castle.

I have been using a black stoneware for the feathers which are hand stitched on to the fabric representing a crows wing, inspired by the landscape of the time and the fact she is now said to live at Crowtrees Farm, Roughlee.

There are a few other pieces that I will take pics when they are ready but everything has to be delivered by Wednesday eek!

Witches 400 brick waymarkers

Well the last community workshop is over we had a lovely day in the 'bowels' of the Judges Lodgings in Lancaster working with 7 participants. We looked at the medicinal side of the potions and spells said to be used to cure the ills of the folk and livestock of the time by the accused. These will be stained and send back to the brick factory in Chesterton to be fired and then displayed at the Platform Gallery from the 28th of July 2012.

The blocks will then be installed on a new walking route from Barrowford to Lancaster to commemorate the anniversay of the Pendle Witch trials in 1612

I would like to thank all that were involved with the workshops from Slaidburn, Barrowford and Lancaster the results are so much better than I could of imagined.
I really am pleased and proud of all of you. 

Can't wait to see them fired and installed.

more info for the project can be found here...www.witches400.org