A year on

It's been a year since finishing my MA, and I've been taking time - both to continue making and also to focus on what I want to do going forward. I feel the need to register as a business, but first find a way to describe myself and my story in a succinct, understandable, short …

Exhibition

Final stage - setting up the exhibition.  Walcot Chapel, Bath.

Holiday raku firing

Well I have around 40 raku-fired peat slices, fired in the garden over the last couple of weeks. Some adjustments had to be made to increase the carbon intake as some firings came out of the reduction bins too light, however, theses have added texture and contrast to the final stack. Each peat slice was …

Last bisque firing

I fired the final 18 peat slices in Jeff, at 1000 degrees on Wednesday. He was around 300 today and cooling so I’ll empty tomorrow and load more boxes of bisque fired peat slices into the car for firing over the holiday. My porch is crammed with bags of burning peat, a raku kiln, Tongs, …

Raku firing

I raku fired 10 peat slices today, 5 fitted at a time in the raku kiln. I used a mixture of peat ash and glaze medium to brush over them, the same as the text tile. The mixture was added in thin layers with some sprinkled on top. I didn't sieve the ash but left …

Practice stacks

I spent a day trying different stack designs on top of a palette, referencing that stacks are often built on palettes. I wanted to work out if I needed more than the 30 I've already made. The palette helped me stack off the concrete floor, I used museum putty to anchor key pieces as there …

Studio this week

I've been press moulding this week, as discussed last week I was worried that I'd lost the correct proportion when I cut down the size of the peat slice, and that the moulds were too square in section. I press moulded a few full sized crank peat slices, then started wiring them in half and …

Development of herringbone poem

The shape of the concrete poem developed into a full herringbone. It reflects the straight lines of the cut peat bog, the right angles and the herringbone design of the peat stacks.

Press mould and glaze tests

I press moulded slabs of crank, this one took up 3/4 of a full 12.5kg bag of clay. I rolled the slabs onto some dried heather and bog cotton from the Moss and plan to keep the clay raw. I worry that since cutting the plaster slab into 2 (as I couldn't lift the whole …

Press mould

On Friday, after I finished the five-part slip casting mould, I made a two-part press mould of the 10% small plaster model of the peat slice. I am planning to press mould raw clay blocks for stacking, incorporating additions from on site, like leaves etc that were on the raw slices I was experimenting with …