For a while I have been thinking about tiles as an act of experimentation, they are something that can be created in the fraction of time for throwing, there is a lot less focus that goes into creating them, no hunching over the wheel. In some ways they are quite disposable.
I don’t generally use tile for glaze tests as they don’t have gravity and thickness’s similar to pots but I do use them to test ideas, patterns, new and more recently my saggars to see what effects are possible. In these sorts of ways the tiles are part of the experimentation and systematic testing that I was used to when I was a chemistry student many moons ago.
These are my first attempts at framing and I want to do more, and I want to work a lot more in tiles. I also want to work more at creating my own clays. These so far really have my creative juices flowing.
In case you didn’t see it my new youtube mini-series started woodworking for potters
So what do you the reader like and have you ever framed your ceramic work?
I didn’t know it at the time but James Hake gave the best advice to me when as an art student and I told him I wanted to be a Potter. His advice was simply that you should start off small, making only a small variety of objects, at most five or six. Those objects should be developed to the highest quality you can make before adding more objects to the range. I have to admit I didn’t listen having a whole shop to fill and I was too busy listening to the voices of potential customers, make this make…
Watching Alex Shimwell throw on YouTube always reminds me of watching Kevin Millward. Kevin Millward was a visiting tutor during my final year of my Undergraduate degree, he only taught at the university one day a week for four weeks. By this point I had been watching YouTube videos for a year to help with my throwing and I was truly awful. Not only did I not know what I was doing, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I had drawings of what I wanted to make which were far beyond my making abilities, so I just…
Or should that be thinking backwards. Recently I have been finding myself rediscovering older thinking and going back to earlier ideas. For a start I decided to go back to my original title for my research and for my thesis, I also found a business card on my desk that showed marks into the clay that I had recently tried and thought was a new idea for my work. The business card was from my final year at university and I stopped making the marks as a tutor told me it made the work “too busy”.
I make these saggars on the wheel but I have also made them using formers in the past. Using formers means rolling out slaps rather than wrestling large amounts of clay into one place. I made one recently that was the size of my kiln interior by wrapping clay slabs around a bucket wrapped in paper.
Patia Davies film on making buttons shows a real sense of rhythm to life and the processes she is going through. The video isn’t a video of a teacher standing in front of a class and doesn’t stop to explain. For someone with a background in making there is a lot she is teaching and a lot to learn. We see in this video there is efficiency to making buttons as they are a by-product of making platters.
The Harris Museum commissioned a film about my making process, which is interesting to watch. As a maker I am infinitely influenced by the sea, whether it is painting patterns, carving boats or actually using found materials as part of my making.
2 Comments
tiles are useful as glaze tests etc,but as you’ve found can be framed and sold (Hannah and Doug do this too) or even used at home…as tiles!
I made a concious decision to make bigger tiles the older tiles are 6cm square and aren’t much use as they are thin and very wonky. I made a mould like Doug and Hannah but the test one I made I just don’t like it bounces every which way when I try and use it.
I have thought about using them as tiles but can’t produce the quantity and the quality isn’t where I want it yet.
tiles are useful as glaze tests etc,but as you’ve found can be framed and sold (Hannah and Doug do this too) or even used at home…as tiles!
I made a concious decision to make bigger tiles the older tiles are 6cm square and aren’t much use as they are thin and very wonky. I made a mould like Doug and Hannah but the test one I made I just don’t like it bounces every which way when I try and use it.
I have thought about using them as tiles but can’t produce the quantity and the quality isn’t where I want it yet.