Finished Canal Art inspired designs.

New designs fresh from the kiln ready to be glazed.

Glaze firing ready to unpack with all the new designs.

This plate is my favourite ,the lime green background seems to work really well .

I love the tiles especially the green one again!

The new bird designs fit well on the tiles .

New heart decorations.

I had a stall at an arts and craft market at the weekend and had a positive reaction to the new designs. I sold the blue bowl and some of the heart decorations.

So I'm off to my workshop to make some more !

Bye for now xx

Folk and Canal art inspired new designs

I have finally had some time in the workshop to try out some ideas that have been in my mind for a while . I have always been interested in traditional crafts and being involved in the arts and crafts centre near the docks I have seen all the canal boats coming through the lock outside. Also I have met a lovely lady called Pat Wannell who lives on a boat and does traditional canal painting on her boat and decorates metal buckets ,enamel mugs ,jugs etc with enamel paints . She sells her work at the Gloucestershire Arts and crafts Centre in the Lock cafe .

The British Waterways Museum in the Gloucester Docks also has a huge collection .I bought this little lantern too because of the colours and its folk art feel .

The technique also reminds me of the traditional english slipware pottery which has always influencd my work . I wanted to do my own take on this using my own colour palettes and enjoy experimenting. These are the first attempts and the painting will need lots of practice to get the flowing confidence needed .

I have already tried a few samples using the traditional rose and also have been looking at other folk art from across Europe . This is how the flower is built up in stages and is a very skilled technique .

I have been trying out some of the flowers on some hearts and also in the photo you can see a painted wooden spoon from a local charity shop for extra inspiration !

Here they are finished in rows ,how satisfying!

With these hearts I am keeping the background white to see which work the best . These photos show how I build up the design in stages .

I really like the finished result ,but the may look different when fired .

Now I have practised on the hearts I tried the designs on some larger pieces , it was really good fun to do something freer than I normally would do . I like the strong background colour too .

Again this one will be on a white background.

I think this one is the most successful , the colours work the best and the edging is bold .

I have some tiles ready for decoration too ,some will be the new designs and some the new scraffitto bird designs .

These designs have worked really well on the tiles ,I can't wait to see them finished and glazed!

Bye for now I will be back with the finihed results soon xx

Visit to Art in Action Oxford

I have just spent the day with two lovely friends looking around Art in action at waterperry Gardens ,Oxford .It was a perfect hot summer's day and we enjoyed seeing lots of the best inspiring art and craft in the country . Here are lots of photos of all the exciting things that caught my eye !

Iris Milward Poetry tiles

Mirka Golden-hann

"Interactive colour play" You were encouraged to re-arrange the colours however you wanted !

Barbara Gunter-Jones "Ghost Grass" This was a beautiful blue colour with delicate stitching .

Juliet walters "Containment " The two sections fitted together like a Russian doll .

This work was by probably my favourite ceamicist of the whole show Gwen Bainbridge .

Anna Hamburger's Lace gauntlets made of porcelain .

A detail of Jill denton's felt Wrap,it had beautiful colours and pattern.

I love anything in rows . Lovely mugs and bottles by Richard miller.

I can't remember whose these are unfortunately , the colour of the turquoise melted glass was amazing !

More work by Anna Hambuger . Love anything with buttons .

These bowls are also by Anna Hambuger ,they remind me of batik fabric designs .

We had a great day out ,especially a lovely lunch finished off with cake in the shade on a very hot day . We watched a great Raku firing demo too photos to follow soon .

Bye for now xx

I have been to the Gloucestershire Arts and crafts centre today in the Glos Docks where I sell my work . This is where I held my Open Studios week in June from Studio one . Usually I am working inside and don't take the time to enjoy the views so I had my lunch out here on a bench and took some photos . It is a lovely place to visit if you are in the area . For more information look on their website www.gloucestershireartsandcraftscentre.co.uk

Off to Art in Action at the weekend ! Bye for now xx