Barry Sparrowman’s window & Big Brenda’s face lift…
Spring has finally sprung, and even though the weather has been as changeable as my cat’s personality, the cheery sight of daffodils and the installation of toilets in The Cartshed has boosted my mood, and I’ve felt the urge to get creative again.
The new studio, The Cartshed, is nearing completion. I still tend to find most days I’m sharing the space with plumbers or carpenters, but it’s a good atmosphere and I’m enjoying getting clay on my hands again. On the odd day where I do find myself alone in there I have the company of the resident sparrows, who at the moment are building nests in the barn roof and I often hear them pecking away between the walls and insulation boards, chirping and tweeting at each other with enthusiasm.
I felt a bit guilty about moving into “their barn”. They’d claimed it as their own for years before we took it over as an art studio so we’ve bought them some feeders and bird houses by way of apology. One particular male, who I’ve secretly named Barry Sparrowman, has pecked a little too enthusiastically, creating his own open window straight through into the studio. Unfortunately, much like the other morning, he tends to squeeze himself through said hole and zooms around unable to get back out. I now have to make sure I’m there as many days a week as I can to check Barry hasn’t broke out of his window, which means I have no reason to not be productive while I’m there, so I have to create something, which then boosts my mental health and makes me feel better… so… in a round-about way… thank you Barry!
Barry Sparrowman and his ‘window’ into the studio. (Apologies for the poor quality, he’s a difficult chap to photograph)
What I’ve made so far has been either slab built sculptures or coil pots. I’ve been documenting my studio time on Instagram which you can find here. This is because, when I finally managed to drag the big pottery wheel into The Cartshed in order to start throwing pots again, (I cannot express how heavy Big Brenda is!) I noticed the pipe that drains the waste water out of the splash pan had come off completely, so I decided to have a go at fixing it…
Big Brenda, unloved for many years, stripped down and ready for a spruce-up
By the end of the day Big Brenda was in 3 pieces: the wheel head was off as well as the splash pan and she’s now undergoing major surgery, pan reconstruction with face lift, and her wheel head is having a detox and skin peel. So, while Brenda is out of action, I’m back to hand building. That’s not a bad thing though, I’m really enjoying experimenting with the clay, seeing how it behaves to different build techniques and trying out new surface decorations and textures. I’ve even began making my own brushes and tools out of grasses, sticks, pebbles, old scrap metal… anything that I find around the farm that I think would create fab textures or surface details.
I also made my first bust! (pottery not booby) I’d never done it before and thought I’d give it a go. I decided to see if there were any online beginner tutorials in sculpting a bust. The first I found was on Domestika by Cristina Cordova. She’s a fantastic artist and her course involves building a bust from slab rolled pieces cut to her specially designed templates, which made construction exceptionally quick. Domestika is a great app, full of useful courses from photography to textiles, and I’ve downloaded and completed some sketchbook illustration courses on there previously which were absolutely brilliant. (That’s not an ad by the way, I do highly recommend having a look as most of the time there are some great deals, making them really good value for money.)
Another tutorial I found was on Youtube by Sharon Griffin, another amazingly talented sculptor. I adore her work, so much so that the pixie/faun ears on my sculpture were totally inspired by her work! I’ll add the links to these at the end of this page if you fancy taking a look. Both artists seemed to use various slips (watered down clay) to decorate their pieces with, so I treated myself to just a small pot each of black and white slip to have a go myself. I won’t know how they’ll look until after they’ve been fired, which means a week or so of slowly drying and then a good day in a kiln, so most of it I’m doing by guesswork and a little imagination.
My first ever bust sculpture
With regard to the kilns, fingers crossed they’ll be plugged in and test fired this week. Honestly I can’t wait, I’m like a kid the week before Christmas!
I JUST WANNA MAKE THINGS! AND BAKE THEM IN BIG SHINY OVENS!
EVERYDAY!
AAAHH!!!
As soon as they’re up and running I can finally get cracking on with summer season pieces, get stock together for markets and fairs and fire my sculptures.
Until then though it’s just me, a few bags of clay, Barry Sparrowman’s window, and Big Brenda’s face lift.
Love to you all
H xx
