In CCS with Cormac we started watching this documentary about Ceramics, I'm not too sure if this is the exact video we watched, but it has the same title and is very interesting.

Artists whose work have influenced me

Peter Cutting

Peter Cutting is a ceramicist who lives in Riberac, France. He trained himself as a potter and is well known for selling his wares in the Sunday Market in Riberac.

The pieces that most influenced me are his bowls portraying animals. I like how the bowls are detailed and the colours that are used within the bowls themselves. They inspired me to design bowls that represented something I absolutely love, flowers, which though they are not animals, are still part of nature.

John ffrench is another Ceramicist who influenced my pieces due to his use of colour and his simple designs and use of different cultural imagery.

Some of ffrench's work include:

the above pieces influenced me in my hollow form pieces, I love how the use of colour and the patterns work together and I hope to be able to achieve that one day.

Ceramics, where do I begin?

Over the last two weeks, I've been doing Ceramics and I have to say, quite honestly, I have thoroughly enjoyed myself. I've learnt how to Raku, how to make pinch pots and how to throw, by using a wheel.

Elaine and Kieran have been so very helpful in every step of the process in which the world of Ceramics is involved.

Elaine and Kieran started off by tell us about Ceramics and from the off, you could tell how passionate they are about the discipline.  They also showed us works from different artists, examples are:

- Takashi Yasuda

- Richard Notkin

- Ai Weiwei

- Peter Cutting

to name a few, although the list goes on for 40 more artists.

We were shown some of the works, as mentioned above, we saw the work of Peter Cutting, whom I drew some influence in nature from for my own piece. Cutting, who lives in France, makes bowls and other Ceramic works and then sells them in the market every week to make a living. One such bowl is the 2 geese in the bowl shown here.

Another of his works is a hare or a rabbit which has been raku fired, giving it its cracked/shattered appearance where the original glaze has come away, then it was refired with in a standard kiln with a clear glaze on it  to give its shiny sheen.








We started off learning how to make pinch pots from Kieran, whilst others went off and learned how to throw clay and form a bowl using a wheel with Elaine.

Pinch pots are fairly easy to make, by rolling a ball of clay you simply push your thumb into the ball and slowly turn it evenly between your hands, thumb and fingers guiding the clay into the final form. Then turn the clay bowl upside down and leave to dry slightly before taking a spoon and smoothing out the inside of the bowl to give it an even and proper finish.

They are then fired in the kiln at 1000 degrees celsius over the course of a few hours and then left to cool for another hour or so before being ready to decorate or raku.

 The start of the design was done by ink marking.

















 The finished pinch pot after first firing.

A pinch pot with a design.

A fully designed and glazed pinch pot.













After we had tried pinch pot making, Elaine took me over to the Ceramics department to try out throwing. It was interesting to say the least, and though I failed to do a throw properly the first time, I managed it the second time around.

Elaine showing us how to throw.

and my final bowl once thrown and glazed

We then moved on to the raku, a process in which you fire the pots once glazed, with either lead glaze or copper glazed, at 1000 degrees C, then take them out of the kiln whilst red hot, (glowing red) and put them into wood chipped filled containers and then sealed and left to catch fire and smoke the Ceramic pieces, giving off a shattered effect and also a charcoal effect.

Before firing

the gas is lit and the process begins

after firing

end result