A random miscellany of our students and their work.

 
MARION, BERYL & MAIR
(Working out of charector)

I have been the tutor to the Thursday evening class at Aberystwyth Arts Centre for nearly 14 years. The 3 ladies here have been part of the backbone of this class for many years. The coil-pot Marion (left) is working on is one of her smaller pieces, where  Beryl (right)  has produced  a lot of  doll's-house porcelain. Mair  (behind) can be seen  slab-building; unusual as she  is a very competent  thrower.
BRUNO
(Who's full name I must confirm)
Seen here working on a pot inspired by his research (not a direct copy) into Japanese pre-historic pottery.
While Bruno has only been attending the Monday evening class at Aberystwyth for a couple of terms, he is producing sophisticated work to a very high standard.
BRIAN ANDERSON
Last year I was fortunate that Brian (seen here on the left) applied for, and won a bursary from Feile Clai, to work with me for 5 days. We covered a huge variety of ceramic related areas:Mold-making. Slip-casting. Working with porcelain. Firing techniques. Basic glaze tech.etc,etc,

I think we were both very grateful to Feile Clai for this opportunity.

  While Brian had attended classes of mine at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre, this bursary was a chance to get to know him much better. He is not only a very talented and inventive man; he has a quiet, very very dry sense of humour.

He was formally an animator of some note and the other day I arrived   at the Ceramics studio at Aberystwyth Arts Centre to find this "note" for me on the white-board.

To find out more about Feile Clai and this Bursary have a look at their website;- www.feileclai.com

JULES MONTGOMERY

Jules has been coming to evening classes at Aberystwyth Arts Centre for several years and recently designed and made this very imaginative tea-pot (here, in it's "raw" state). While the tea-pot body was "thown" (made on the wheel), Jules chose to "slab-build" the spout, which gives the pot a refreshing sculptural feel.

RACHEL SCURLOCK

While Rachel is an experienced, and very talented,  Ceramic Sculptor, she had 'drawn-a-blank' with regard to using the potters wheel while she had been studying.   She attended two of my 3-Day intensive "Throwing for Beginners" courses and has not only become a very proficient thrower, she also teaches throwing to children in the 'Children's Clay Modelling' classes she runs.


This was taken during one of those courses, as Rachel was applying a handle to a tea-pot she'd thrown and turned* (*trimmed the base).

 

  Rachel finished the tea-pot by modelling this fabulous hand (which relates to her sculptural work)and thowing a minature cup and saucer which she applied to the lid.
She is decorating it with a waxed "Map" design, then applied tin-glaze and copper carbonate.
This is curently a "WORK IN PROGRESS" and I'll replace this photograph when I have on of the finished tea-pot.   

Glazing wasn't a part of the throwing course.


DEE WESTBURY

 

Dee is a Community Visual Artist who I first met when I was lecturing at Celeg Ceredigion (Cardigan College).  Since then she has become a regular at the evening classes we hold at our studio in Cwmhiraeth.

In the photograph she was turning a solid clay model she used to make a cunning set of moulds from which she could slip-cast:- a jug, a vase or a bowl. Dee really loves the process of turning clay.

 

MICHELLE HARRIS

 

Michelle is an art student and now one of the Cwmhiraeth regulars.  Here she is working on one of the skinny cats for a tableau for a college ‘advertising project’.  I believe it will have the caption:-

 

“No Fat Cats here!”

Here we see three, as yet un-fired, slip cast masks which were in her end of year show last year. Michelle modelled the original in clay, then produced a plaster negative. From this she cast a “vinamould” (rubber) positive from which she could produce many plaster negatives. This meant that she was able to carve detailed designs into the moulds before slip-casting from them.
Having fired and glazed these, she decorated them with on-glaze enamels and precious metal lustres. The results were stunning. She has promised to let me have some photographs so….”Watch this space!”  as they say.

   SVENJA & TILL

 This was the first attempt at throwing by Svenja (who looks remarkably like a Botticelli figure) and Till (who sometimes disappears behind his fringe).  They did remarkably well.

 

While we don’t usually have students under 16 years old for “Health & Safety”** reasons; we made an exception for a very lovely German family who were staying with us.

 

(**The studio has a rather nice old cobbled floor which is a little hazardous to walk on.)

ANNE MACMILLAN

 

Ann has been attending my evening classes at Aberystwyth Arts Centre for several years and has also taken one of my “Intensive Throwing For Beginners” courses.  For the most part she throws pots as the basis for very careful decoration.

To the right we see the finished pot she was working on in the photograph above. She took inspiration from an Arts Centre exhibition (which was on at the time) of the work of African potters.  She also managed subtly to work her own stamp (logo) design into the decoration.


Below a small thrown jug with a pulled handle, tin-glazed with copper carbonate decoration.

 CORINA VERMEER

 

I first met Corina when she came on one of  my throwing courses. Now she works away quietly producing very quirky individual pieces like this little pig.  This charming little pig is a cleverly disguised jug and cup set.

 

The head and body were thrown separately and then modelled into the pig shape.

 

 

ANDREW WINDSOR

 

Andy is one of our Arts Centre regulars and has tackled most making methods except slip-casting (we aren’t big on it in Aberystwyth).

 

This was the first time  he had tackled a portrait head, and I was impressed with the result.

SARAH HUGHES

 

Sarah only managed to attend an evening class for a term and a half (because of work pressure) but the sculptural vase here was one of the very first pieces she made.  It was coiled and stands about 29 inches tall.  It is an imposing piece and remarkable coming from someone with virtually no previous ceramic experience.