Visual Research and some sneaky Lustres

Some pieces from my visual Research session, mainly focussing on using the forms of my urns as inspiration…

A few weeks ago I borrowed some gold lustre from my wonderful friend Alison, and was experimenting with it on top of some of my pieces. I put some of them back onto the wheel to get some nice thin lines, which I think has worked well. The three photo’s below are before the final firing (They are painted on top of the glaze then fired to around 750 degrees).

I’m really pleased with how they have turned out, although they are not as bright as I intended – I may need a slightly thicker layer next time. I really love the gold over the deep blue barium glaze and I think I will be using a little lustre on some of the final barium pieces.

 

I also made some small pendant shapes, as I may make some small jewellery pieces to accompany an urn or two. Last year a few people said they like the idea of me making memorial or remembrance jewellery, and I love the idea of them relating back to the urns, but being a wearable, comforting reminder of a loved one, but one that is subtle and beautiful.

Like my urns, I intend to make beautiful tributes, but pieces that are not so obviously urns – they will be a reminder but not an obtrusive, painful one. An essence of a missed friend or family member.

I did a resist Raku firing recently too, so I will be putting up images of those pieces soon too.

I also had a really great group tutorial session with Matthew Raw (A member of Studio Manifold, check the group out here; www.studiomanifold.org and Matthew’s work here; www.mraw.co.uk/home/pages/home ) He was really helpful and surprisingly told most of us we need to get out of the studio, look at what’s out there in our field, and research deeply what we are interested in so we can bring it into the studio and into our work. Investigate, discover and find out and record why were are making the choices about our work that we are. So more research and trips planned for the next few weeks!