Fabric design: place mat

Bottles, one of my older designs, playing with a favourite approach to drawing - overlapping lines. To complement this place mat I later painted a big fabric napkin.

Place mat: acrylic paint, acrylic varnish, canvas cloth. 1995.

Size: 40 x 30 cm

Napkin: cotton fabric, Procyon fabric dye, Setacolor fabric paint. 1998.

Ceramics: sculpture

One of my experimental pieces, something semi-architectural. Since I prefer not to use glaze, I tried out clays of different colours, but with the same body. Fortunately I didn't get bad tension cracks. The bizarrely bent and rusty nails were epoxied in after the firing. I protected he surface of this House Box with beeswax.

Stoneware clay, grogged, cream and chocolate colour. Nails. 2009.

Size: 15 x 15 x 28 cm

Painting: Watercolour

Two samples of work done a little while ago at my watercolour class in Caerphilly, tutored by Howard Jones who just had a lovely exhibition in the refurbished Dahl Gallery at the Norwegian Church Arts Centre in Cardiff Bay, Wales.
More and more I realise that I'm drawn towards mixed media work and highly textured surfaces. Exciting to slowly develop a personal style. 

Lighthouse

SAA watercolours on Bockingford NOT 300gsm. 2011.

Size: 28 x 38 cm

Wall after the Rain

SAA watercolours, chalk pastels and ink on Bockingford NOT 300gsm. 2011.

Recycled furniture: Chair

This chair is part of a set of four stylish oak chairs which I traded for a recycled and refurbished chest of drawers. The bland looking wood was sanded and stained, the drop-in seats needed re-upholstering. I dyed and printed cotton canvas and gave it to Eve Kyle, an interior designer in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada. She did a great job fixing the seats and covering them with my fabric. Four chatty people might sit on four chairs around the table at a dinner party, so I called the chairs Conversation.

Oak, cotton canvas, Procyon fabric dye, Setacolor fabric paint. 2000.

Painting: Watercolour

Work created in my watercolour class, practising the use of a sword brush, and how to set accents with ink drawing.

French Chapel

SAA watercolours on Bockingford NOT 
300 gsm. 2011.

Size: 28 x 38 cm

Clay sculpture: King and Queen

Vaguely influenced by the work of Czech artist Lubomir Silar I slab built these two figures. For a change I applied glossy brush-on glazes. The mount is still missing - I need to think about whether I should use one pedestal for each of the figures or put them together on one base.

Earthenware, brush-on glazes and underglazes. 2010.

Height: 35, 37 cm

Fabric design: vegetable print

My only sample of a fabric printing technique where one uses cut up vegetables to transfer paint onto cloth, here an apple and leek. I didn't apply this technique more often because I don't like wasting food - but the effect is interesting. I learned about vegetable and fruit printing at an excellent workshop facilitated by Maiwa Handprints Ltd. on Granville Island in Vancouver, Canada.

Cotton T-shirt, Procyon fabric dye, Setacolour fabric paint. 1998.

Design: utensil containers

In Canada I used to sell my hand painted furniture at many different craft fairs in the Vancouver area. Not too many big items would fit into my Jeep Cherokee, so I painted a few smaller pieces which also added variety to my sales display. Here is one sample in different designs: a box with many small drawers (yes, it's from IKEA). Useful for storing pencils, erasers, paper clips and other small stuff that usually clutters one's writing desk!

 

Plywood, acrylic primer, paint, varnish. 1998.

Sizes: 28 x 21 x 28 cm, 41 x 21 x 28cm

Painting: Watercolour

Around the village of Machen in the Rhymney valley there are many trails through fields and woodlands like Forge Wood. Its name reflects the regional history of metal working and mining. Walking on these trails I can enjoy the change of light, the colour shades on leaf, bark, stone, flower... This watercolour depicts one of these impressions, translated into colours I like.

Sunset in Forge Wood

SAA watercolours on Bockingford NOT 300 gsm. 2011.

Size: 38 x 56 cm

Ceramics: fruit cover

My daily breakfast includes fruit. Leftovers tend to attract fruit flies, so I needed something to cover apple wedges or banana halves. Thinking of the shape of a cheese cover I made a fruit cover. The plate is thrown, the dome coiled.

Stoneware, brush-on glazes. 2011.

Diameter: 20 cm, hight: 12 cm

Accessories: cardboard boxes 2

Here are some more of the many designs I created for boxes to be sold at the Harrison Lake Christmas fair mentioned below.

Cardboard, acrylic paint, acrylic varnish. 1997.

Accessories: cardboard boxes

When I was still painting furniture in Canada, I once needed lots of small, inexpensive items for a Christmas Fair in Harrison Hot Springs (one of those achingly beautiful places in British Columbia). A Chinese wholesaler in Abbotsford had a great selection of cardboard boxes in many different shapes. I chose square boxes in various sizes and heart shaped ones. For a few weeks my studio looked completely chaotic, boxes and lids being painted, varnished and dried en masse. And all the designs were unique, no two pieces alike... I am happy to say that most of the boxes sold at that Christmas fair.

Cardboard, acrylic paint, acrylic varnish. 1997.

Sizes: 8 x 5 x 4 cm, 16 x 16 x 10 cm

Fabric design: woven towel

Even though I didn't to the best job pressing this handwoven towel, I'm putting the photo in my blog because I'm actually quite proud of this piece. I made it in Uppsala, Sweden, one of the first weaves where I used pure linen yarn, here in the weft. It proved a bit tricky - while weaving, I had to keep the edges damp, using wet paper towels, in order to keep the brittle linen yarn from breaking. The plain fabric called for an elaborate fringe treatment, so I spent quite some time braiding the warp threads. An embroidered monogram gives the towel a nostalgic look.

 Linen and cottolin yarn. 1984.

Binding: korndräll, as far as I can remember...

Painting: Watercolour

In class we usually paint a motif suggested by our tutor, Howard Jones from Caerphilly. He demonstrates, we do our best to follow. This painting combines misty trees with dramatic shadows. 

Bridge in the Brecon Beacons

SAA watercolours on Bockingford NOT 300 gsm. 2011.

Clay sculpture: Perching Birds

I made these small bird figures when I had a handful of clay left over. They are sitting on a steel stand similar to the one I had made for the figure group Interrogation (see entry 7 September 2009). My welder had painstakingly polished the metal, but I prefer rusty materials. So I left the stand out in the rain for a while. Much better!

Craft crank, underglazes, transparent glaze, steel. 2009.