Last Straw

Will be leaving you alone for a little while now.


My desk was flooded from the shower in our bathroom above the office, through the ceiling, - to cut a dreary, long story short.

Lots of saturated sketchbooks, exhibition submission paperwork, bank statements, Mac, contacts, plans and ideas notebooks, etc to peel apart. Exhausting. Last straw after a rather fraught month or two.

Might just give up all art and sit in a rocking chair, knitting, Radio 4, blanket over me knees...(..maybeee...)

maddy@markshall.demon.co.uk

Please email with comments/feedback on any bits of this Blog. Thank you.

(And please feed the fish)

I'm not turning my back on you. Back soon xx

Snap, Crackle and Pop

...titanium dioxide...zinc oxide...cobalt oxide...red iron oxide...copper carbonate...

A more direct hands-on approach, with a different ceramics production process: Raku. The term Raku - literally, "enjoyment" or "ease" - derives from Jurakudai, the name of a palace in Kyoto in the 1500's.

A few years ago I attended an incredibly energetic workshop run by potter John Chipperfield in Suffolk. I got back into playing with mud again! We all made various pieces, either on the wheel, or hand-built, which he then biscuit-fired. We returned a few weekends later for the glazing and Big Outdoor Firing, in a kiln in his garden, brought to a roaring temperature of about 1,800 degrees F.

...some unglazed, sooty black areas around the base...

After a set time, and when the pieces are glowing red hot, they were drawn from the kiln with long iron tongs and plunged, smoking, into a trough full sawdust. This cooled the work down very quickly, causing the typical Raku look - fine, black, spidery-web crackle, a very desirable effect. This powerful process also uses the immediacy of the fire, smoke and dramatically fast reduction, to create an unpredictable texture on the pottery.

The unglazed areas have nowhere to get the oxygen from, so they take it from clay. Such a reducing atmosphere will turn clay grey-black, staining the exposed body surface with carbon, producing the powerful matt-black, smoked surface.

...and on the patterned areas inside....

The tense excitement as the final results emerge when the pots have cooled and been cleaned, proved irresistible, especially for the potters with pyromaniac tendencies.

You can see a combination of these
techniques, glazed and unglazed areas, on this bowl, where I cut various shapes from wide masking tape and arranged them on the bisque fired piece before spraying with white, speckled blue/grey - and coppery glazes.

....and some Copper Fuming visible on the inside too...

This Copper Fuming is achieved by using a mix of a 90% copper oxide and 10% glaze mixture, which gives an iridescent lustre - (sometimes) - creating a beautifully vibrant sheen. This bright, shining, metallic glaze is notoriously difficult to control and can apparently fade over time.

Bridgewater/Rice: High Price

Emma continues to do very well for herself these days, business continues to grow, with new designs appearing all the time.

I worked for her and her husband (dear Matthew Rice) as a designer and illustrator in 1999, at their rectory in North Norfolk, surrounded by their family, many animals and a small handful of other staff, until the design and general admin side of things were all moved to Stoke-on-Trent, where the pottery/factory is based.

I was called upon to produce ideas, themes, designs and drawings for a great variety of pieces, for both Matthew and Emma, from Spongeware mugs, jugs, bowls and plates, to T-cloths, diaries, calendars, cake tins and more. Some limited editions. Some still in use today.

...very different maddy-ceramics coming soon...

Clap Your Hands!

Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band

Blues / Acoustic / Alternative Blues

"They get one hell of a sound out of an acoustic guitar, washboard, and snare drum."

Check out their amazing fun YouTube video "Clap Your Hands"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ra0DsbiNs0&feature=player_embedded

"Chock-full of pure energy, Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band is vintage blues with a shot of dance music on steroids thrown in for good measure. Put it this way: if the Reverend's playing and your feet aren't shuffling around you better check your pulse..."

It's easy to see why they are so big... come and see them and the amazing
The Proposition

on:
Thursday 21 October 2010 at 7:00 pm
at:

Monto Water Rats

328, Grays Inn Road, London WC1X 8BZ
right by King's Cross/St Pancras, - just three tube stops away from Liverpool St station

Buy tickets now for *£5 *half the price than on the door, direct from: www.thepropositionband.com