My teacup, I made saucers for these yesterday I just need to trim and fire them(and make more teacups) the handle is just big enough for one finger to fit through, I really love these and can't wait to make more. About 250grams of clay
This is my Coffee cup it is quite narrow to drink out of, handle needs a little refinement. 300grams
This is much wider than the coffee cup and is about the size of a normal mug and is so known as my medium mug. 400grams
My big mug, 1 kilo of clay so is much bigger than the rest of the mugs and probably holds more than all concerned. This is the status of the mug after my tuition from Kevin Millward. Before the tuition the rim was just straight from the normal cup but he advised me that a rim like this was easier to drink from especially from such a large vessel. These size of mugs are most popular amongst students.
Tea light holds are only about 100grams of clay and are good at filling the gaps in a reduction kiln, I have plenty of them.
Soup Bowls with handles, these are 600grams, I have a lot of these as I thought they would be very commercially viable, my business studies tutor and head of course agree. Though I have been asked to make either a lid or a side plate for these, I will probably go with the side plate option as the bowls aren't all the same size so I would have to make a lot of various sizes and cross my fingers.
Other straight sided bowls, though this one is only slightly bigger than the soup bowl, it is actually 800gram of clay and has much thicker walls so then it could go in the oven.
Two of my bigger platters finally here for you to see, they are 2 kilos of clay and were made before Christmas, though I did throw some yesterday as my mark has finally come so I can stamp them and hope they are good enough for my show. My throwing of these has improved but yesterday I was throwing bigger ones from 6 kilos of clay and it was hard going with that much clay.
My first teapot, unfortunately I can't remember what weight went into this after seeing a demo on teapots, I prefer the top to be an in the pot as the lids for the sort with an internal gallery are easier to make the right size than the almost tea light holder that will have to go on top of this.I have a few more different bits but then are either green or biscuit. I only have 5 working weeks to get everything done for the show, then 3 weeks where I have to furiously create so then I have enough stock for the summer and hopefully to buy a gas kiln from the proceeds (and some training to go with it. I need to take some measurements of these so then there is a little more idea of scale.
Joseph - your pots look great! Love the glaze treatment. Hope your sales are strong so you can get your own kiln :>))
ReplyDeleteI like the glazes you are using. Terrific to see you coming up with a good range of mugs and bowls and planning your business before leaving university; great that you are able to discuss such practical things with your tutors and have a chance to develop a line of work. Back in the mists of time when I was at art school majoring in painting, our tutors had a very negative attitude to doing paintings that might actually sell... it was held to be destroying ones integrity. Daft of course, and the tutors were in the luxurious position of having regular income to pay for their food, drink, and a roof over their heads!
ReplyDeleteCan you get some sort of business start up grant for buying a kiln and setting up a workshop??
I hope my sales are strong too, I have been talked into going to London to the new designers event so maybe there will be something there. The news of me going spread through the ceramics department like wildfire. Don't like enclosed cities so it will be scary for me.
ReplyDeletePeter, I went to art school for a year and they still say making drawings and paintings to sell is destroying your integrity as someone who had previously studied science I never bought into the notion, since then I went on a product design course and they are all about the money.
I feel sorry for those that aren't properly planning what they want to do once they leave and basically spent the last year doing something "different" and don't know where to go from here.
There is are grants available through the Princes Trust and I have tried to contact them through their website form but I will be calling them in the next week. I will also be calling the local artist unit at the council trying to win them over at some point.
Looked into a studio locally that used to be a joiners place and it has some amazing workbenches already there, will save me a lot of time and money putting new ones together and cuts down the amount of joinery I have to do myself. I have also looked into a few other businesses like starting an art gallery as well as other things but I love the studio and it is only ten minutes from my house (not allowed to work from the property where I live as it is rented)
My tutors are really good though they leave me alone to work and get on with it and are available at the drop of a hat if I need them, but neither of them are throwers and that might be the reason they leave me alone.