August 19th, 2024

Behind the scenes (A ceramicist at work)

​Earlier this year I was asked by artist Sophie Jenkins if I could work with schools to create the ceramics for a new outdoor installation at Swanage Seafront. This project was grant funded by Purbeck Art Weeks, Dorset Council, Swanage Town Council and Coastal Tents. It was in association with the Butterfly Conservation Trust and Durlston Country Park. Sophie designed the artwork that would be painted on marine ply boards and selected sections that would be added in clay. Some like the bees were whole pieces, others like a lizard were in sections. I thought you might like to find out more about the making process.
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Sophie and I met to look at previously made art installations along Swanage Seafront. We discussed colours and started to think about how it could be joined together.  We also considered weather conditions and durability. 

  I went back to the studio to start mixing glaze recipes to get a colour palette. The glazes needed to fire to 1260 degrees to be frost proof, they also needed to be translucent to highlight the textures. Pink and purple are quite tricky to achieve at these temperatures. I have a good Emmanual Cooper base glaze recipe but sourced a variety of stains from pottery suppliers to add to the glaze. The type of clay also needed to be considered and textures for the school children to use. I would be working with three schools for the project.

​Sophie met me in my studio a few weeks later with a bag of paper templates of butterflies, birds, snake, lizard, bees, flowers and an enormous puffin. This gave me the size and shape for the final pieces. While my studio was open for Dorset Art Weeks, I spread the paper templates across my large tables and started to work out how the shapes would be divided. Some of the larger birds were split into many pieces, with some sections looking like feathers. I divided the snake using its zig zag pattern. The sections/templates were cut out of foam sheets and each was coded with a number and letter. This was very important, as I would have over 100 small pieces in the studio which needed to make up the items. The puffin was the most complex containing 25 pieces. I had a drawing across between a jigsaw puzzle and a map to remind me where each piece went. It took a few days of planning and cutting to prepare all the pieces ready for pupils to create. I worked with Wool C of E Primary, St Mark’s CE primary School and Harbour School Dorset, taking pre rolled clay to each venue with a variety of textures and mark making tools. The pupils did a brilliant job of creating the pieces. I coded each one, adding holes and returned them to the studio to dry flat before being bisque fired. ​

​​While the pieces were drying, I continued to glaze test. Some of the new high fire stains came out opaque, some too pale. Different weights of the stains were added to the base glaze to give pastels and bright hues until I was happy with the glaze palette. I also soaked some of the glaze tests in salt water and put them in my freezer to make sure they were suitable for coastal weather.  As the sections came out of the kiln, I reconstructed them to add the glazes before they were glaze fired at 1260 degrees.
Sophie worked with The Swanage School to paint the marine ply boards. These were varnished and Sophie added the ceramics using nails and adhesive before more coats of varnish were applied. I am really proud of our outcome. I do not normally get to work so closely with another artist on someone else’s design. It is now installed on Swanage Seafront. I hope the pupils are proud of their amazing creation.