tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29077390585439092152024-03-14T12:26:12.317+00:00Ceramic ReviewThe Magazine of Ceramic Art and CraftEmmanuel Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08470784352993333463noreply@blogger.comBlogger32125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2907739058543909215.post-33183589312937986602009-08-28T11:13:00.004+01:002009-09-23T10:14:18.291+01:00Repairing Ceramics – Reader’s comment<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbpQ5qYTV3AWlx2GSqmS6aqN_8QmZ6EsR2UbjRZCN6zL1rgcLstWSqXYGeGrSDqeaAiue2r1N5TNAKqaV8v38MZVvlnGl4RUcsw1svYPWFsm1aEseKZRFXPid9pPlJKU14Poyn7D0gRgtQ/s1600-h/ceramic_restoration.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbpQ5qYTV3AWlx2GSqmS6aqN_8QmZ6EsR2UbjRZCN6zL1rgcLstWSqXYGeGrSDqeaAiue2r1N5TNAKqaV8v38MZVvlnGl4RUcsw1svYPWFsm1aEseKZRFXPid9pPlJKU14Poyn7D0gRgtQ/s200/ceramic_restoration.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5374957079361583618" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Gabriel Newfield gives his response to Murray Cheesman’s article, <span style="font-style:italic;">Repairing Ceramics</span>, published in the latest issue of Ceramic Review. </span><br /><br />Congratulations to Murray in packing so much good advice into just two pages. It’s a pity that, presumably owing to lack of space, some of his advice really ought to be qualified, and in one case is positively dangerous. Examples of advice that should be qualified: <span style="font-weight:bold;">1</span> True, epoxy adhesives like Araldite have their uses, but they do tend to yellow with age, which has a bearing on when and where it is appropriate to use them. <span style="font-weight:bold;">2</span> Soaking overnight in Biotex. Always best to soak first overnight in clean (preferably de-ionised) water before soaking in any detergent. Badly stained wares (especially earthenware) may need not just overnight, but days or even weeks in soak. And after soaking in detergent, soaking again in water, to remove excess detergent from the body, is essential, and again this may require many days, and several changes of water. The advice I would regard as dangerous concerns use of bleach 'as a last resort'. Most bleaches are chlorine-based and can be dangerous to pots, causing irreversible damage. Hydrogen peroxide as a bleach is less likely to do harm, but calls for great care in its use.<br /><br />My own advice to would-be restorers/conservators of pots is – don’t rush in. Perhaps do a part-time course at a college, if one is available near where you live. Or get hold of an up-to-date book on the subject, such as <span style="font-style:italic;">Practical Ceramic Conservation</span> by Lesley Acton and Natasha Smith, Crowood Press, 2003, ISBN 978-186126483-1, or <span style="font-style:italic;">Porcelain Repair and Restoration</span> by Nigel Williams (2nd edition, revised by Loretta Hogan with the help of Myrtle Bruce-Mitford), British Museum Press, 2002, ISBN 978-071412757-6. Both are readily available in libraries, bookshops or via Amazon.<br /><br />Happy mending! Gabriel Newfield<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Repairing Ceramics</span> was published in the Sep/Oct 2009 issue of Ceramic Review (CR239). For further details please visit: www.ceramicreview.comNatasha Cawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09216247694944132716noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2907739058543909215.post-13823094374698396452009-08-28T10:58:00.004+01:002009-08-28T11:12:53.266+01:00Top Blog Spot<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5zsu9gApLkFpj9ZoPCzDECc7ElyoKJm7BN9WPysiKvZDk5TlvfMzGjn8Ug2K0TFuzpgtWO9-53l4H-IMup0FZGoGgFFBnzWUuw0GGA3HrVnFOSk0oXeF59TtZAjKDOLokwHBNiNKUP-R7/s1600-h/shapeimage_1+copy.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5zsu9gApLkFpj9ZoPCzDECc7ElyoKJm7BN9WPysiKvZDk5TlvfMzGjn8Ug2K0TFuzpgtWO9-53l4H-IMup0FZGoGgFFBnzWUuw0GGA3HrVnFOSk0oXeF59TtZAjKDOLokwHBNiNKUP-R7/s200/shapeimage_1+copy.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5374952770797885810" /></a><br />We are pleased to announce that Ceramic Review’s blog has been voted as one of the top ‘20 Cool Ceramic Art Blogs’ by the Clayhalo website. Check it out at http://www.clayhalo.com and click on the Clayzilla blogNatasha Cawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09216247694944132716noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2907739058543909215.post-66652141428998236812009-08-11T10:20:00.002+01:002009-08-11T10:25:08.707+01:00Arts Minister<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIZBhoubMUZw0RtjrD-QR-m1pN6-32PAtvSnntYQl-z6IZcKuEQUGSzCvCBL_wZbXcKzLclwKslowuvAdPdJZwAmCZMzPHMcCX92mMPTDstgkbO6p6ptfbAgdTmQ9V9KX3rGEUcDgAuB_W/s1600-h/Ben+Bradshaw.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 120px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIZBhoubMUZw0RtjrD-QR-m1pN6-32PAtvSnntYQl-z6IZcKuEQUGSzCvCBL_wZbXcKzLclwKslowuvAdPdJZwAmCZMzPHMcCX92mMPTDstgkbO6p6ptfbAgdTmQ9V9KX3rGEUcDgAuB_W/s200/Ben+Bradshaw.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5368634802069254562" border="0" /></a>After having been in post as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport for eighteen months, Andy Burnham has been booted upstairs as the new health secretary. He has been replaced by the urbane Ben Bradshaw, a slim, handsome, alert 48 year old who admits to bopping the night away to the strains of Grace Jones. Burnham, MP for Exeter, is one of few openly open gay MPs who recently had a civil partnership. In <span style="font-style: italic;">Who’s Who</span> he lists music as one of his recreational activities; maybe not the Albert Hall kind. When I met him at the Art Fund Prize presentation (with the £100,000 awarded to the Wedgwood Museum) he assured me of his interest in crafts and his support – and praise – for the Devon Guild. Arts ministers seem to come and go with alarming regularity. If they’re talented they are moved on, if less bright they stay. Lets hope that Ben Bradshaw is both talented and a stayer. It must surely be one of the more enjoyable portfolios in government.Emmanuel Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08470784352993333463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2907739058543909215.post-7737430768702771532009-07-01T11:32:00.001+01:002009-07-01T11:34:43.791+01:00Off-Centre, CR238<span style="font-weight: bold;">Inspired by the exhibition </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">The Unexpected</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> at the Stedelijk Museum, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands, Emma Shaw argues that ceramics are finding a new place in the art world.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">The Unexpected</span> was the first showing in the Netherlands of the Stedelijk Museum’s collection of artists’ work in clay (the exhibition has toured internationally), which it claims to be the only one of its kind in the world. The museum has been collecting artists’ work in clay since 1985 when it purchased Picasso’s Vase Femme from 1954. The collection includes some 150 works by 40 international artists, the oldest piece is from 1905 (Pierre-Auguste Renoir) and the most recent is by British sculptor Richard Deacon (2007).<br /><br />The museum is located in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, a relatively small town which is also home to the EKWC (European Ceramics Work Centre) and boasts an established school of art and design (AKV, St Joost, which has a vast ceramics department) as well as the contemporary ceramic design company Cor Unum. This helps explain the museum’s interest in and commitment to ceramics and why Den Bosch deserves the title of City of Ceramics. <br /><br />Divided into three main strands – the modernists, CoBrA artists and contemporary artists – the exhibition contains important works by established names such as Picasso, Miró, Jorn and Fontana. The modern collection is equally impressive with work by international artists from across the disciplines of painting, sculpture and performance including Rob Birza, Tony Cragg, Jan van den Dobbelsteen, Jeff Koons, Antoni Tapies and Bruce McLean. Perhaps more unexpectedly, but a very welcome addition nonetheless, it also includes works by Haim Steinbach, who uses ready-made or found objects.<br /><br />Many of the works have been previously ignored in the histories of art. Indeed, the power of the collection lies in its ability to reaffirm clay’s position as a vital and legitimate medium within the visual arts, representing part of a wider trend to reclaim artists’ works in clay as seen, for example, in Tate Liverpool’s <span style="font-style: italic;">A Secret History of Clay</span> in 2004. One criticism concerns the title <span style="font-style: italic;">The Unexpected</span>. Although these works may be less well known, such a title only serves to reinforce the attitude that one does not expect serious artists to work in clay. It also, perhaps, reflects continuing anxieties over the value and status of clay. The old art versus craft debate, although declared long dead, still gasps a last few breaths.<br /><br />A one-day symposium, with presentations from art critics, historians, collectors and artists from across Europe, explored the use of clay within the visual arts. I presented a paper that provided a British perspective. A key talking point concerned the perceived differences between works in clay by fine artists and works made by ceramic artists. The majority of works in <span style="font-style: italic;">The Unexpected</span> were by fine artists. Important ceramic artists were excluded, as were women artists, with only one female artist being represented in the exhibition, a gender bias equally evident in <span style="font-style: italic;">A Secret History of Clay</span>. In a discipline dominated by women there is a shocking lack of a female, let alone feminist presence. The museum’s collection, however, does contain works by female ceramic artists including Cindy Sherman, Lucie Rie and Betty Woodman but these were not in the exhibition. The omission of works from the ceramics canon, I suspect, was not because of their perceived lower status or the quality of their work, but more likely to be simply because these artists are not well known to the art world (or to the public) as they operate in the ceramics world.<br /><br />The issue here is one of context. The majority of ceramic artists choose to stay within the craft world and marketplace, where they will be less well known to the art world. Some artists, such as Andrew Lord who is in the exhibition, successfully moved into the fine art arena. Context defines value and art continues to have a higher status than craft. Content is another key issue. To have the intention to make art is clearly not enough. Ultimately art is classified by the art world and in order to be seen as art it must use its language.<br /><br />Historically, the economic and cultural hierarchies imposed by the art world undoubtedly marginalised the crafts. Fortunately, exhibitions such as <span style="font-style: italic;">The Unexpected</span> suggest that prejudices against ceramics/clay are beginning to break down. Contemporary art practice has seen a renewed interest in the use of traditional craft materials and techniques (and particularly clay), which, to some extent, has displaced craft from its traditional ground. This has forced craft practices to reassess their own position within the visual arts, which has resulted in different approaches and new ways of working. Traditional attitudes are being overturned and ceramic histories are being rewritten. I suspect it will not be long before we see more works by ceramic artists appearing alongside artists’ works in clay. Ceramic artists need to ensure they make work which is both relevant and of sufficient quality to be included.Ceramic Reviewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06822841589870899022noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2907739058543909215.post-41186844200179491592009-06-17T16:17:00.001+01:002009-06-17T16:19:35.069+01:00Lucie Rie and my motherBy an odd coincidence, my mother and Lucie Rie share the same birthday (16 March) but not the same year. My mother was born in 1901, one year before Lucie Rie. But there the similarities end. My mother was one of eleven children born in a tiny Derbyshire village to a coal-mining father who preached the Methodist message on the Sabbath. She entered ‘service’ in nearby Nottingham in her early teens, where she remained until she married my father. By contrast Lucie was born into a well-to-do Viennese, Jewish family and was one of three children. Educated by a private tutor and then at a fashionable girls' school, she attended the progressive school of arts and crafts in Vienna where she trained as a potter. Her life was comfortable and privileged though not without its sadnesses. Her younger brother, of whom she was very fond, was killed on the Italian front in the First World War while four years later a man for whom she had a passion was found frozen to death in the Austrian Alps. Most of my mother’s siblings became coal miners and hence excused army service.<br /><br />I was musing on these similarities and differences partly because I am currently researching Lucie’s life and writing a biography of her, and partly because I recently met the veteran artist Ruth Duckworth who, at the age of ninety, reminded me of both Lucie and my mother. Although Lucie left a fine legacy of pots she was a private person, so no diaries and few letters have so far come to light. My mother’s legacy was a family of five children and a host of grandchildren. But she too left little for a biographer to scrutinise, as letters were rarely kept or records made. Such ruminations led me to ponder whether a biography of my mother or Lucie – though both very different – would be more fulfilling. Maybe there are two books to write.Emmanuel Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08470784352993333463noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2907739058543909215.post-57853443068339050202009-05-26T17:12:00.002+01:002009-05-26T17:13:34.776+01:00A S Byatt<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaBToCDPXcy7cMPOdymuRty7ve2hThK1llCr7ttRKgGuY55ff7nccXw8duLqjvVe83-AexAxL-A0iqRvzjQwFfpPnYlilbM-h4peVn0hrIy5Z9p57OVbih6chVDFdlHF4bPBl8X1wSqYSs/s1600-h/n288598.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 127px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaBToCDPXcy7cMPOdymuRty7ve2hThK1llCr7ttRKgGuY55ff7nccXw8duLqjvVe83-AexAxL-A0iqRvzjQwFfpPnYlilbM-h4peVn0hrIy5Z9p57OVbih6chVDFdlHF4bPBl8X1wSqYSs/s200/n288598.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340166434700093970" border="0" /></a>Published amidst much acclaim, A S Byatt’s latest novel <span style="font-style: italic;">The Children’s Book</span> well matches its publicity – at least in length. Weighing in at over 600 pages it promises to be a long read. I am just starting on it and will report as I go along. But why read it? you might ask. Well, it features amongst its main characters a potter, apparently beautifully and convincingly woven into the narrative. The Acknowledgments mention Edmund de Waal, who not only invited the author to visit his studio but ‘allowed me to put my hands into a wavering pot’. Another adviser and helper was Mary Wondrausch, ‘whose book on slipware – apart from being full of interest – was also full of technical information and delectable vocabulary’. All very promising.Emmanuel Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08470784352993333463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2907739058543909215.post-69909610634921466452009-05-12T16:39:00.002+01:002009-05-12T16:42:12.763+01:00High camp/high artLove it or loathe it there is no denying the sheer splendour of the Baroque, which the current exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, exemplifies in good measure. Several years in the making, it looks at the way the Roman Catholic church, the aristocracy and the state saw the Baroque as a way of exhibiting and reasserting their power and authority at a time of great scientific and technological development. Armies of architects, painters, sculptors, musicians, actors, writers and craftsmen produced work that was lavish, ornate, highly detailed and ostentatious in its use of precious material. Pottery, then relegated to second place by the sheer beauty and technical sophistication of imported Chinese porcelain, does find a modest place in this confection, namely in the Tulip Vases. Standing some five feet tall, the impressive structures, intended to show off the newly imported tulips – and other flowers – was built in sections and decorated with highly detailed blue and white patterning, While the form was essentially European, the decoration was a liberal interpretation of Chinese blue and white. Despite forebodings before I went, fearing too much sweet and not enough angst, I enjoyed the show, partly because the work had the courage of its convictions – it found little support in the more puritan atmosphere of Britain – and partly for its sheer celebration of skill. High camp or not, it unashamedly revels in the material world. <span style="font-style: italic;">Baroque 1620-1800</span> continues at the V&A until 19 July.Emmanuel Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08470784352993333463noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2907739058543909215.post-85102991122746257692009-05-05T16:57:00.002+01:002009-05-05T16:59:45.561+01:00Crack-PotsWhere there’s a will there’s a way, so the old saying goes. Such determination was given a new twist when drug smugglers, intent on achieving their aim, constructed a 42-piece crockery set, complete with plates, bowls, cups and saucers, fit to grace any table, made out of compressed cocaine. Spanish police seized 20kg of the pots, which had been sent from Maracaibo, Venezuela’s second largest city, to Barcelona via London. The cocaine was intercepted following a tip-off about the suspicious looking package that had been sent by recorded delivery. The consignment was intended to be reprocessed and sold in Catalonia in northeast Spain. A man is being questioned. If the pots in question had been used for making tea, what a high old time the tea party would have been.<br /><br />The ‘pottery’ was not the only ingenious ruse invented by devious smugglers. Spanish police detained a Chilean man aged 66 with a broken leg whose ‘plaster cast’ was made out of cocaine. The man, arrested at Barcelona airport, was also found to possess six beer cans and two hollowed out stools that contained the drug. The broken leg proved to be genuine and the police think it may have been specially broken to legitimise the cast. In all 4.8kg of cocaine was found – quite a haul.Emmanuel Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08470784352993333463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2907739058543909215.post-89157721503507105082009-04-29T15:13:00.002+01:002009-04-29T15:22:08.487+01:00Empty ShopsIn the heady days of the sixties, with ‘happenings’ and impromptu exhibitions in far-flung redundant industrial buildings that then no one wanted, the artistic enterprises survived in a mad mix of experiment, innovation and indulgence. Even London’s Roundhouse, then run down and dilapidated, was occupied by avant-garde performance and arts groups. The hard-edged eighties brought an end to such freedom. Today the situation has shifted again. The ‘credit crunch’ has resulted in many empty shops premises as retailers have been forced out of business by the economic downturn.<br /><br />All of which makes the recent pronouncement by Hazel Blears, Communities Secretary, about proving funds to help people to temporarily convert such empty shops into such things as ‘community projects’ or even short-term businesses, too good to bypass. As temporary art places – for the whole range of visual arts – they could be effective in moving art/craft out of the gallery and into the High Street, introducing the work to a new audience. Galleries brighten up the street, avoid grim-looking and depressing empty premises, and are a good thing all round.<br /><br />Check out the website: <a href="http://www.artistsandmakers.com/emptyshops">www.artistsandmakers.com/emptyshops</a><br /><br />Report any success or comments.Emmanuel Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08470784352993333463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2907739058543909215.post-64794148434569002742009-04-29T14:55:00.002+01:002009-04-29T14:59:56.603+01:00Breath of the Spirit‘The work of the artist’, wrote John Maynard Keynes when setting up the Arts Council of Great Britain in 1946, ‘is, of its nature, individual and free, undisciplined, unregimented, uncontrolled. The artist walks where the breath of the spirit blows him.’ It is a thrilling assertion of the idealistic role of the artist in a modern, civilized society, evoking an unfettered freedom that is both inspirational and challenging. Today, such high-minded views may seem out of touch, too idealistic for a more earth-bound society, yet they still convey some of the key aspects of the life of the artist. ACGB did not specifically include the crafts in its remit, though it did not preclude it. Retrospectives of Bernard Leach and later Lucie Rie were mounted at the Arts Council’s London gallery in the 1960s. The crafts came under the Board of Trade and received government support for its ability to generate income and, more importantly, exports. What if ACGB had consciously embraced all the visual arts rather than focusing on painting and sculpture? Craft would have developed in a different way, maybe freer from the ghetto many see it occupying. The ‘breath of the spirit’ is there but sometimes it takes some finding.Emmanuel Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08470784352993333463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2907739058543909215.post-86300859462910672152009-04-15T12:19:00.003+01:002009-04-15T12:29:56.044+01:00The Porcelain Project<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmGBlnlAV6suoj3Ir-uRiW-fiSBIJzz4ECgJWvJ4v5ZBO92GV6ODCDHJuIAWwj0joihfdsbD-Hve0UXnrbUs0wosl89PENPqTtWjFiA5uH3MfuUpoT7R8IxlTBVXZwWiOtbJdbJmG0O8F9/s1600-h/08.+Needcompany.Julien+Faure,++photocredit+Miel+Verhasselt.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 155px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmGBlnlAV6suoj3Ir-uRiW-fiSBIJzz4ECgJWvJ4v5ZBO92GV6ODCDHJuIAWwj0joihfdsbD-Hve0UXnrbUs0wosl89PENPqTtWjFiA5uH3MfuUpoT7R8IxlTBVXZwWiOtbJdbJmG0O8F9/s200/08.+Needcompany.Julien+Faure,++photocredit+Miel+Verhasselt.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324878922694404322" border="0" /></a>After sitting through one and a half hours of <span style="font-style: italic;">The Porcelain Project</span> at the Barbican Theatre last night I doubt if I will ever look at a porcelain – or, in this case, a bone china vase – in the same way again. The Belgian dance/performance group Grace Ellen Barkey & Needcompany filled the stage with hundreds of porcelain objects, mostly abstract-type vases but one or two teapots. The six dancers, some wearing what looked like space saucers, danced around, lifted up, moved and occasionally smashed pieces of the porcelain forms. The tale, of couplings and uncouplings, involved much simulated hetero and homo sex as well as much interaction with the porcelain. The soft tinkling of china fragments gently bouncing off each other was pure magic, as were some of the sequences. The strongest of these were the couples, where inventive choreography created both sensuous and crude interactions. Perfect timing, close contact and controlled movement conjured up the power of human relationships.<br /><br />With no identifiable narrative, other than images of the real and the imagined, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Porcelain Project</span> moved from sheer delight to moments of ennui. Within the performance I am still working out the role of the porcelain, though responding to its fragility and strength, its pure white translucency and its often phallic shapes seems relevant. The mixture of the surreal, the absurd and the silly made for a memorable, if over-long performance, but as Grace Ellen Barkey notes, ‘the spectators themselves have to decide the purpose of it all’.<br /><br />As an alternative to the merry junketing at the <span style="font-style: italic;">International Ceramics Festival</span>, Aberystwyth, I think <span style="font-style: italic;">The Porcelain Project</span> could well find a place in the programme – a welcome broadening out of our understanding of the interconnectivity of the arts.Emmanuel Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08470784352993333463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2907739058543909215.post-43942453426868948452009-04-14T15:42:00.002+01:002009-04-14T15:50:52.640+01:00Shakespeare in Clay<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinDR2C4QWp1_0Kb-BMR481Q1xQFMPLJ6njKLww37CsMnV3NcKNj_7pFx4WKy4hrSS4UZJ8vrHS5E3cugfPZnWp40P69b7pA0GBHYWbtYLnCtFzsg9geYYz-3N59B8xmUY-4zP2WhEhNdRU/s1600-h/fragment.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 160px; height: 193px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinDR2C4QWp1_0Kb-BMR481Q1xQFMPLJ6njKLww37CsMnV3NcKNj_7pFx4WKy4hrSS4UZJ8vrHS5E3cugfPZnWp40P69b7pA0GBHYWbtYLnCtFzsg9geYYz-3N59B8xmUY-4zP2WhEhNdRU/s200/fragment.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324559627172146242" border="0" /></a>The hunt to find an accurate image of the Elizabethan wordsmith has taken on a new urgency. The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust recently put their faith in a portrait of what it claims to be the ‘only authentic image’ of the great man. Hot on its heels comes a recent find of a 16th century fragment from Beauvais featuring the image of a man with a ruff (above), found on the site of the Tower Theatre in London. Shakespeare is known to have performed at the theatre between 1594 and 1597, and Romeo and Juliet was probably premiered there. The pottery fragment, with its crazed glaze, could be almost any male of the period but whether the bard ever got to Beauvais and impressed the potters with his skills seems unlikely, but it’s a good story. Shakespeare, Shakespeare, wherefore art thou Shakespeare?Emmanuel Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08470784352993333463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2907739058543909215.post-68451890958124528562009-04-14T13:04:00.002+01:002009-04-14T13:07:49.061+01:00Leeding the WayWhen I was in the middle of writing my biography of Bernard Leach, the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds organized a conference on twentieth century sculpture for which contributions were requested. When I suggested a paper on Leach as a sculptor, after a long silence the convenor, clearly embarrassed, said that the view was that this topic would not fit the agenda. That was nearly ten years ago.<br /><br />It was with something of a surprise, and with great pleasure, therefore, to see in the recent copy of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Henry Moore Institute Newsletter</span> (April/May 2009 Issue No. 83) that two of the fellows appointed 2009/10 are to develop research projects on aspects of ceramics. Independent art historian Simon Ford is to look into ‘Sculpture in a Purely Abstract Form’: William Staite Murray and Modern British Sculpture. Ford will examine the work of Murray and ‘document, contextualize and interpret his many connections with the sculptors of his day’ with the aim of demonstrating that ‘pottery played a key role in interwar debates about modern ands abstract British sculpture’.<br /><br />Jeffrey Jones of Cardiff School of Art and Design, UWIC, is to consider ‘The Relationship of Sculpture to Pottery in British Art from the Early Twentieth Century to the Present Day’. His argument is that at certain periods the interests of sculptors and potters in Britain have either overlapped or come into sharp focus. ‘My research will use case studies to track and interpret these relationships in order to provide an historical; context in which the work of contemporary practitioners can be better understood and appreciated’.<br /><br />I hope they are talking to each other.<br /><br />Equally surprising is the announcement that the Leeds City Art Gallery are to explore the close relationship between ceramics and other art forms. A small display will set twentieth century ceramics alongside sculptures from the collection. The majority of the ceramics are from the 1970s and 80s, and include work by Hans Coper, Lucie Rie, Elizabeth Fritsch and Martin Smith as well as more recent pieces by David Roberts, Dan Fisher and Nicholas Portella. The collection, stored at Lotherton Hall, has rarely been shown. The ceramics will focus on the ‘vessel’ and will be shown alongside sculptures by Paule Vezelay, Nicholas Pope, Richard Long, Stephen Cox and others.<br /><br />Someone in Leeds clearly has their finger on the trigger.Emmanuel Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08470784352993333463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2907739058543909215.post-90486580427861473822009-03-11T17:06:00.006+00:002009-03-11T17:12:25.949+00:00Fired Up<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifnArAKVteKz8bxn8rqA_yDYfkpFcGNVsmd_oSvw6tIW_vCNQWFsG3Y6pgxGT6C4wp4-MROdpHjNOiGi7LTbbHcfBho1-hEiwvvvVrlpDi9LCv6DqReYcjmmBZZydt6Kfg9iKx0DrySjlM/s1600-h/sainsburys.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 144px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifnArAKVteKz8bxn8rqA_yDYfkpFcGNVsmd_oSvw6tIW_vCNQWFsG3Y6pgxGT6C4wp4-MROdpHjNOiGi7LTbbHcfBho1-hEiwvvvVrlpDi9LCv6DqReYcjmmBZZydt6Kfg9iKx0DrySjlM/s200/sainsburys.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311978365231192738" border="0" /></a>The department stores have suddenly become enamoured of the handmade look in ceramics. Sainsbury’s (advert, left) has a range of Sung-type bottles in pale celadon green, a candle-holder in the shape of a pebble and an oval shaped dish that might possibly pass for studio pottery. Meanwhile the Conran shop have a cup and saucer in speckled creamy-white and black (below) that definitely takes on the ‘craft’ mantle, on offer at £19. Quite what all this means I am not sure, but where there is a market there is a supplier. Large companies are adept at appropriating ideas and goods, but need to produce it at department store prices. Studio potters cannot hope to compete quality with quantity – nor should they. What we have to do is to forcefully argue our case for products that are superior in every way.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAAScdeADNJ4EjXm-4EZGUvvISn_cuI4m1ej8c5NrlYcI5z6O7otfGUb49IXXXiZC1fKuVorLYc78fVY3ItUTomW8rde5qT2rX9VLuw4GXe0ZAdyXeJJ8HMXKWXOeg_p1FBOSsPI9vRPIX/s1600-h/conran.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 126px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAAScdeADNJ4EjXm-4EZGUvvISn_cuI4m1ej8c5NrlYcI5z6O7otfGUb49IXXXiZC1fKuVorLYc78fVY3ItUTomW8rde5qT2rX9VLuw4GXe0ZAdyXeJJ8HMXKWXOeg_p1FBOSsPI9vRPIX/s200/conran.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311979186217375746" border="0" /></a>Emmanuel Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08470784352993333463noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2907739058543909215.post-39204228509125922932009-03-11T12:41:00.000+00:002009-03-11T12:43:33.043+00:00Staffordshire OatcakesWith the ‘credit crunch’ continuing to bite, newspapers and magazines are full of advice of ways to save money and reduce expenditure. One topic that arose was the Staffordshire oatcake, not to be confused with the pikelet, a stauch, filling and healthy standby, traditionally eaten by workers in the ceramic industry. Unlike its Scottish equivalent, a Staffordshire oatcake is a type of pancake made from oatmeal, flour and yeast. It is cooked on a griddle or ‘baxton’. The oatcake is a local food, normally referred to as Staffordshire oatcakes or possibly Potteries oatcakes by non-locals, because they were made in this area. In and around Staffordshire they are simply known as oatcakes. Each baker or even each household has their own recipe and these are jealously guarded secrets. It was once common throughout the Potteries for oatcakes to be sold directly from the window of a house to customers on the street. Few such producers of this style remain, their role being taken over by more commercial producers; they are, apparently, now available in supermarkets. Recipes are notoriously hard to find but one on the web gives the following mixture for serving two people.<br /><br />50g wholemeal flour <br />50g fine oatmeal <br />½ tsp dried yeast <br />15g melted butter <br />Rapeseed oil for shallow frying <br /><br />Mix together the flour, oatmeal, yeast and season well. Whisk in the butter and 125ml of tepid water. Cover and set aside in a warm place for 30 minutes.<br /><br />Heat the oil in a frying pan and add 4 large spoonfuls of the batter into the pan to make 4 oatcakes. Fry for 2 minutes on each side until golden.<br /><br />Maybe others have better alternatives.Emmanuel Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08470784352993333463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2907739058543909215.post-34132187721854587692009-03-04T15:18:00.004+00:002009-03-04T15:22:06.974+00:00Eating Clay<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQKM92e7_-lri_cSaPoA0r6t6FyHxHwMG6a_E2HXHMyiJTuwDNiyGeCD1DmoVnkn5e5tUMRBSwyIWNDwHJW_paWXYeblkEsXFwlREmLuHVA5aaL3IMNRH_gLyKn5zA1RULqIB0jcQGFTLa/s1600-h/leach2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 142px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQKM92e7_-lri_cSaPoA0r6t6FyHxHwMG6a_E2HXHMyiJTuwDNiyGeCD1DmoVnkn5e5tUMRBSwyIWNDwHJW_paWXYeblkEsXFwlREmLuHVA5aaL3IMNRH_gLyKn5zA1RULqIB0jcQGFTLa/s200/leach1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309352644591704978" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY4qKucPO8qAeTLyhFA_WFU5qWIrn_CBjaWn5wfVNHfxL-dw8Kd5s3ZxSVn25pqIu-qsBow1sldt8BYwoVFRPdsAh8V5QzQXQikiY8uFdg_YEZrcgjNWBqWlcmmzXSkKDgIDaqOyU9s51t/s1600-h/leach2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 142px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY4qKucPO8qAeTLyhFA_WFU5qWIrn_CBjaWn5wfVNHfxL-dw8Kd5s3ZxSVn25pqIu-qsBow1sldt8BYwoVFRPdsAh8V5QzQXQikiY8uFdg_YEZrcgjNWBqWlcmmzXSkKDgIDaqOyU9s51t/s200/leach1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309352480153016130" border="0" /></a>There is an amusing photograph of David Leach looking up from making one of his rounded ‘egg’ pots immediately after he has blown into it. Around his mouth is a ring of clay, in this case porcelain, forming an extra pair of lips. Whether he licked his lips to remove the clay, and hence swallowed it, or wiped his mouth clean is not known, but in the course of their lives potters must, accidentally, ‘eat’ quite a bit of clay. This is quite different from breathing in clay dust, which is not good. The question of whether consuming clay is beneficial has been around for many years. The medicinal qualities of kaolin – as hot poultices for easing boils or as a stomach calmer for jippy tummy – are well known, but there are serious clay eaters who advocate consuming clay for the wider health benefits. This is the topic of a fascinating article in the South African magazine <span style="font-style: italic;">National Ceramics</span> by H Klump, emeritus professor of biochemistry. Quoting pacifist and vegetarian Mahatma Gandhi, who ‘advocated eating dirt to clean your body and relieve constipation’ the article discusses the value/relevance of eating clay.<br /><br />In a recent gardening programme, the experts were asked whether they would garden with gloves to protect their hands. All were adamant in expressing their belief that no gloves were required except for rough work, and all expressed their belief in the cleanliness of soil. After growing tomatoes in his greenhouse my grandfather used to sterilize the soil to kill off any possible infection, a process that may also have killed off anything useful to human consumption. There is a difference, of course, between clay and soil, the latter containing vast amounts of organic material. I doubt whether eating any old clay can be safely recommended, but despite the crankiness of the concept, maybe the answer does lie in the soil.Emmanuel Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08470784352993333463noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2907739058543909215.post-3303521202961249172008-12-10T15:40:00.003+00:002008-12-10T15:47:58.569+00:00Mug's MugWriting in the January issue of <span style="font-style: italic;">Icon</span> magazine, editor Justin McGuirk describes going into a shop in Tokyo that sold Japanese handicrafts. Inside one particular cabinet he saw a handmade mug made of black clay with a white glaze. It was, he says modestly, ‘rather beautiful’. The crunch, however, was the price tag – nearly £30 – and he hastily put it down thinking it was way over the top. Several minutes and two streets later the mug remained in his memory as he recalled the pleasing way that the dark clay resonated behind the milky glaze, the uneven surface, a base that was not quite circular and the handle not perpendicular. ‘Eloquently imperfect, the mug lingered with me’. McGuirk contrasted the quiet beauty of the mug with the ‘factory-smooth and mute’ mugs he used daily, adding how much he would rather have the black and white one than all of his own.<br /><br />It is a paean of praise for the discretely handmade, for the quality of individual expression, for an awareness of character and the pleasure of intimate contact with an object that performs a simple but important task. McGuirk’s reluctance to buy was down to perceived worth or value when contrasted with functional mugs produced by industry that could be purchased for a fraction of the price. Yet, in terms of satisfaction value, he makes it clear that the handmade product far outweighed any material cost, its intrinsic worth more than justifying the higher price. He concludes by saying that, in his opinion, ‘the only way forward for us as a consumer society is to buy fewer things that we value more’, a statement with which it is hard to disagree. When <span style="font-style: italic;">Icon</span> magazine features the best/liveliest/inventive/pleasing/beautiful handmade mugs from the UK then this will, indeed, be a sign of change.<br /><br />Should you want to support Justin McGuirk in his appreciation of the handmade his email is <a href="mailto:justin@icon-magazine.co.uk">justin@icon-magazine.co.uk</a>.Emmanuel Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08470784352993333463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2907739058543909215.post-40808362986015021882008-12-08T14:53:00.003+00:002008-12-08T15:10:28.406+00:00Save Harrow Ceramics<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCHaoFA47WdqndDebErP4CaaDDyHA4uu1HtBy7IuliPxmGuayVsJb1siZ_4KnmXMkBIk8cS5hQJZV0MWSHAN0ObwI3oAlSH1CxDKO_0ek-epNauNq0WxqkM8rK_-19dpBXb6h3ddh81iEr/s1600-h/Harrow+students.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 164px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCHaoFA47WdqndDebErP4CaaDDyHA4uu1HtBy7IuliPxmGuayVsJb1siZ_4KnmXMkBIk8cS5hQJZV0MWSHAN0ObwI3oAlSH1CxDKO_0ek-epNauNq0WxqkM8rK_-19dpBXb6h3ddh81iEr/s200/Harrow+students.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5277432821767893970" border="0" /></a>It has come as a shock to hear from the ceramics course team at the University of Westminster, Harrow, that, after working to create a beautiful, well-equipped new department after last year’s devastating fire, management has prepared a case for the closure of Harrow’s world-renowned BA Hons Ceramics course. Recruitment of new students has been suspended in a run-down to closure, which is planned for 2013 – the fiftieth anniversary of ceramics teaching at Harrow.<br /><br />The University of Westminster has taken the closure decision despite the national and international reputation of the course, its first-class academic standing and its huge significance for British art, craft and design. Far from its standards being questioned, it is said to pose problems because it takes up too much space. As a senior manager justifying the course closure said: ‘the trouble with clay is you can’t store it on a memory stick’.<br /><br />This issue appears to not only be London-centric, but nationwide. A feature in the forthcoming edition of <span style="font-style: italic;">Ceramic Review</span> (CR235, Jan/Feb 2009) reports on <span style="font-style: italic;">Mapping Current Activity and Sustaining Future Making</span>, a symposium called in response to the recent closure of Glasgow’s BA Hons Ceramics, the last dedicated ceramics course in Scotland. It seems that ‘bums on seats’ is the priority and ceramics departments are being pushed out as a drain on resources. As Jane Cairns, spokesperson for the Ceramics Students Action Committee says: ‘This is an appalling act of cultural vandalism – it is all about balance sheets, square footage and accountancy, not art. It is a betrayal and a disgrace.’<br /><br />Current students and staff have embarked on a determined campaign to save Harrow ceramics and are seeking as much support from the wider ceramics/arts/education community as possible to stop the closure. Please write or email your views to Vice-Chancellor Geoffrey Petts (<a href="mailto:G.Petts@westminster.ac.uk">G.Petts@westminster.ac.uk</a>), with a copy to the Dean of Media, Arts and Design, Sally Feldman (<a href="mailto:feldmas@wmin.ac.uk">feldmas@wmin.ac.uk</a>), and also to the Ceramics Course Leader, Kyra Cane (<a href="mailto:canek@westminster.ac.uk">canek@westminster.ac.uk</a>).Natasha Cawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09216247694944132716noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2907739058543909215.post-64871794550454592462008-11-26T17:09:00.001+00:002008-11-26T17:12:12.092+00:00Real WagesFollowing on from my piece about potters’ income, I was fascinated to see a quote by Roger Deakin, offering a somewhat different perspective.<br /><br />‘The real wages of the potter are in the daily silent appreciations of each of their customers as they pour tea from their teapot, or drink coffee from their mug, or eat dinner off their plate.’<br />From <span style="font-style: italic;">Notes From Walnut Tree Farm</span><br /><br />It is true that the ‘use value’ of tableware is likely to far outweigh any financial cost or worth. As a maker of domestic ware for many years, customers write to me after a gap of twenty years or more asking for replacements for broken pieces. Alas, materials have changed and, try as I do, the results barely match the older wares. However, what was bought for a few pounds many moons ago has consistently given pleasure to the user. This is ‘real worth’. It does not help to pay my bills, nor do I get PLR or any other rights on it, and I like the fact that the pots have been and still are in use.<br /><br />Rather than thinking ‘real wages’, maybe it would be more helpful to talk of ‘real satisfaction’, an alternative way of describing both the enjoyment of making and the pleasure of using pots.Emmanuel Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08470784352993333463noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2907739058543909215.post-40139957590297454962008-11-26T17:02:00.002+00:002008-11-26T17:07:51.114+00:00Stoke-on-Trent<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUEAHdY4gLOFM8_HIJeg2IJ6RwEF9DmOgJI-2-d9CftorCCjZUdAi_abfVpAPyJ2IpwQD6kdZ2-5ROJ4EXlv-u-vB3dPmOp-h2EdsMn3gXIKm68Wpw6j820azIco8AD8xR2mu6waXLnHSV/s1600-h/Stafford.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 159px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUEAHdY4gLOFM8_HIJeg2IJ6RwEF9DmOgJI-2-d9CftorCCjZUdAi_abfVpAPyJ2IpwQD6kdZ2-5ROJ4EXlv-u-vB3dPmOp-h2EdsMn3gXIKm68Wpw6j820azIco8AD8xR2mu6waXLnHSV/s200/Stafford.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273013455498301314" border="0" /></a>To quote a truism, Stoke-on-Trent is not what it was. In the 1960s it was one of the world’s major producers of ceramics, and was the UK’s single biggest manufacturers. Giants like Wedgwood, Spode and Worcester were unstoppable, secure in buoyant sales here and overseas. The old, smoky, inefficient but, to us, romantic bottle kilns were pulled down to be replaced by gas and oil-fired continuous tunnel kilns. The air cleared, order books were full, there was work aplenty. Workers were skilled, and much of the making was done by hand.<br /><br />As Harold Macmillan remarked, the industry was overtaken by ‘events’. Overseas manufacturers, working with a vastly cheaper labour force, started to produce similar items at much lower cost. Few factories seriously researched the changing market as the traditional wedding present – the dinner service or teaset – went out of favour for something less formal. Like the redundant bottle kilns even many of the factories have now been reduced to rubble.<br /><br />Now comes welcome news of a phoenix rising from the ashes. Later in 2009 a giant ceramics biennale is planned for Stoke that will look at the new while acknowledging the past. An inventive series of exhibitions, events, happening etc will occur throughout the city that will reenergise and transform the area. Maybe they will even fire one of the few surviving bottle kilns.<br /><br />Watch this space.Emmanuel Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08470784352993333463noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2907739058543909215.post-55735155635813417052008-11-26T15:54:00.004+00:002008-11-26T16:47:23.797+00:00Issue 235 latestThe January/February 2009 issue of <span style="font-style: italic;">Ceramic Review</span> is in the final stages of production. A set of colour-accurate proofs were delivered to the CR offices today, and these have been pored over by the editorial team in order to tease out any errors that may have escaped our collective gaze, and to check that the colour and quality of photographs are as expected.<br /><br />The next issue features the annual Gallery Map, which has been reformatted into an A5 booklet after 7 years as a fold-out sheet. An essential guide to nearly 200 ceramics galleries in the UK and Ireland, the new format allows space for a larger map (which, at the very least, will make my job easier when I come to plot the locations of the galleries), as well as a calendar giving details of all the main ceramics fairs taking place in 2009. (A good point at which to plug London’s premier selling fair for ceramics, <span style="font-style: italic;">Ceramic Art London</span>, which takes place 27 February – 1 March 2009 at the Royal College of Art. See <a href="http://www.ceramics.org.uk">www.ceramics.org.uk</a> for full details.)Ben Eldridgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02941957053636154286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2907739058543909215.post-10463817921149671942008-11-26T15:45:00.003+00:002008-11-26T15:50:26.690+00:00Carrot, Spinach and Walnut Salad<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5SWPGOVg3I9CMzNjK46HnpH0yeWjTujfnDjTJ3kESVepFmuQzQQ8cxpVOiZjuy3RiGBfv395dcQl_gSqIAJLM-jQWy4xmWafoLWpoHRs6oevVe0SJGNdbLms2BHt3xeQXkhr10k9ML1qV/s1600-h/Carrot+salad.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 153px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5SWPGOVg3I9CMzNjK46HnpH0yeWjTujfnDjTJ3kESVepFmuQzQQ8cxpVOiZjuy3RiGBfv395dcQl_gSqIAJLM-jQWy4xmWafoLWpoHRs6oevVe0SJGNdbLms2BHt3xeQXkhr10k9ML1qV/s200/Carrot+salad.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5272993643363343666" border="0" /></a>Another in our occasional series of recipes served in handmade pots (in this case a John Butler dish), this is a fusion of Japanese and western cooking. You can alter the amount of mustard and give it a bit more kick!<br /><br />Ingredients:<br />1 large carrot<br />1 bunch of spinach (about 100g)<br />1 handful of walnuts (about 20g)<br />Soy sauce<br />Mayonnaise<br />English mustard<br /><br /><br />1 Grate the carrot into a bowl.<br /><br />2 Boil or steam the spinach and lightly squeeze to drain the water. Pour a little soy sauce on the spinach and lightly squeeze again.<br /><br />3 Cut the spinach into smaller pieces and mix with grated carrot.<br /><br />4 Chop the walnuts into small bits and add to the carrot and spinach.<br /><br />5 Add one tablespoonful of mayonnaise and one teaspoonful of English mustard to the mix.<br /><br />6 Mix well and serve.Ceramic Reviewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06822841589870899022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2907739058543909215.post-85014208936274481082008-11-18T16:23:00.003+00:002008-12-10T15:49:44.055+00:00Potters' IncomeIt’s always difficult/fascinating to talk about money, and, like sex, people do not always reveal all. So it was with some scepticism that I read about a recent survey conducted over a period of three years by Cockpit Arts. This concluded that the average income for a potter was £13,000. Cockpit Arts ‘the UK’s only creative business incubators for designer-makers’, is one of the largest providers of communal workshop space in London, with buildings in Holborn and Deptford. It offers workshop space mostly to makers at the start of their careers, though some tend to remain. The studios house makers involved in thirteen different craft disciplines, with over a third working in textiles and a fifth in ceramics. Some 30% work full-time, the rest taking part-time employment such as shop or bar work, teaching, lecturing or designing. Although 50% of businesses report a turnover of between £10-50,000, ceramic businesses have the lowest turnover at £13,000.<br /><br />What is not clear from the survey is whether the £13,000 represented full- or part-time commitment, but in London, while a possible ‘living wage’, it is modest. Few potters survive on potting alone – though some do and do so handsomely – and few enter the crafts to get rich quick. Notoriously, income from making tends to be limited, and potters eke out a living from their often hard work. The question of finance is one still shrouded in mystery and clarification would be welcome. The world, as they say, does not owe potters (or any other maker) a living, but it would be good to know that they do not starve.Emmanuel Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08470784352993333463noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2907739058543909215.post-37144856998385709272008-11-05T15:03:00.003+00:002008-11-05T15:21:25.357+00:00London Calling<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMycl_sYQidlFvIU1oIy-mO6hDg3b33kxKyaqMcv8jJYoYqMlApS7SDuvRmNk9RjckqeU95bEzXv_0jxDki2zGvTZ3qQKyF2CGKKnkptf1I50CAsjtJqPlD4OCYDJSvaKJbwTzRFZBpD6x/s1600-h/Hostess.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 137px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMycl_sYQidlFvIU1oIy-mO6hDg3b33kxKyaqMcv8jJYoYqMlApS7SDuvRmNk9RjckqeU95bEzXv_0jxDki2zGvTZ3qQKyF2CGKKnkptf1I50CAsjtJqPlD4OCYDJSvaKJbwTzRFZBpD6x/s200/Hostess.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5265193330993744338" border="0" /></a>Looking through the latest broadsheet – a ridiculous unmanageable size – from Haunch of Venison, a trendy newish gallery in London, my eye was caught by an illustration of a bronze by William de Kooning, <span style="font-style: italic;">Hostess</span> (pictured), which is 124.5 cm high. This large sculpture is so obviously modelled freely in clay in the first instance then cast in bronze that I wanted to see the original rather than the cast. What is so engaging about the piece is the freedom of the modelling suggesting that de Kooning allowed his fingers rather than his head to find the form. The piece itself, like many of de Kooning’s paintings, combines freedom with control, tension with calmness and angst with abandon. Without sounding too much like Pseuds Corner, it is a piece that captures some sort of ‘essence’. The reason I am writing about it is that it would be great to see established sculptors using clay as a material in its own right. Occasionally the great modeller Rodin allowed clay pieces to exist, but in the art world these have little value in comparison with bronze. Yet clay carries such resonant associations with the earth, with something primal and basic, that it adds further layers of meaning to studies of the figure. Using clay as the ‘staging post’ for bronze and other metals is an age-old process, but soon clay will be rediscovered by sculptors and galleries with the realisation that it can be just as, if not more, powerful a medium as any other.Emmanuel Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08470784352993333463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2907739058543909215.post-47095082914494414372008-11-05T15:00:00.001+00:002008-11-05T15:03:03.904+00:00MAD<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV_w73B6Fkltk7-O_7x4RD_VW-RzezjBvrRASGeUL0hzYYJf4kRvA5BlF220VyiwDbW3kfSnQJpfH4Y4zkA1CYJ4YnlUBw3pqKuaT22Q3Dn_6PyhGHawlzLVi8lNFEFrVBbyeigp5qnj36/s1600-h/Harumi+Nakashima.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 159px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV_w73B6Fkltk7-O_7x4RD_VW-RzezjBvrRASGeUL0hzYYJf4kRvA5BlF220VyiwDbW3kfSnQJpfH4Y4zkA1CYJ4YnlUBw3pqKuaT22Q3Dn_6PyhGHawlzLVi8lNFEFrVBbyeigp5qnj36/s200/Harumi+Nakashima.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5265189130337366546" border="0" /></a>Synonyms can be as helpful as they are confusing. The recently opened mima (lower case is house style) is useful shorthand for Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art. The splendid new building houses the long-established collection of studio ceramics, which is one of the best in the country, though alas, only on show from time to time. The most recent synonym is MAD, short for museum of arts and design (again lower case, which is obviously in fashion). Quite what to make of MAD as a title is open to question. It is certainly memorable but does not immediately suggest the eloquence and sensuality of art or design. Nevertheless, it may catch on – ‘See you at MAD’ may become a sort of catchphrase, rather like the V&A’s ‘great café with museum attached’ (now abandoned). MAD does promise great things including the piece by Haruymi Nakashima, <span style="font-style: italic;">Struggling Form</span> (pictured). The intriguing assembly suggests both organic and manufactured form, and the blue and white takes us back to Ming Dynasty China.<br />While the US has several major museums devoted to craft, some solely to ceramics, the UK languishes hopelessly behind, with sporadic shows in various galleries but no national collection that offers regular displays, changing exhibitions and a ‘craft culture’ to initiate debate, discussion and information. Maybe it could be part of the Olympic bid?Emmanuel Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08470784352993333463noreply@blogger.com0