Made From Fife
The story of Butter Wynd Pottery mapping some of the places in Fife where food is grown in earth from which pottery can be made. Part of an exhibition organised by Fife Contemporary Art & Craft and curated by Jonathan Baxter, for MAC, Fife Council's mobile museum.
Wednesday 16 January 2013
Tuesday 15 January 2013
MAC open to general public
On Tuesday 22 January, from 10am – 4pm, MAC will be open to general visitors outside St Andrews Library (pedestrianised square off South Street by Holy Trinity Church). Map here.
Thursday 27 September 2012
The MAC bus
Photo by Chris Park |
So here is the wonderful MAC bus, where our plates and cups "Made From Fife" are being shown along with works from 6 other artists, in the exhibition, "Kingdom of If".
The bus will visit the schools, community centres and events like the Big Tent that books it. For information on where the bus will be going to, please contact FCA&C (01334 474610) and for information on how to book MAC, contact Janet Klak (08451 555 555 ext 472779).
Friday 20 July 2012
Thursday 19 July 2012
Filling the drawers with the seived out material
Here are the plates we are going to use for our Made From Fife piece, along with the material sieved out of the clayey soil.
Wednesday 18 July 2012
Monday 16 July 2012
Loading the big glaze firing
Everything has been glazed, ready to put in the big kiln. Nervous times indeed. "I'm putting all my eggs in one basket" by Ella Fitzgerald keeps singing through my head.
Unloading a biscuit
These are nervous times for us, as we get to the end of months of work and present our work to the kilns to do there bit. Through heat, soft pliable clay irreversibly transforms into a hard rock like substance. It is an amazing change, but can often present us with surprises.
Sunday 15 July 2012
Weighing the material sieved out of the clay
Here are all the stones, gravel, sand, twigs and leaves that was sieved out of our selection of clays, collected in a fine selection of containers found close to hand. The job today was to work out the exact ratio of waste to clay used in the making of each plate, so that we can represent how clayey the soil from our various locations in Fife is.
The long repair of QR codes on bisque plates
Some of the QR codes don't work on the plates taken out of the biscuit kiln a couple of days ago. Luckily, bisque is just soft enough to scratch with a scalpel. It is still hard work, though and takes me the whole morning.
Saturday 14 July 2012
Trying out the dresser
Labels:
Clentrie Farm - Auchtertool,
Display,
Easter Kincaple Farm - St Andrews,
Pillars of Hercules - Falkland
Friday 13 July 2012
Display construction
We decide to make a Scottish-style dresser in MDF. We had considered having a beautiful dresser made in Scottish oak, but we felt this might detract from the plates and cups, and they story that they are telling. It may be that an oak dresser will be required, but at least this dresser will act as a model for that one, in terms of getting the proportions and sizes correct.
Loading a biscuit, with last minute fixing of QR codes
One thing we realised from the bisque, is that the QR codes need to be accurate enough to give robust scanning results. This one wasn't working so well, so Christine made some adjustments before it went in the kiln.
Biscuit kiln unloading: what have we got???
Wednesday 11 July 2012
Cup making with all the clays
The above shows what we ended up with, and below shows how I made them. I am struck by the beautiful array of colours and the different clay textures. Some of the clays are difficult to throw with, which is partly why I chose this simple shape, but also because the shape is in keeping with the straight-forward nature of Country Pottery. The cups will be glazed inside and just a little over the rim - putting your lip against an unglazed clay surface can feel unpleasant, such is the sensitivity of our mouths and what we are used to.
Loading a biscuit kiln
In this kiln I am putting two Pillars of Hercules plates and two Clentrie Farm plates. There is an air of tension...
Tuesday 10 July 2012
Second big decorating night - Clephanton Farm plate
Second big decorating night - Pillars of Hercules plate
Second big decorating night - Reekies Garage plate
Monday 9 July 2012
First big decorating night - Pittormie Farm plate
Labels:
Decorating,
Making,
Pittormie Farm - Dairsie,
QR codes
First big decorating night - Pillars of Hercules plate
First big decorating night - Crail Beach plate
First big decorating night - Clephanton Farm
First big decorating night - Clentrie Farm plate
First big decorating night - general scenes
The pressure is on to decorate these plates so that we can get them delivered on time, so there is a long night ahead of us...
Sunday 8 July 2012
Printing and drawing the QR codes
Labels:
Clentrie Farm - Auchtertool,
Decorating,
Drawing,
Making,
QR codes
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