Denmark-Brighton Contemporary Ceramics Project

Plaster casting

I have just spent 2 days in the plaster room. Most ceramic artists I have met here do not pledge much allegiance to plaster as a material, in fact many of them downright loath the stuff. For me, it’s a very necessary evil. I always work with plaster. I couldn’t get along without it. (Nearly) everything I make comes out of a mould.

I tend to make all my prototypes, save them up and have a massive plaster casting session, which is perhaps why it seems so arduous. And it is very messy. And sometimes it doesn’t work – the plaster might have gone off, which is really bad news and could destroy many hours of work, or it sets too quickly; basically it’s a race against time.

But the plaster room at Guldagergaard rates among one of the best plaster rooms I have ever worked in. It is a veritable palace when it comes to plaster workrooms. And Matt, one of the current assistants, has been polishing it with a toothbrush as far as I can see. Which raises the stakes even higher because there is the fear of messing up an exemplary room up juxtaposed with the speed with which the stuff has to be slopped around. Phew. Glad it’s over.

Anyway I have cast ten prototypes. Two are open press moulds, for which I am using my new method of pouring liquid clay (slip) into the moulds as the results are so much smoother, especially with porcelain. The other eight are closed moulds, which means I will pour slip into them, wait for it to solidify to the right thickness against the plaster walls, and then pour the excess out. This is a method I have only ever tried and have never employed in my work. So I am interested to see what the results are.

The process to make the moulds is to cast the first part, i.e. covering the clay prototype. Then this is turned over, exposing the clay form inside, seal the surface of the freshly cast plaster with a resistant soap wash to prevent the two parts from sticking and then casting the ‘back’, taking car to add a piece of clay that will form a pouring hole for the slip.

I have succeeded in sticking to my schedule of finishing all the prototypes for the new designs by today. Well, actually it was supposed to be yesterday, but typically there were some unfinished bits and pieces. Also I had to wait for an emergency tool to be posted over from Brighton, which thankfully arrived this morning.

Today was scheduled for plaster casting, which I have done, but only the first half of 10 two-part moulds. But that’s fine, it’s all ready to go for the second part tomorrow.

Actually I am doing really well. I am very happy that I completed 10 new designs out of 12, as my fall-back plan if I ran out of time was to make fewer, and I have enough now. Also I have churned out a huge number of casts of my original moulds (that I made here last summer) over the last 10 days since arriving. Enough to fill the kiln, which is now on.

My intention had been to remake the original moulds and turn them into two-part moulds, but following a bit of technical knowledge sharing, I decided to stick to using them as they are, because their length could cause problems if slip-cast. Not that they are easy to make. They are so long and fragile that moving them at all in a dry state is very difficult and they break very easily. I have been experimenting all week with different ways of casting them and getting them out of the moulds and into the kiln. I’ve pretty much sussed it now, working with the Royal Copenhagen slip, which reacts very differently to the previous slip I mixed up.

Anyway that helped with my schedule because I did not have to wait until the new moulds have been made to start casting. In other words, I’ve made about a third of what I need already, as long as they come out of the kiln OK… let’s face it, in ceramics anything can happen, and frequently it’s not what you expect!

I’ve just got back from a very successful 2 day trip to Copenhagen and Holbæk to catch up with 3 of the artists who will be exhibiting in the Fantastic Tales exhibition at The Ceramic House.

I left my new adopted home Guldagergård with a tinge of regret because my studio work is going very well. That said, I spent the whole of yesterday morning on the computer ticking some of my administrative tasks off the list.

I have come up with a way of overcoming that feeling of being overwhelmed with simply having too much to do: bite-sized chunks. Every day I write down a few things on my list and I apply myself to them one at a time in between studio sessions. It works! And it’s so satisfying each time one is achieved!

Anyway, the trip.

First up was visiting Mette Maya Gregersen’s current exhibition at Birkelund in Alberstlund (on the outskirts of Copenhagen). To start with, I nearly couldn’t find it. The sat nav certainly couldn’t! Luckily a kindly woman led me, in convoy, a good couple of miles to find it. Thank goodness for neighbourliness. Unfortunately I found it to be closed. Silly me had not read the invite and I discovered it was only open at weekends. I blagged my way in, persuading the caretaker, in my iffy Danish, to let me have a private look. Fantastic! Mette Maya’s new work is gorgeous. I know Mette originally from Origin (erstwhile Craft Fair run by the Crafts Council) and she has also visited The Ceramic House. She is one of the reasons for the Danish theme this year, because she was meant to exhibit in 2013, but had to cancel, so she was the only artist already on the list for 2014 when I came to Guldagergård last summer and discovered the incredible ceramic talent in Denmark.

Next up was Lone Borgen’s opening at Ann Linnemann’s Studio Gallery. Beautiful work that she has collaborated with her partner Stephen Parry on – he throwing, she decorating. I was delighted to discover that Asger Kristensen was exhibiting with her. I met Asger at Guldagergård last summer, when he came to fire the gas kiln in preparation for Hatfield House Pottery Fair. Then, what I saw of his work were huge bowls with a luscious reduced red glaze, so I was surprised to see that his usual work is completely different and very sculptural. Impressive work. Wish he was in my show now! We had a lovely evening post-private view in an Italian restaurant with Ann Linnemann and the others.

Then this morning I went to Holbæk and found that Christin Johansson lives and works at Holbæk Unschooled, an incredible, historical, vast set of buildings (formerly a farm), where she lives in a cute terraced cottage and lives the life, as far as I can see. Even more so at the moment, because the development grant she is currently in receipt of from the Danish Arts Council has allowed her to take a year off from teaching.

So, she presented her new performance piece in development; the first piece of the new work she is making for the 3 year period of the grant. So I am truly honoured that this piece will premiere at The Ceramic House. I was really drawn in. She is devising a one-on-one piece that will happen in the basement. I don’t want to give too much of it away, so suffice to say she has charged me to find a dove…

I have arrived at Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Centre in Skaelskor, Denmark. It’s great to be back. Last time I was here it was the height of summer (last summer) and what a long hot summer it was! I cycled off to the beach every day for a dip in between experimenting with glazes, oh what a languorous time that sounds like. Well I did actually work really hard; the work ethic is enthusiastic here to say the least.

I spent all day Sunday until midnight writing an article for TACS magazine, Glazed Expressions, for their Contemporary Tilemaker slot. As well as all the admin and organising to go with this project, I still have my own work to keep up.

I have been playing around with the design for the wall piece I am making. Last summer when I was here, I came up with the idea for this piece, and did a lot of drawings and designed the individual elements – the wall piece is composed of multiple repeated relief forms on a botanical theme, inspired by the local Danish (summer) landscape. I made 6 out of 20(ish) of the designs into moulds and used them to experiment on. I tested lots of different clay bodies and did loads of glaze samples. I brought the original moulds back with me, and I plan to make as many new moulds as I have time for. I also plan to experiment with making closed slip cast moulds, which I think would be more suitable for these pieces so that can be hung on a wall easily.

I have been making some casts of the original moulds just to try out the various porcelain slips available here. In fact, the first thing I did when I arrived was get well and truly stuck into a giant bucket of slip that I made from the raw materials (a first for someone who is used to ordering bags of clay ready to use). As usual, I thought what would be a quick job turned out to take all afternoon. So today I’ve been testing that and I tried some ready mixed Royal Copenhagen slip, which a lovely material to use. Royal Copenhagen is the Wedgwood of Denmark and has recently followed a similar path. The main factory closed, they moved and are still here, but more as a figurehead. The vast majority of their ware is now made in China. I met someone at a party in Copenhagen last summer who works for Royal Copenhagen and she filled me in on the history. Even better, she offered to provide me with the recipe for the very slip I am now using…could come in handy. Couldn’t imagine Wedgwood giving their recipes away!