University of Sunderland

This weeks Meet and Greet is Amy Edmondson, Amy is new to our class and has flung herself into it, she’s a considerate little soul and (I think) that’s what makes her work so haunting.

Use five words to describe your work

Representative

Laborious

Personal

Fragile

Technical

How do you make your pieces?

In autumn I collect the fallen sycamore seeds like a crazy woman, scratching around in the leaves. Once they’re dry I systematically hang each one up and coat it with my own blend of porcelain paper clay slip. I then remove the seed pod from the bulb and place it on a tile to be fired. If they’re going to be glazed I drop very watery glaze inside them and put them in sand to stop the glaze sticking to anything.

What makes your work different from everybody else’s?

This work has really gotten to the heart of a lot of things in my life. While I’ve been working on it, a lot of things have changed but it couldn’t be more current or appropriate. I never wanted to make a piece of work which was personal but that is definitely what makes the work different from everybody elses. Rightly or wrongly, I’ve put 22 years worth of feelings into it meaning it has more aspects to it than I care to remember! It deals with issues from when I was much younger to things which bother me daily. I hope when the work is complete and constructed I can accept the inspiration behind it.

If you had to work in any other medium, what would it be?

Pen and paper. No question. Although not in terms of writing but drawing. I love how permanent a drawing in ink is. When you put pen to paper you and truely committing your vision to paper without being able to easily alter it like pencil allows. Drawing is so portable, it’s a beautiful tool, allowing you to record places and events in a completely unique and deeply personal way.

What is the biggest challenge you face with your work?

I had the idea of porcelain sycamore seeds long before I knew whether it was possible. I spent months figuring out that porcelain paper clay was the best medium to cover them, then started making my own ratios of porcelain to paper pulp. Once I’d deduced the best ratio I experimented with the number of layers and application method. I tried different firing temperatures and positions in the kiln; small changes here made all the difference. Finally I needed to engineer a way of getting the glaze inside the seed and preventing it from sticking to the shelf during firing. Although the early stages of the work were by far my biggest challenge I preservered and either over came or found ways to work around all the teething problems. Although frustrating at the time I am incredibly greatful for them. I have an appreciation for the tiny seeds I don’t think I would have gained any other way. To many people this might sound like the most dull process but I work in quite a scientific, structured way and it couldn’t have been better suited to that.

The personal aspect to my work is something I’m not used to and as such I’ve found it quite hard to deal with. I’ve shyed away from talking about the real meaning behind my work and in a lot of ways I still am. I know very shortly I’m going to have to put it out there to either be accepted or over looked as another bit of conceptual rubbish.

How do you want people to react to your work?

I suppose it’s the obvious thing to say but I really want people to consider the work in order to deduce its meaning (in that case maybe I should’ve made it more clear). I whole-heartedly believe everyone could take something from the concept behind the work. Although its very personal its important people look beyond that at how it can affect and hopefully improve their life rather then how it fits into mine.

Check Amy’s work out at our degree show site and visit her blog for more info. Don’t forget to see her work in person at our degree show from the 15th of June at the National Glass Centre.

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Francesca Aggio makes large scale pots and wraps them in rope and clay. Why? Read on to find out.

How do you make your work?

I coil the body of the vessel using stoneware and then apply detail using porcelain paperclay. The contrast of the two clays and how they react to each other during firings works really nicely and fits in well with the theme of my piece.

What makes your work different from anyone elses?

I made it! No, its different due to its personal nature. This work, to me is putting my feelings about many things in my life into a vessel and presenting it to the world. Essentially it is a self portrait, even though this was unintentional.

There are so many artists using the human form, especially the female form in their work, but this feels more like a kind of homage to me (and I mean that in the least self obsessed way ever, because thats totally how it sounds) which, again, was never the intention. It helps that when you make a large scale piece of work, people automatcially try and relate it in terms of their own physicality.

If you had to work in any other medium, what would it be?

I think maybe metal? i’d love to see what could be achieved using rusty steel and bits of old junk, arranged in a similar way.

What is the biggest challenge you face with your work?

Admitting that this work is about me. I have put a lot of my life experiences into these pieces, good and bad and the idea of telling others what it is actually about terrifies me. I see this as weakness and cant help but be slightly ashamed by it.

How do you want people to react to your work?

What I want and what will happen are two completely different things. I want people to relate to the idea of struggle and entrapment and sexuality and all of the other things that this work is about, but what I actually think will happen is one of two things.

1 – people will see my work, read my statement and go, oh thats about bondage, she must be a weird sex freak or

2. People will see the work, and go, riiight, two pots with rope on…I don’t get it. Oooh there’s some shiny glass over there!!!

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Interview with Lois Maude Blacklock, ceramic artist and history buff.

Use five words to describe your work

Fragile, Emotive, Vacant, unpolluted, melancholy

o What makes your work different from everybody else’s?

I guess everyone is always surprised when I explain the concept behind my work. The last few years my work has had a recurring theme of Tudor history. This is not something that is explored necessarily in modern art and certainly not ceramics. I also enjoy bringing other materials into my work, I don’t like to be tied down to one material, I find that far too limiting.

o If you had to work in any other medium, what would it be?

Before I specialized in ceramics I had my heart set on textiles. It has been my main focus throughout school and college. This stemmed through my love of fashion, although I quickly found that having an interest in something and pursuing it as a career are two completely different things! I found that I was better as an admirer of fashion rather than a maker.

o What is the biggest challenge you face with your work?

The themes of my work are quite unusual by modern art standards. I tend to take inspiration from historical events, particularly anything Tudor. I find solace in history, particularly English history. Everything was a certain way, there is a definite action. History is sturdy, art is not. I guess this juxtaposition makes my whole process a little more palatable, the concept will always be definite, the representation in ceramics is the challenge.

o How do you want people to react to your work?

I want them to be genuinely interested. A big ask for a stuffy theme, but I hope that my work has enough of a fresh outlook that people will want to know the back story.

Lois will be exhibiting at the National Glass Centre from the 15th of June to the 21st of June. Find more about her work through her blog at crazyclaylady.blogspot.com

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Helen Stafford Interview

Use five words to describe your work:
Intricate

Laborious
Historical

Technical

Emotional

What makes your work different from anyone elses?

I focus on heritage and the deep emotional connections people can develop with their past, and in particular with old machinery. I try to explain these connections by using my own experiences and family history as examples, so I am directly involved in my work. My work is not “cutting-edge” contemporary art, it’s more searching for a way I can translate my love for the past so that it is understood by the present, and in turn preserved for the future.

If you had to work in any other medium, what would it be?

Probably paper, I would like to go back to basics at some point and spend some time just improving my printing skills. However, since using metal frames in a piece I made last year, I think I’d like to investigate how to utilise metal further somehow. Thoughts for the future!

What is the biggest challenge you face with your work?

Practically or emotionally? Practically, everything is currently on a strict timeframe. The drawings alone take a ridiculous amount of time to produce and screenprinting – while theoretically straightforward – has a nasty habit of being your worst nightmare. Emotionally, I am probably the laziest person in the world, so I find I really have to discipline myself to keep motivated. I don’t often deviate in my interests, but I do very often prefer sleeping! So at the moment the biggest challenge I face is just bringing it all together without any major disasters or mental breakdowns!

How do you want people to react to your work?

I’m hoping to encourage a genuine interest in the past. I want people to remember things that aren’t around anymore and I want them to think about what would happen if these things were lost forever. I’ve focussed on machinery because it’s a personal interest, but the idea of preservation can be stretched to all manner of objects. I would like people to feel they can relate to my images and share a sort of “nostalgic fondness”, if you like.

Helen will be exhibiting her work at her degree show at the National Glass Centre between the 16th and the 22nd of June. If you would like to contact her, her email is [email protected] or you can have a look at her pro facebook page.

Alice Thatcher interview

– Use five words to describe your work

Delicate
Paper-like
3-dimensional
Contemporary
Angular

– What makes your work different from anyone elses?

Even though all of my recent paper-crane pieces are made in the same way, each piece is unique to the next. I fold each form individually, then paint the porcelain paper-clay slip onto them before firing. Once these pieces are fired, the paper burns away removing the original hand-crafted piece. This technique almost fossilises the pieces, but at the same time removes the original form. I believe this is quite a unique way of working, as clay is something that is usually worked with in a hands-on way. I could easily slip-cast these pieces, but I believe this would take away the fragility and the uniqueness of the work.

– If you had to work in any other medium, what would it be?

I would say paper. Since researching and learning about paper-craft, it has definitely become something I am really interested in. Clay and paper are both very sculptural materials and both have a similar sense of hands-on manipulation.

– What is the biggest challenge you face with your work?

At the moment, my biggest challenge is creating as many porcelain paper cranes as possible for my up-coming degree show installation.

-How do you want people to react to your work?

I enjoy creating a sense of uncertainty with my work, with these recent pieces, I want the audience to have to look really closely to realise that the forms are actually created from clay, not paper.

Alice will be exhibiting her work at her degree show at the National Glass Centre between the 16th and the 22nd of June. Then at New Designers between the 27th and the 30th of June at the Business Design Centre in Islington. For more information on her work visit her ideastap portfolioher pinterest boards or email her at [email protected].

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