Nude slab-rolling?

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It is pouring with rain today. It’s pelting down, almost showing off, as if to make up for the incredibly dry months we’ve had. You can tell from the usual image of the view of Ledbury from Bradlow Knoll that it’s been a long dry summer here in the UK.  The consequences of the lack of rain this year include declared droughts in some areas, agriculture with poor crop quality and reduced grass growth and environmental stress on rivers with low flows. It’s also meant a hot studio and the need to wear as few articles of clothing as possible without getting arrested for indecency.

Rain-god vase summoning the clouds

This has led Peter Arscott Ceramics (PAC) to consider establishing the first, and possibly only, nudist ceramic workshops in the country. “Surely”, says Spiro, “there’s a market for it? You Brits, unlike us Greeks, like to expose as much of yourselves as possible the moment the sun makes an appearance. And think of the marketing opportunities…we could call ourselves The Naked Potter” However, after proper consideration it was deemed a Health & Safety issue. It’s OK for Spiro, he’s a figment of our imagination, but for us humans? Just think of the dangers to exposed parts anywhere near a red-hot kiln, or something getting stuck in the slab roller in a moment of forgetfulness or crouching too low near the pugmill. Anyway, there already is a Naked Potter who paints bottoms onto his dishes (butt plates).

After some research, Naked Pottery turns out to be a unique art form that utilises raw, earthy clay. The term “naked” refers to the artist’s openness and vulnerability as they create, connecting deeply with the material and their creative process. The finished pieces have a distinctive organic and often flawed appearance, as the clay is fired unglazed. Sadly, potters, both historical and contemporary, seem to have worn normal clothing while working with clay.

Dancing vases

But at PAC we too connect deeply with our creative process. And as has been mentioned in previous blogs, conveying a particular emotion in an abstract ceramic piece is possible, so long as there is not too much nuance intended. Anger, excitement, horror, joy, surprise, disgust – yes, both positive and negative emotions are conveyable. Given that most people buy ceramics to take home and enhance their domestic environment, the brighter and more joyful pieces are always going to be first in the queue. “Darling, I’ve just bought this vase for the living room. It conveys a sense of shame and repugnance which I find intriguing” is hardly a winner.

When a piece is made because the maker wants to get something across which he or she believes is more important that its actual practical use, then we are straying into the realms of art, of sculpture. PAC usually strives to achieve a fine balance between functionality (vase) and art (shape, colour, size).

Supplicant piece

However, sometimes a prevailing mood can tug the hands in one direction only. In fact, the piece above (Supplicant piece) is not at all functional – unlike the Naked Potter’s pieces it has no bottom, so cannot be a vase. Isn’t it miserable? It’s begging for something, I think forgiveness, and is entirely lacking in joyfulness or delight. Only its Mum would love it.

It’s probably true that artisans know exactly what they want to do and know how they are going to do it.  At PAC we don’t know exactly what we are going to do. We know vaguely how to get there, but we don’t know which choices we are going to make. For example, we might decide to make a vase with raised arms, but until we cut the slabbed clay into the shapes, we have no idea exactly what those arms will look like. Too much pre-planning removes the element of surprise that keeps a piece fresh. Every piece is singular.

Ceramic version of Picasso’s violin

At other times, the desire to try something different takes over, when emotions are absent and all the hands want to do is to create something atypical: an architectural construct whose height and width will only just fit inside the kiln, a wall piece, a copy of Picasso’s violin, or a snake. This is the thing about clay: it’s a wondrous material which lends itself to so many interpretations that you can get carried away.

Wall piece

Carried away? Yes and no. For some time, the idea of making a twelve-foot-long ladder out of … wait for it … porcelain, yes, porcelain, has been brewing in our heads*. The Porcelain Ladder ©. A technical challenge without a doubt, but possible. And what a metaphor that would be. Imagine the resulting piece up against a wall in the Tate Gallery: functionality sabotaged by its own matter, the most sublime and delicate type of clay. Or how about a porcelain bridge over the Thames? Who would dare walk across it? Do you see where we can go with this concept? Porcelain sledgehammer? Stoneware flagpole? Fine china knuckle dusters? Ceramic combat helmets? (“Yes, that’s quite enough. The heat’s obviously got to you” says Spiro)

Large sentinel vase

It hasn’t stopped raining and the grass is already turning from dull brown to a hint of green. The various ceramic birdbaths in the garden are full and have all got a red sediment at the bottom. This, it turns out, is due to a red algae, Haematococcus pluvial, which thrives in sunlight and produces the red pigment called astaxanthin to protect itself from UV radiation. Who’d have thought – there I was blaming the dirty wood pigeons. Our wood pigeons, however unhygienic, are true art connoisseurs and prefer to scrub their armpits in the Joan Mirò bath, as pictured below with its sediment.

Ladder joke: Fred and Dave, two engineers, are puzzled and scratching their heads next to a flagpole. A girl on a bike stops and asks what’s wrong. “We have to work out the height of the flagpole, but we don’t have a ladder,” says Fred. The girl gets a wrench out of her bike saddlebag and loosens the bolts, then lays the pole flat on the ground. Next, she gets a measuring tape out. “15 metres,” she says, and rides away. “Typical woman”, says Dave. “we ask for the height and she gives us the length.”

Large construct

  • We’re hoping one of you will challenge us and prove that it’s an idea long ago made into an art piece and exhibited at a gallery.

In praise of tweeting

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View from Bradlow Hill, with the town of Ledbury in the distance

View from Bradlow Hill

It struck me while I was walking up Bradlow Hill and into Frith Wood that though I meet people walking in the opposite direction, that is, coming towards me, I wonder if they meet people other than me. Because most people will sensibly choose the way that offers least effort, the one with a slow ascent into the woods and then the downhill walk along Bradlow Hill – I think I’m one of the few who do it the hard way, and that subsequently people get to see my face hoving into view more than others.

A carpet of bluebells amongst the trees in Frith Wood.

Bluebells in the Frith

The reason I do it is for the reward of the view after the exercise, and as an indicator of how the ageing process is coming along. Legs get heavier with age. One of the walkers I met in the wood was a lady from Winchester who used to live in Malvern, but who comes to the Frith once a month to walk and relax. She said it uncluttered her mind and helped her relax – the quiet, the bluebells (see above), the birdsong and the relative wildness (compared to Winchester). Blackbirds, blue tits, black caps, chiff chaffs, a song thrush and a pheasant all contributed to calming the mind on this occasion. Birdsong should certainly be prescribed by doctors to treat mental health conditions, such as certain types of anxiety. Perhaps not the pheasant, they make strange metallic calls – the Pavarottis of the bird world they’re not.

Recently on BBC Radio 4 there was an intriguing programme by Sacha Dench on the plight of one of the world’s most persecuted birds, the vulture. However misunderstood they are (and they are), they shouldn’t be included in the doctors’ prescription: they make raspy, hissing sounds while feeding and fighting, along with grunting noises that can sound like hungry pigs or dogs barking in the distance. Luckily there aren’t any in Frith Wood or the Ledbury area.

Greater Stitchwort – Frith Wood is full of them.

Last week in Wales, on a family visit, I heard a Grasshopper Warbler for the first time. Its high, grasshopper-like song is usually what gives it away. Even when you hear one it can be difficult to locate it because of the way it throws its song. My daughter could hear it clearly, but it took me a while to catch the sound – it turns out that as we get older the first part of the hearing to deteriorate is the exact pitch the grasshopper warbler sings at. Sad to think most of us will stop hearing them at some stage in our lives, so I’m glad it happened. It’s a Red List species, and thus very rare. Click here to see a picture of one.

Cooee vase. Nothing to do with birds.

Here at Peter Arscott Ceramics we have sometimes been asked about birds and ceramics. Specifically, does bird poop affect outdoor ceramics, like birdbaths, for example. The answer is no, the vitrification of the glaze firing protects the ceramic from the acidity of the bird droppings. Research by PCA reveals that birds don’t have the same level of control over their sphincter muscles as humans or other mammals. This means they can’t hold their waste, leading to seemingly random pooping. These are the sort of facts you learn in this blog.

Stoneware vase with upturned handles looking like spindly arms. Painted orange with big green dots.

Polka dot vase

Whilst we’re on the subject, pooping while in flight is a way for birds to lighten their load and conserve energy, especially for longer flights. And they often have preferred areas for pooping, such as where they spend time or find food. They might poop on a garden bench, or near their nest, or, of course, on your head or your car, which is why it’s good there are no vultures in Ledbury.

green, ochre and grey striped vase with skewed handles

Verde vase

Pablo Picasso used birds in his work, from the early paintings of pigeons roosting which can be seen at the Picasso Museum in Barcelona, to the famous dove of peace drawing. He also used them in his ceramics, both sculpturally and as motifs, as on this earthenware dish from the 1950s.

Limited edition of Picasso plate with white adobe bird painted on black background.

Picasso bird

And thus, we finally come to ceramics (“About time”, says Spiro. “And why did you have to mention bird poop?”).

Architectural ceramic piece made up of horizontal and vertical slabs

Construct 1.

PAC’s creative juices are flowing in all directions. Although we are still in love with the basic idea of the vessel, or vase, as the basis for most work, the lure of the sculptural possibilities in ceramics often takes us down different paths. Using grogged stoneware clay, which lends itself to modelling, this large structural piece took shape after careful and deliberate work with weight and balance – remember that once in the kiln and at a temperature of 1200℃, a clay piece can easily flop about and collapse, depending on weight distribution.

Big Hugging vase

On the other hand, and as a contrast (in character it is almost the opposite of the previous piece), this next one (above) was made in one session with no preparation or planning, and turned out in the shape it did, still retaining some practical use – you could possibly wash a small baby in it –  but definitely pulling towards appearance for its own sake.

Swirl vase

We’ve been producing “spontaneous” ceramics for a while – it’s not something new that PAC has stumbled on. The Swirl vase (above) came out of the studio in 2017. The Tutti Frutti jug (below) is from 2018.

Tutti Frutti jug

Going back to the subject of birdsong and tranquility (not again!), the edge of the Frith was flecked with the white bloom of the hawthorn. Its flowers, typically white or pink, bloom in spring, often around May, giving rise to the name “Mayflower”, but its antispasmodic and nerving actions make it suitable for anxiety or nervous tension – it is also sacred to the fairies and is therefore considered unlucky to bring indoors.

image of hawthorn tree in full bloom in May

Mayflower

We do keep a bird indoors in the studio. He is Murphy the Mallard and he’s always quacking jokes: Two vultures were eating a dead comedian. One looks to the other and says, “Does this taste funny to you?”

Ceramic mallard duck made by a child

Murphy says bye

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many Vast Elephants Make Jam Sandwiches Under No Pressure

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I wonder of any of you have been craning your necks up at the night sky recently. There’s been an alignment of planets visible to the naked eye and Venus has been the most spectacular and can still be seen as a bright ‘star’ in the early evening, if you look to the west. Its position in the sky is bringing it closer to the Sun as March rolls on, so only a few days left to see it. Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Neptune, Uranus and Saturn are the other ones vying for your attention, but time is running out and it won’t happen again till 2040.

Photo: Petr Novák, Wikipedia

Venus, named after the Roman Goddess of Beauty, presumably because it’s so bright, brought to my undisciplined and ruminating mind the sadly armless Venus de Milo, the venus flytrap, Venus in Blue Jeans, Men Are from Mars, Women are from Venus, and finally the Venus of Dolni Věstonice (though I did have to come home and check on the spelling). You may have heard of her – the oldest known ceramic in the world, discovered in Czechoslovakia. A clay sculpture figure of a female, which has been dated to 29,000 – 25,000 BC.

Diligent vase

To think we’ve gone from using ceramic for this primitive (but powerful) figurine of a Mother Goddess to making objects as diverse as spark plugs, fibre optics, artificial joints, space shuttle tiles, oven tops, self-lubricating bearings, body armour, and skis. Human progress (?) as measured by clay. By the way, I did not know that enough ceramic tiles are produced each year to pave a path 300-ft. wide around the world. The things you learn.

Green striped vase

Despite the multiple and varied uses clay can be put to, I instinctively feel that it’s at its best when it is made into a vessel, when it draws the human hand to pick it up, weigh it, feel its surface, fill it with water, and the human eye to admire its shape and colours. Like, for example, Peter Arscott Ceramic (PAC) pieces, new images of which I’ve scattered within this blog.

Lime Welcome vase. Cecilia Colman Gallery

Let me just say that PAC ceramics are well-priced and affordable to those of you who appreciate uniqueness and quality. A PAC vase is not as expensive as a small bowl known as the Chicken Cup from the Ming Dynasty: it was sold in Hong Kong in 2015 for $ 36 million. A rooster, a chicken and a chick are depicted on it, thus its nickname.

Torero vase. Palais des Vaches, Exbury

After patting me on the shoulder for finally getting around to mentioning my vases, Spiro, being Greek, and being Patron Saint of potters, is telling me that the word “ceramics” is traced back to the term keramos, meaning potter’s clay or pottery. I reciprocate etymologically by telling him about my “claggy” walk up to Bradlow Knoll (Spiro does not walk), and that the word is from the Middle English claggen, probably of Scandinavian origin; akin to Danish klagge sticky mud, akin to Old English clǣg clay.

Autumn vase. Cecilia Colman gallery

And indeed, it was claggy, not slippery but viscous and adhesive underfoot, and the weather warm with hazy sunshine, so that by the time I reached CJ’s bench I was hot and bothered. There’s more construction work going on in the nearest adjacent fields, mainly barns, fencing and access tracks, but if you look into the distance around and beyond Ledbury, the reflected gleam of plastic sheeting is more obvious, as soft fruit farming gets into gear for the season, and with the addition of hundreds of houses being built, the town is slowly creeping further into the countryside.

Orange juggler vase

There’s a balance to be struck between the idea of preserving what’s valuable and catering to the needs of a society. Things shouldn’t be preserved for the sake of it: if there’s a housing need then houses must be built. If farming land can be used more efficiently by applying new approaches, why not? And after all, the British countryside is essentially man made and shaped. But we ought to keep an eye-out. Don’t forget what happened to the River Wye – an example of a catastrophic imbalance because a check was not kept on the huge growth of chicken farms.

Pink Green vase. Cecilia Colman Gallery

But back to ceramics, and away from chicken poo. The Palais des Vaches in Exbury has received a new batch of PAC ceramics, as has the Cecilia Colman Gallery in London.

St Sebastian vase. Palais des Vaches.

Exbury is in the New Forest not far from the coast, opposite the Isle of Wight. This part of England is unlike any other: open heathland, wild and intriguing. After delivery, I took a wrong turn and ended up asking the only local in the vicinity for help, but any offer was unforthcoming as he continued chewing grass in the rain and looking rather wary.

Unforthcoming

On the other hand, St John’s Wood in London, where the Cecilia Colman gallery is, belongs to another world: Regent’s Park, Lord’s Cricket Ground, elegant shops and restaurants.

Cecilia Colman Gallery

You may have gathered that the title of this blog is a mnemonic for memorizing the order of the planets, starting with the one nearest the Sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto.

 

And finally some good advice from an old Congolese saying: If you are asked to join a parade, don’t march behind the elephants.

 

In praise of brick

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Bradlow Hill was a cold and finger-numbing walk on Sunday morning – and foggy too; you can hardly see the steeple of St Michael’s in the distance. It was quiet, except for the sound of St Michael’s bells tolling in the background. Click and you’ll get a short video, I’d stopped panting by then – you know you’re getting old when you’re told to slow down by your doctor and not the police. Too early for snowdrops or any plant to show itself, so I thought I’d include images of vases with daffodils in them – to remind you that Spring is always around the corner.

Turning a corner without looking, I stubbed my toe on a brick the other day. Instead of throwing it away in anger I picked it up and studied its surface texture and subtle colouring, its weight and the simplicity of its shape. “The humble brick is worthy of respect,” said Spiro (marketing director of Peter Arscott Ceramics), “but in Cyprus in my day (3rd Century BC) stone was deemed the nobler for building places of worship.” I was about to say something, but he raised his hand in that weird ecclesiastical way that Bishops have, and continued: “I hope you’re not thinking of comparing it to the pieces that come out of our kiln here at PAC?  I accept that they are made by hand, but they are hardly unique or one-off. The purpose of this website is to promote beautiful and interesting works of ceramic art – harping on about bricks would be like dancing en pointe in hobnail boots”.

Well, Spiro can sometimes get it wrong – after all, he is man who believes that goat’s yoghurt is the ambrosia of the gods. Anyway, the brick gets a raw deal. In my view it’s overlooked or dismissed, this man-made building material that dates back to 7000BC, discovered at the site of an ancient settlement around the city of Jericho. It’s entered our language too. We bang our heads against a brick wall, accuse the less intelligent of being as thick as a brick, or the barmy of being a few bricks short of a full load, and we come down on the wayward and mischievous like a ton of bricks.

Jericho. Photo A. Soblowski

So, in praise of bricks, here are some facts. The most common bricks are made from clay and heated at a 1000℃ – here at PAC our stoneware is glaze-fired at 1200℃. There is minimal waste in the production process as only an insignificant amount of minerals and moisture vanish during the heating process. Bricks are energy efficient because they hold sunlight throughout the day and release that energy after the sun goes down.

The indentation in the surface of a brick is called a frog, and debate rages over whether the bricks should be laid frog-up or frog-down. The minerals used to create a brick determine its colour. Red bricks are red because of the iron in them, higher temperature firings produce darker coloured bricks, and a London brick is yellowish because of the magnesium contained in the brick earth.

The Ledbury viaduct

The other (good) reason for talking about bricks is that there’s a new path inaugurated in Ledbury which allows you to walk under and alongside the old railway viaduct. Up close it’s a beautiful structure, satisfying because it’s both pleasing to the eye as well as practical – in terms of design, a perfect example of something built the way it was in order to fulfil its brief: to carry trains over a low dip of meadowland. Its function is its beauty.

Skew bridge over the Hereford Rd

It was built by the Colwall engineer Stephen Ballard (1804-1861) and was opened in June 1861. His brother Robert Ballard made the five million bricks used in the 19-metre high, 31-arch construction on site, or rather, his workers did – it would have been too much for one pair of hands. The result was that brickworks sprang up around Ledbury to cope with the task of providing the material to construct the viaduct. While digging the cutting by the station, Ballard’s workmen came upon the Silurian fossils of a mammoth and of a bivalve, which allowed the local geological system to be worked out (before you ask, the Silurian period began 443.8 million years ago and ended 419.2 million years ago).

Not a mammoth or a bivalve

The many workmen involved lived in temporary shelters just outside Ledbury near Wellington Heath, an area that became known as Monkey Island because of the workers climbing up and down the huge structure. As far as I know, other than the name, there is no sign left of their time here. This in turn made me think of the anonymous bricklayer whose work we take for granted, and of a poem by Jonathan Davidson, poet, writer, brick lover and author of A Commonplace, a verse of which goes:

“…And they are dumb or gone away or dead

Who cut the sweet, pale clay

Of sentences and fired them

In common kilns to make

The narratives that keep us home and dry…”

(from Brickwork by Jonathan Davidson / A Commonplace: Apples, Bricks & Other People’s Poems)

That’s enough about bricks. For reasons both complex and tedious, our kiln has had a sabbatical and only very few pieces have been made, other than a flurry of creativity when the grandchildren visited. “It’s a chance to show images of early PAC work”, says Spiro, “to show the variety and range. And by the way, this blog is getting too text heavy.” As a result, behold a scattering of ceramic images throughout.

Spiro’s friends, the goats at Bradlow, seem to be thriving. They have extraordinary eyes, like octopuses and toads, rectangular pupils that help them avoid predators, giving them a greater accuracy of depth perception in their peripheral vision. This is enhanced by a feature that lets them rotate their eyes to keep their pupils parallel with the horizon when they bend their heads low to feed – I don’t know about your eating habits, but this sounds to me a useful ability to have.  But it’s strange being stared at by a goat, it’s as if they’re thinking about something you don’t know.

Passageway under viaduct

Capriccio

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Ceramics is more than just playing with mud, as has been discussed on this site before. It ranges from the functional and commercial to the personal and expressive, from pieces that demand no attention because they exist to hold a pile of sandwiches to pots that require effort from the viewer as you move around the object, examining details and angles that provide an emotional connection with the maker.

Tabu teapot by Angus Suttie at the Sunday Painter gallery

In London recently, and on a visit to The Sunday Painter gallery, the work of Angus Suttie (1946 – 1993) was on display. His approach was described as “tapping the subconscious to see what happens”, and he turned out work that is humorous, direct and engaged. Strong vertical or horizontal shapes, with twisted forms, holes and conduits, piled-up different forms from smaller parts, playful and probably unplanned from the start, they are “awkward and beautiful” as he himself described the work. The exhibition is on until 26th October – click here for the link, if you’re anywhere near the South Lambeth Rd, drop in.

Red and Green dancing vase – Peter Arscott Ceramics

That element of play is important. Starting out without a clear plan or design in mind can lead to all sorts of interesting outcomes, specially with hand-building when you can cut the clay and shape it as you build your piece. At Peter Arscott Ceramics the vessel is still king, and is the basis for all work, but sometimes functionality is not obvious, or, rather, not relevant, as the personality of the piece takes shape – often in a whimsical direction.

Poseur vase

“Whimsical” is such a strange-sounding word. “Whimsical derives from whim-wham, a noun from the early 16th century that originally referred to an ornamental object or trinket. Later whim-wham, with its fun sound, came to refer to a fantastic notion or odd fancy” (Merriam-Webster dictionary). So that explains it: whimsical, quirky, capricious.

Lone goat

There is nothing capricious about setting off to walk up to Bradlow Knoll – it is a serious undertaking for two-legged beings of a certain age whose gamboling days are long behind them. However, this latest walk led to an encounter which put a spring in the step, as the recent fencing layout on the hill was eventually explained by the number of goats grazing. As all walkers know “When setting out upon an important journey, it’s good luck to meet a goat.”

Apologies for my lexicographical meanderings – it’s probably a phase. There are two theories as to how the word “capricious” is derived.  It comes via French from the Italian word capriccio, which originally referred not to a sudden desire but to a sudden shiver of fear. It probably comes from the Italian capo, meaning “head,” and riccio, the word for “hedgehog” – anyone who shuddered in fear was said to have a “hedgehog head,” meaning that the person’s hair stood on end like the spines of a hedgehog.

Capriccio vase, or St Sebastian vase.

My preferred theory is the possible link to Italian word “capra”, meaning “goat,” because of the animal’s perceived whimsical nature. Anyway, they are sociable animals, intelligent and curious, and, thanks to them, coffee was first discovered when Ethiopian goat herders noticed the animals acting energetically after nibbling coffee beans, though I prefer the version where the abbot of a monastery full of lazy monks saw the effect on his goats and fed the beans to his brethren.

Cockerel vase

St Spyridon, patron saint of potters and former goat herd, known by the PAC team in the studio simply as Spiro (in charge of Marketing) is keen that we know that goats are one of the cleanest animals, though they dislike water and would rather leap over streams and puddles than step in them. They also use the sneeze sound to warn each other of danger. Fact: the pharaoh Cephranes thought that so much of his goats that he had 2,234 buried with him. Spiro also says that goat yoghurt is the best – that’s all he eats.

Autumnal vase

As you can see from the image at the start of this blog, the view from Bradlow Knoll in early October gives every appearance that summer is still with us. The only tree that is turning autumnal is the horse chestnut, and there are not many in the neighbourhood: ash, hawthorn, hazel, blackthorn, sycamore and apple are more common in Herefordshire. This time of year is all about apples and cider-making, and in the cluster of villages around Much Marcle, the Big Apple Harvest festival takes place on 12th and 13thOctober. You can visit the local orchards, see, hear and smell cider and perry being made and taste and buy many different varieties of apples, local ciders, perries and apple juices. Click here.

Michaelmas daisies

Michaelmas daisies are all out now. They are a sure sign of Autumn and are so called because they reach their peak on or around the 29 September, Michaelmas Day, or The Feast of Michael and All Angels, signifying the end of the harvest, the start of autumn and the beginning of the shorter days.

A couple invited the local vicar for Sunday dinner. While they were in the kitchen preparing the meal, the minister asked their son what they were having.
“Goat,” the little boy replied.
“Goat?” replied the vicar, “Are you sure about that?”
“Yes,” said the youngster. “I heard Dad say to Mom, ‘Today is just as good as any to have the old goat for dinner.’

The call of the cicada

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View of the Ter, from the monastery

No slog up to Bradlow Knoll this month. Instead, a walk in the countryside outside Vic in Catalunya, to visit the ancient monastery of Sant Pere de Casserres perched high above a bend in the river Ter. Challenging because of the heat (about 34° centigrade) but rewarding for the view, and for the architecture of this 11th century Benedictine building – plus there’s a café where you can get a drink.

The nave of Sant Pere

Vic itself is an attractive city with a welcoming central square with shops and bars, and a Saturday market that beats most others into a cocked hat. There is a beautifully laid-out museum of medieval art in the old part of the city, with a collection saved from churches and monasteries in the region, including a painting of Christ’s circumcision – a rather concerned Mary looks on, unsure about the priest’s competence, while the infant Jesus seems to be rather laid back about it.

Vic is also famous for its sausages. Of course we were not there for the sausages, though many were eaten. Luckily, we were on holiday in a small coastal town, so the sea was there for cooling off, although, possibly encouraged by the heat, the cicadas were particularly noisy throughout, singing their little hearts out, high up in the pine trees, in the hope that a lady cicada might fall for their tune and, after mating, might deposit her eggs in the bark.

Cicada. Watercolour by Lisa Dearling

Never having seen a cicada before, here is what I found out about them: both male and female cicadas die within a few weeks after emerging from the soil, where they spend most of their lives at depths down to about 2.5 m (8 ft). The “singing” of male cicadas is produced principally using a special structure called a tymbal, a pair of which lies below each side of the abdominal region. The structure is buckled by muscular action and unbuckles rapidly on muscle relaxation, so quickly that to the human ear it is almost one continuous sound. Most cicadas go through a life cycle that lasts 2–5 years. Some species have much longer life cycles, such as the North American cicadas that go through either a 17-year or a 13-year life cycle. But the point is, they must be the loudest insects on the planet and once the sun sets everything seems too quiet.

Click here to listen to the cicadas

So, if you’re looking for “quiet”, then nighttime is good, or very early morning, before the sun hits the trees. Yours truly, in search of oneness with Nature and Zen-like tranquillity, walked down to a small cove at 6.30 in the morning while the cicadas were still snoring and swam accompanied only by a cormorant. Even the iPhone camera’s click seemed intrusive.

Cala Xelida at 6.30 am

Perhaps inspired by the cormorant’s ceaseless search for fish, a drive to nearby Palafrugell’s fish market followed. Once the centre of the Catalan cork industry, it now serves as a summer holiday town for residents of cities such as Barcelona and Girona. Many narrow streets emanate from Plaça Nova – a large square with bars, restaurants and boutiques, and not far is a ceramics gallery called Tejemaneje on Carrer Sant Antoni next to the market.

Tejemaneje entrance

Stepping into its cool and elegant interior is a pleasure. It is run by Jordi Tejedor, designer, artist, ceramicist and businessman, whose work is exhibited along with that of others. His is the large neanderthal figure that greets customers as they walk in, by which I mean the sculpture on display, and not Jordi.

Jumping figure copper oxide on white clay by Jordi Tejedor

.It all seemed a very long way from Peter Arscott Ceramics and the studio with the rest of the team resentful at their exclusion from a holiday in the sun – but then, as I explained to them, getting a heavy Japanese pug machine, a 200 AD Bishop of Tremithus (and patron saint of potters), as well as a spider onto an EasyJet flight would be a challenge. Furthermore, they should pity me, since a machine, a figment and an arachnid can cope with heat, whereas I, a human, am not designed for such temperatures. And the mosquitos would undoubtedly attack me too. As proof here is a drawing of my right leg after a night’s vampiric assault.

Previous mention of sausages reminds me that a  slab potter will find that there is usually a great deal of unused clay or cut-offs when making a piece. To recycle this clay, these lumps are thrown into a large bucket and soaked with water until enough is amassed to lay out on a surface to harden to the right consistency. At this point, as the clay is cut up into sections with a cheese wire, one discovers the wooden sculpting tool and the metal needle tool that disappeared so long ago. The clay cannot be too soft that it squirts out of the mill, or too hard that it impedes the action of wedging and removing any bubbles. When it is extruded as a long sausage, it is ready for use again. Not an ounce of clay is wasted, thanks to Shinto the Pugmill.

waiting to be pugged

Because patience and persistence are necessary for making pottery, given that every stage requires concentration and patience, from preparing the clay (as above) to moulding and finishing it, accepting the occasional flaw may add to the overall authenticity of the piece. It’s important to strike a balance between maintaining control and letting go – sometimes failures and setbacks are not the ends but often occasions for development.

Waving Yoohoo vase

Why am I telling you this? Well, I just want to come clean and show you two examples of what I’m talking about, from the Yoohoo series. The one above shows clearly that there is a gap between the top of the right arm and the body of the vase, caused probably by my allowing the arm to dry more quickly than the body. This was already apparent at bisque stage, but I decided to paint it and glaze fire at 1200℃ and I think the gap adds something to the piece, and gives it more movement.

Saluting Yoohoo vase

The second one  (above) has its blue arm dipping away from the rim of the vase at an angle, instead of being perpendicular – probably because its own weight dragged it one way with the extreme heat – but again, it gives the vase a certain quirkiness which makes me think of American sailors’ salutes in those Hollywood movies of the 50s. Anyway, you’re perfectly entitled to tell me I’m wrong and deluded.

Sausages in Oxford market. Photo by Kaihsu Tai

Just as you are with my constant references to sausages. Does every culture have its own sausage? The Spanish have the chorizo, the Catalans their fuet, the Germans their bratwurst, the USA their hotdog, the UK their banger, the boerewors comes from South Africa, the gyulai is Hungarian, the linguiça is Brazilian. Surely this shows that we all have more in common than not, and wouldn’t it be wonderful if the world’s problems were fixed by annual international sausage conventions?

Keep well and stay cool.

All the King’s horses

/in , /by

This is going to be a very equine blog. As one gets older, the more challenging the climb up Bradlow Hill becomes, and the more one wishes for a horse. The weather was breezy, and there was a lot of Red Campion about in the wood, having taken over from the Bluebells – the moment when both overlap would have been a month ago: a sea of blue and pink.

Red Campion

Recently I took up the birthday gift by my children of a riding lesson in the Western style, not far from Ledbury, in a place called Ullingswick. It was more fun than expected, given that the last time I sat on an animal was in 1967, and the tolerance of April (my horse) was impressive, as is the fact that I did not fall off. The Western style encourages the rider and horse to become one, with the former using his or her body to guide the horse, who responds to pressure from a knee or a shift in weight.

April carrying a sack of potatoes

April had all the qualities of a ceramicist: patience, perseverance, stoicism, and equanimity (a habit of mind that is only rarely disturbed under great strain). If she had fingers rather than hooves, she would make a good potter.

Juggler vase at Cecilia Colman Gallery

Earlier in the week I was in St John’s Wood to deliver some ceramics to the Cecilia Colman Gallery, which you may remember from a previous blog, has been operating for forty-five years. It’s an established star in the ceramics firmament.

Streaky bacon

Regent’s Park and Zoo are nearby, lots of shops, but also some fine residential buildings built in the late 19th century Streaky Bacon style, or ‘Constructional Polychromy’ – alternating bands of brick and marble, which was popular with British architects. I mention architecture in order to show you a recent piece from the kiln called Construct. There is an affinity between ceramicists and architects in that both vessels and buildings are ways of filling space (discuss).

Construct

I was a little early, so I went to a café. A morning coffee isn’t always accompanied by the unexpected thrill of a seemingly endless column of beautiful chestnut horses clip-clopping their way past the large windows of a London café on its way to Regent’s Park. There must have been over forty, twenty riderless, that passed by with an air of disdainful boredom, as if the gawping pedestrians confirmed all their prejudices about two-legged beings.

All the King’s horses

The barista confirmed that this was a regular occurrence. Based in St Johns Wood, the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery is responsible for firing royal and ceremonial salutes as part of the sovereign’s birthday parade in April, the state opening of parliament, state visits and Remembrance Day. The barista was a talented joker. When I said I thought they were beautiful thoroughbreds, he told me he had once I put a bet on a horse that had excellent breeding, and that after it left the starting gate, it stopped and closed it behind him.

Red ochre vase at the Cecilia Colman Gallery

Unable to get horses out of my mind, I inevitably resorted to finding out a bit more about them. So, did you know that horses can sleep both lying down and standing up, thanks to a special locking system in their legs? You’ll like this: when foals are born their hooves are covered with soft tissue which stops their mothers’ birth canal and uterus from being damaged – they are called fairy slippers.

Cuckoo spit

Horses produce 10 gallons of saliva a day – saliva has very important functions because it wets feed material and begins to break it down. It also has an important buffering effect in the stomach, reducing acidity. Since we are talking of these matters, above is a picture I took in Bradlow Knoll of some Cockoo Spit, which has nothing to do with horses’ saliva.  Inside each mass of cuckoo spit is a juvenile yellow-green froghopper.

The adult froghoppers or spittlebugs  are 6mm long and bright green, with large eyes and a blunt-shaped head, but they’re rarely seen because they hop away on their strong back legs at the first sign of danger. We all know people like that – excepting the “bright green” bit, I assume.

Tall pink ochre vase at Cecilia Colman gallery

With the excuse that a froghopper looks like a plump cricket, here in St John’s Wood is the home of the sport. Lord’s  has been  the birthplace of cricket since 1787, but looking at the grounds from outside one has to admit that they’ve moved on with the times, and their roofscape is nice mixture of the old and the new. They say that if cricket wasn’t so difficult to understand, most of its obsessives and followers might never have bothered with it at all. Here are some of the fielding positions players take up: Deep point, Backward point, Deep backward point, Short third, Deep third, Short leg, Square leg, Deep square leg, Backward square leg, Long leg, Short fine leg, Deep fine leg, etc.

Lord’s cricket ground

Most people have some sort of obsession, major or minor, though cricket is not one shared by the team here at Peter Arscott Ceramics (PAC). Spiro (Marketing) has a passion for goat yoghurt, Ziggy (fly-catching) is forever pondering the significance of  Proust’s “A la Recherche du temps Perdu” and Shinto (the pugmill) goes on and on about sushi. In my case it’s Picasso’s Demoiselles d’Avignon that has always bothered me – it’s the elbow sticking out at the top, centre, of the painting, which the vase below always reminds me of.

Demoiselles vase at the Cecilia Colman Gallery

Les Demoiselles d”Avignon by Pablo Picasso

A horse walks into a bar. “Hey,” says the barman. “Yes please,” says the horse.

Sign in Frith Wood

April showers bring more than flowers.

/in , /by

The art of walking on sludge requires you to walk bow-legged and on bent knees, leaning forward if going uphill, so that by the time you reach CJ’s bench at the top of Bradlow Hill your thighs ache like a ballerina’s after five consecutive performances of Swan Lake.  By the way, someone has left a nice pair of gloves that are now wedged between the slats waiting for their owner.

England’s sewage system

The rain has been relentless in this part of the world, making the ground as soft as chocolate fondant, delaying planting and seeding by farmers, flooding many areas, reducing oxygen in the soil (think of the poor worms) and forcing water companies to allow sewage into the rivers – this last revolting image the direct result of the privatisation of water and the neglect of any control over “market forces” in the guise of hedge funds. The result is priority for shareholders’ dividends over proper investment in upgrading an outdated system that can no longer cope with the zillion turds we produce daily. Enough moaning.

Bluebells in Frith Wood

Despite the muddy pathway into Frith wood, I ventured in, knowing that you would want proof that at least some things are still as they should be. What with Ukraine, Gaza, climate change, polarized politics, and all the rest of the present gloom fest, it’s good to know that the bluebells are with us, and the wood anemones.

Anemones

On my way out of the woods I passed by a large patch of forget-me-nots. The Greek name Myosotis is a combination of “mus” and “otis” and means “mouse ear”, referring to the shape of the leaves. I’m posting the image because they are beautiful delicate blue flowers with a yellow eye and grey-green velvety leaves, and they are vibrant, heart-warming and make one smile – a reminder of a friend who is no longer with us.

Ceramics: the good news is that the new kiln is now up and running, and a first batch of vases has been glaze-fired successfully.

Big Yoohoo vase just out of the new kiln

The kiln is a Rohde front-loader called Helmut – very efficient and accurate, with a good work ethic.

Introducing Helmut.

He is extremely heavy and here I must give thanks to Steve whose knowledge of cantilevered engineering worked a treat when we moved H into position. He deserves a medal and should any of you be interested in acquiring or finding out about medals of the Great War then Steve, professional military history researcher that he is, is your man. Click here to visit his sight. So far, Helmut seems to get along with the rest of the team – it’s all change here with the introduction of Shinto the Pugmill too.

Thelonious undone.

Spiro and Ziggy are very sad that Thelonious (the old pugmill) is no longer here, and were upset to see him being loaded onto the back of a lorry by a forklift truck to be taken to the (gulp) scrapyard.

Spiro and Ziggy making a scene

It seems that nobody wants anything requiring three-phase power. If anybody is looking for an inverter designed to drive a three-phase induction motor, please get in touch – this one is an IMO iDrive2 XKL.

While writing this blog, news arrived from local MP Jesse Norman that the government has published the River Wye action plan, with up to £35 million in new funding, setting out a wide range of measures to address phosphate pollution and other environmental impacts on the Wye. It has also appointed a new River Champion for the river. All this could lead to a properly funded single collective long-term effort bringing all groups together. That’s a good result and, who knows, it may even be the first step towards the eventual re-nationalization of water.

Back to ceramics.

Stockpiling at PAC.

Here is an architectural piece made from left-overs from the slab roller. It would look better if it were 10ft high.

And before I finally abandon the issue of what can be found bobbing on the surface of our rivers:

  • What is brown and sticky?
  • A stick.

Have a good Spring.

Wet blanket weather

/in , /by

The slog up Bradlow Hill was not as exhausting this time because it had to be done very slowly and carefully to avoid any slippage and loss of dignity. It’s been raining non-stop here and the ground is saturated – so much so that every footstep has to be judged, specially going uphill, if one is to avoid the mud bath fracas of last month (see January blog). Consequently, one’s eyes are always on the ground and there is no time to look around. This meant the walk, which is 4.8 klms long and takes 7800 steps (yes, my new smartphone has the app – more about that later) was tedious, wet, and uninteresting. I did find a patch of snowdrops.

Galanthus

I had so wanted this to be about my trip to Holland to visit the Kröller-Müller Museum located in the Hoge Veluwe National Park in Otterlo and to look around the European Ceramic Workcentre (EKWC) in Oisterwijk, and to bring you lots of fabulous images of the trip. However, in the haste to get off the ferry, the smartphone was left on the car roof and slipped off at some point along the route leading out of the port. Contact with the port authorities has proved fruitless, so if any of you are heading for the Hook of Holland, please keep an eye out for a sad and probably very flat iphone on the tarmac of Prinses Maximaweg, where, according to my Find My app, it is still located, though the area indicated includes the sea, so it could be underwater.

pappekak path

As I trod warily in the mud in Frith Wood I was thinking of Holland, and the word “poppycock” came to mind, no doubt because the consistency of what I was avoiding falling into was indeed soft dung or pappekak. What other words in English derive from Dutch? My research reveals the following: yatch, booze, coleslaw, wildebeest, blunderbuss and hustle.

Wildebeest Photo by Muhammad Mahdi Karim

But then, what with the rainfall and general flooding, I realized that Holland’s relationship with water is special; they have been living below sea level quite comfortably for centuries now and have learned to take advantage of it. Water percolates through the lives of the Dutch, and it runs through the land itself. A fifth of the total surface area of the country consists of water. Nearly a third of the country lies below sea level, and without its landscape of ditches, canals, lakes, rivers, windmills, and dikes, half would be flooded.

wet and bedraggled – Frith Wood

So, no pictures of Holland, though I have used a few that are in the public domain and are not covered by copyright. The trip was enjoyable however, and the Dutch are as polite, direct, but considerate as always, except perhaps when they are driving. Being a small country, the road system too is compact and requires quick decision-making before turning off or getting in the right lane – there isn’t the distance that allows a driver to consider the options, but the Dutch are used to it and zip about with great alacrity. They are also quite tall, in fact, they claim to be the tallest people in the world, and they did invent gin. They eat more liquorice and drink more coffee than any other people …. (that’s enough. How about mentioning ceramics? – Spiro).

Entrance to Kröller-Müller Museum. – photo by Gerardus

The exhibition The Love of Art Comes First. Art & Project at the Kröller-Müller Museum (until 25 February) highlights the significance of Art & Project based on works from the collection by artists such as Barry Flanagan, Richard Long and Nicholas Pope, of this parish, one of whose ceramic pieces stood alone surrounded by the beautiful paintings of Vincent Van Gogh. I wish I had a picture. The museum, founded by art collector Helene Kröller-Müller within the extensive grounds of her and her husband’s former estate (now the national park), opened in 1938. It has the second-largest collection of paintings by Vincent Van Gogh, after the Vincent Van Gogh Museum.

Road with cypress and star. Vincent Van Gogh

What a painter Vincent was. Up close you get to experience the wristy application of paint on canvas that makes his images move and writhe.

Caféterras bij nacht. photo by Paul Hermans

The EKWC in Oisterwijk is housed in a vast warehouse-like building, and is an international artist-in-residence and research centre for ceramics. Artists, designers and architects from all over the world have worked here to experiment with clay. Artists are invited whether they have worked with clay before or not, to participate in their twelve-week residencies. In a year they have about 60 different residencies out of something like 600 applications, and during their time there residents stay in the EKWC accommodation with other artists and share kitchen, studios, facilities, experience and networks. It is a welcoming and friendly set-up, and if you want to find out more, here is the link. The huge walk-in kilns make the new PAC kiln look tiny in comparison. And the coffee in the café is not bad either.

Inside the EKWC

They say you learn a lot about a culture through its humour. Dutch jokes about neighbours are good-natured if crude, because, in practice, neighbours need to get along quite well. The Dutch actually don’t hate the Belgians at all. On the contrary, they find them their most sympathetic neighbours, but nevertheless, ripe for teasing:

Hoe houd je een Belg bezig?

(How do you keep a Belgian busy?)

Zet een man in een ronde kamer en zeg dat er een zak friet in de hoek ligt.

(Put the man in a round room and say there’s a bag of chips in a corner.)

After the rain pot, with tulips from Amsterdam

On the other hand, and for the sake of balance, in the eyes of the Belgians, the Dutch are mean and stingy:

Een Nederlander werd gevraagd voor een donatie voor een verzorgingshuis.

(A Dutchman was asked to make a donation to an old people’s home.)

Hij gaf zijn vader en zijn moeder.

(He gave his father and his mother.)

Moonpot with daffodils

The new kiln is about to be installed, and nothing has been fired now for some time, but Spring should see a renewal of activity and some interesting pieces being made. These images of ceramics are of old pieces which have not been shown for a long time or not at all. The latest news on Thelonious the pug mill is that nobody wants him because he is old and requires a three-phase connection, so sadly he is going to be sold for scrap iron – unless there is a last-minute reprieve . Thank you all, and see you next month.

Someone asked me the other day, “What’s with those clogs you keep wearing?” I replied,”Wooden shoe like to know.”

 

Anatomy of a fall

/in , /by

The view from Bradlow Knoll at 10 am New Year’s Day

Pottery is just an excuse to play with mud. The material used is really nothing more than soil clay that has been mined. Mud is wet soil. Roll a ball of moist sediment into a thin string – if you can, it’s clay. It’s generally accepted now that playing with mud allows children to connect with the natural world around them, and helps develop tactile skills, boosts creativity and imagination. And it’s fun and therapeutic. And I think this applies to adults too. Using your hands to shape clay into a vessel is an ancient practice that is fulfilling, and whole cultures are identified by their pottery, after all it is one of the oldest and most widespread of artforms. Pots say a lot about people.

New Year’s Day, old moon.

But as you well know, when it’s been raining a lot in the countryside, mud becomes an enemy not a friend, and you have to take it into account when you go for a walk, specially up and down a hill like Bradlow Knoll. In the early morning of the first day of the New Year, the sky was clear after the rainfall of a few days – weighing the pros and cons, and mindful of my duty to my faithful blog readers and seeing a pale waning moon beckoning in a blue sky, I decided the omens were good for a climb up the hill and a first photo of this year’s view.

Walk in the woods vase

However, the problem with walking on claggy mud is that you have to keep your eyes on your feet the whole time. One small lapse of concentration and can send your legs into the air, so you try to step on the least wet bits along the edge of the path, head down and unable to appreciate the surrounding landscape. Which is tiring and frustrating, specially deep into Frith Wood where the dark tree cover keeps everything as damp as possible, though there was a wintry sun low in the sky that you could glimpse through the trees.

I was not really enjoying my New Year’s walk. The mud was not fun and therapeutic, though maybe the worms were enjoying it; in one acre of lands there can be more than a million worms, so I imagined them partying underfoot. There is a stretch towards the end of the walk that is surrounded on both sides by brambles so it’s difficult to use the drier edges of the path. It was here that my concentration strayed because the birdsong was so unexpected and loud. I was trying to identify all the various songs (mainly blackbird, robin and bluetit) when it happened.

Some doctors  believe that one of the biggest benefits of mud baths is that they can provide stress relief. Sitting in warm, soft mud can relax the muscles and soothe the mind. They are also thought to relieve stress, joint pain, rheumatoid arthritis and certain skin ailments. Some people use mud baths simply to chill out. What I found myself in face down was not a warm bath of mud but an unrelaxing cold and slimy one that did nothing for my self-esteem.

It was a slow-motion experience in three stages. First the right foot slid backwards, and I thought I’d land on my right knee (no big deal, I thought, just a muddy knee). Second, because it was slightly downhill, my upper body was leaning forward enough to propel me further, so I stuck out my right hand to stop things getting any worse (no big deal, just a muddy hand, as well as knee). Third, my right hand made contact with the mud and slid forward all the way until the whole right side of my body lay obligingly in the quagmire. This happened in less than a second, but it felt very gradual – it’s amazing what your brain can be doing in such a short time: surprise (this cannot be happening!), anger (I showered and put on clean clothes an hour ago in honour of this New Year, and now look!), indignity (God, I hope nobody’s looking!), curiosity (all the birds have suddenly stopped singing, are they having a quiet laugh? Do birds laugh? I must find out), and finally disappointment and petulance (I was being so careful all the way, it’s just not fair).

I met two dog walkers further on, at a fork in their path, and wondered whether they’d heard my expletives. They looked vaguely concerned at my state, and I had two choices: either I let them go along my path to see if they too slipped in the mud or I recommended the alternative path ahead of them. The Devil in me lost and I told them how to best avoid my fate – it was my first good deed of the year. By the time I got home the sun was out again low in the sky and cast a long shadow, reminding me that we’ve already had our shortest day (22 Dec), and that seemed to put things in proportion, so I blamed my shoes, which have no grip and are inappropriate for walks.

guilty shoes

Somewhere in the Frith Wood is the mud imprint of yours truly. It will last until the next rainfall, then dissolve back to its natural muddiness. Mud is the stuff of creation, used to create Adam, so how come it’s used to tarnish people? Mud is thrown at people in accusation, a name is dragged through it, anything dark and confusing is clear as mud, a person who resists change is a stick in the mud. But we potters know better, which is why I hold nothing against it, other than, occasionally, my body.

architectural pieces drying.

And ceramics? (It’s about time you mentioned them, says Spiro). Well, yes, the new kiln is yet to be connected, so I have been making pieces that have not been bisque fired and sit around waiting in the studio, like the ones in the image above, and the set of Yoohoo vases below.

Yoohoo vases waiting for a bisque firing

Also waiting for kiln connection and bisque firing are various figures and pieces made by visitors to the studio. The lynx pictured is a favourite.

Lynx by Lisa Dearling

And finally, and given that these blogs always seem to refer to woods and trees: a man walks into Frith Wood and tries to cut down a talking tree. “You can’t cut me down,” the tree exclaims, “I’m a talking tree!” The man responds, “You may be a talking tree, but you will dialogue.”