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Arscott Ceramics goes pannaging

October 5th, 2019/in Blog, Latest News /by Peter Arscott

Lord Lyons

“If you’re given champagne at lunch, there’s a catch somewhere”, said one of the great diplomats of 19th century Britain, Lord Lyons, a man who loved gastronomy and agreed with Palmerston’s remark that ‘dining is the soul of diplomacy’, and offered at least five courses of Moet & Chandon champagne at his diplomatic dinners because he found that, as ambassador to the United States, it made senators more accommodating.

Lymington

Lyons was born in the coastal town of Lymington, which is where Arscott Ceramics was heading with a delivery for the Coastal Gallery. It turns out that it is also the birthplace of Ben Ainslie, Britain’s foremost competitive sailor, and the singer Birdy. The things one learns.

Landscape vase

To get to Lymington one has to drive through the New Forest, one of the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pastureland, heathland and forest in Southern England and proclaimed a royal forest by William the Conqueror way back in the 11^th century.

Vase 3

Pre-existing rights of common pasture are still recognised today and are enforced by official verderers, and Commoners’ cattle, ponies and donkeys roam throughout the open heath and much of the woodland. It is largely their grazing that maintains the open character of the Forest. They are also frequently seen straying into the Forest villages, shops and pubs (horse walks into a bar. “Hey!” says the bartender, “You read my mind” says the horse). The New Forest pony is one of the indigenous horse breeds of the British Isles and most of the Forest ponies are of this breed, but there are also some Shetlands and their crossbreeds.

Brusher Mills

It remains a habitat for many rare birds and mammals. All three British native species of snake inhabit the Forest. The adder, the grass snake and the rare smooth snake. It was mainly adders which were caught by Brusher Mills (1840–1905), the “New Forest Snake Catcher”. He caught many thousands in his lifetime, sending some to London Zoo as food for their animals. You can see Brusher’s grave in St Nicholas’ Church, Brockenhurst, where villagers paid for a marble headstone to mark his final resting place. It does not say how he died.

salt marshes outside Lymington – Isle of Wight on horizon

A quick watercolour of the salt marshes outside Lymington was affected by blustery winds blowing the easel down and by an irrational awareness of the possibility of any three of these species of snake having an opinion on landscape art – all British snakes are now legally protected, and so the New Forest snakes are no longer caught and it logically follows that there must be many more of them lurking in bushes nowadays.

porcus beatus

One or two of the ceramic pieces rattled around in their boxes as the car suddenly braked to avoid running over a pig. Yes, a pig. In fact there were various small porkers rooting around on the edge of the road and it turns out that it is not an uncommon sight to see pigs roaming in the autumn months. Pannage is the practice of releasing domestic pigs into a forest to eat fallen acorns and other nuts. Acorns are poisonous in large quantities to cattle and ponies and can lead to cholic whereas piggies spit out the toxic skins and enjoy eating the acorns. Pannage: late Middle English: from Old French pasnage, from medieval Latin pastionaticum, from pastio(n- ) ‘pasturing’, from the verb pascere ‘to feed’.

Up to 600 pigs and piglets will work their way through the forest but must be fitted with a ring through their nose which still enables them to forage through leaf litter and surface vegetation but stops them from rooting into the ground with their snouts causing damage to the Forest.

Those of you who have been following this blog since the start will know that pigs are often brought up because of their link to ceramics, and this blog is no exception. Yes, the word “porcelain” is derived from the Italian porcellana which translates as cowrie shell and refers to porcelain’s similarly smooth surface. Porcella means little pig, which describes the small plump shape of the cowrie.

Klee vase

Which is the point of this blog, of course, to tell you about Arscott Ceramics and what is new. The stoneware pieces seen in these images can all be inspected at the Coastal Gallery in Lymington, a small but wonderful gallery run by Stewart and Bev. Do pay them a visit and combine the experience with a walk into town, perhaps a dip in the Sea Water Baths (the oldest lido in the country) and, to recover, a stiff drink at the quayside where you can sit and gaze across the harbour at the UK’s most expensive coastal real estate, Sandbanks. Finish it off with a slow drive through the New Forest.

Man walks into a bar with a pig under his arms.

“Where did you get that disgusting creature?” asks the barman.

“I won him in a raffle” replies the pig.

loop bottle

Arscott’s ceramic wanderings

May 18th, 2019/in Blog, Latest News /by Peter Arscott

cloud vase petulant

I found myself wandering about in the grounds of a ruined castle, somewhere near the Welsh border, probably Skenfrith, or White Castle, when I came upon an open enclosure, the portcullis and dry moat lay ahead and the grassy area was walled in and contained a massive oak tree. But what most intrigued me a very large vase that stood in the middle – it was familiar to me, in fact one of my own pieces called Cloud Vase, but it was huge.

“What are you doing here?” I asked it, I don’t know why.

“I could ask you the same thing”, it answered rather petulantly.

“But what has happened?” I was very confused.

“Nothing much. What’s up with you?”

“Nothing. What do you mean?”

“Well, look at yourself. You’re stark naked.”

I looked down and saw this was the case. Which is when, thankfully, I woke up.

vine vase in the Welsh hills

This is how reality, or the day to day, elbows its way into your sleep and there’s always some reason behind it. In this case I blame Mr Dale Chihuly. Let me explain.

dream vase at Cecilia Colman’s

On the way back from leaving some ceramics with the Cecilia Colman Gallery in St John’s Wood (see June 2018 blog), a friend suggested we visit Kew Gardens and look at the exhibition of glass sculpture by Dale Chihuly, Emperor of Blown Glass, whose work he often sites in natural settings, landscape or gardens, and whose technique, as he says himself ( he doesn’t like to use a lot of tools), it is all about fire, gravity and centrifugal force: “It’s these natural elements that make the pieces begin to look like they were made by nature”.

Chehuly’s Persian Column in the Temperate House at Kew

This outdoor exhibition brings together work from the past 50 years, the only site-specific piece being the Persian Column suspended from the roof of the Temperate House.

Lime Chrystal Tower

Main ingredients of glass? Liquid sand, or rather sand, soda and limestone. melted at around 1320 degrees Celsius. This makes a typical glass which can be formed by blowing by mouth or machine, by casting, by pressing and by drawing.

Glass Hornets in the pond at the Temperate House viewed from the gallery

So, it’s a cousin of stoneware, which is also fired at a high temperature and is essentially a vitreous ceramic made from naturally occurring stoneware clay containing kaolinite, mica and quartz, and is thus water resistant and frost proof – like the pieces I make, only mine are really for a domestic setting, though what if….?

Sapphire Star

How big could a ceramic sculpture be, I wondered? The glass work on view is large, and mainly made out of many hand blown pieces which are carefully slipped onto steel rods that stand out from an inner steel core or tube planted deep into the ground. Like the Summer Sun by the lake, or the Sapphire Star by the Victoria Gate entrance. They are very large and dominating, and impressive. Which is why I ended up dreaming about man made ceramics in outdoor settings.

Summer Sun

If you haven’t been to Kew, you have a treat awaiting. It is a garden that houses the largest and most diverse botanical collections in the world (30,000 different kinds of plants), a World Heritage Centre, 132 hectares of gardens, glasshouses, listed buildings and the fabulous Palm House built in 1848. Parking is challenging unless you go early, otherwise it is best to arrive on the underground, either Kew Station or Richmond. The sandwiches are good.

small vine vase at Cecilia Colman’s

So, back to nocturnal wanderings of the mind, finding yourself in a state of undress in a dream is no big thing, nothing to worry about. Everybody has had one of these dreams, or at least that’s what the giant vase on the hill tells me.

giant vase that tells me things

A Stoneware Wolf in a China Shop

April 13th, 2019/in Blog, Latest News /by Peter Arscott

towards Paincastle

Delivering ceramics is a way to get to know a country. I found myself in the car, ceramic pieces carefully packed in boxes at the back, on a narrow road in the Welsh countryside of Powys, marooned in a sea of wool as a flock of sheep was driven to an adjacent field by two men and a woman. It was warm enough to have the windows open and as the woman walked by, I asked her what breed they were (the sheep, not the people). “Badger Face Welsh Mountain” was the reply. I nodded sagely, as if I knew my sheep.

green vs brown

The countryside I was driving through was an upland area above the Wye River and I was on my way to Erwood but had allowed the satnav to dictate terms, so instead of going the direct way, I was doing the “picturesque” route via Paincastle, which meant dealing with slow, winding, single track lanes in an undulating landscape, but it also presented me with the unexpected opportunity to enjoy a rural backdrop that seems little touched by man…. until you realize that the place owes its personality to the sheep that graze it and the farmers that have shaped it through the ages. On this particular early Spring morning the sky was bright and clear, and the green was taking over from the Winter grey and the brown bracken. Clean air and only a whiff of sheep.

clean air

inside one of the Erwood carriages

Erwood itself is tiny but used to have its own train station until 1962. Nowadays, three railway carriages from the 1880s mark the spot, and form part of the largest privately-run contemporary applied arts gallery in Wales, the Erwood Station Gallery. There’s even a diesel locomotive from 1939 parked outside, a restored Fowler 0-6-0 engine. It is only a few yards from the Wye river, and attracts not only anglers, but also walkers and cyclists.

Fowler 0-6-0

A stone’s throw from Erwood is the village of Crickadarn, which was the remote “East Proctor” in the cult film “An American Werewolf in London”. The gory scenes on the lonely moors with the rampant lycanthrope feasting on Badger Face Welsh were all shot in the nearby Black Mountains, but a Stoneware Wolf (yes, sorry) would undoubtedly calm down at the site of the ceramics on offer at the Erwood Station Gallery. Unless there is a full moon, in which case there would be little chance of protecting the fabulous pieces on show from any lupine loss of control.

Werewolf thrilled at having found an Arscott ceramic

By the way, if you have recently developed a craving for raw meat and a sudden fear of water, have begun ripping your clothes off during a full moon, have a unibrow across your forehead, find yourself screaming with anger when it’s nothing to do with Brexit, then you may well be a werewolf. Click here to see what happens during a full moon – warning: remember it’s all pretend.

Some of the pieces on view at the gallery:

fish vase

ivy vase

Following your visit to Erwood you may well want to have a meal, in which case Hay-on-Wye is 20 minutes away by car. There you could spend a whole day just browsing in the bookshops for which it is famous, visiting the Erwood sister gallery, the Lion Street gallery, mainly showing the work of Welsh artists, or prowling around the open market (Thursdays only). Or you can hire a canoe and paddle down the Wye – if you are lucky you will catch sight of a flash of brilliant blue and green dropping into the water. A kingfisher.

early morning River Wye

Worcester’s ceramics, swans and sauce.

March 29th, 2019/in Blog, Latest News /by Peter Arscott

Arscott at the Bevere Gallery

You would not normally associate the city of Worcester (pronounced Wuster) with the pong of rotting fish and other ingredients, but it is thanks to a certain Lord Sandys in the 1830s that two local chemists, John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins were approached and paid to come up with an anchovy-based sauce that the former had tasted in India and which he wanted to have made. However, it was deemed to be a disappointing flop and abandoned in a barrel, only to be rediscovered many months later and, to everyone’s surprise, the taste had mellowed into what we know as Worcestershire Sauce. To this day, the ingredients are allowed to ‘mature’ for 18 months before being blended and bottled in Worcester.

Best in a Bloody Mary

Those of you unfamiliar with this dark brown liquid will want to know what you do with it. Well, I like to sprinkle it into the mincemeat when a making Cottage Pie. Or Spaghetti Bolognaise: pour it in to the mince whilst it is simmering away and add a nice big splash just before you serve it up. The company suggests a splash Worcestershire sauce in your baked beans, or your fish and chips, even in your green salad. They seem to imply that it goes with pretty much anything, but I would personally keep it well away from, say, bananas, or ice cream, or Spotted Dick. Whatever you do, do not sprinkle it into your single malt whisky, but a drop or two in a Bloody Mary is a must. Above is a picture of the sauce; the watch strap is not a Rolex but a cheap one I bought locally. I wouldn’t want you to think that I’m making a fortune out of my ceramics

Worcester Cathedral from the river

I expect you know why I’m going on about Worcester – I was delivering ceramics to the Bevere Gallery, which meant driving on the bridge over the River Severn into the city with the Cathedral sitting impressively over the dark water away to the right. The bright white specks floating about in the almost Worcester Sauce – coloured river are swans, which are always here because for many years the area between the railway viaduct and the Worcester Cathedral Ferry has been designated as a Swan Sanctuary. There is now a large and healthy population of Mute Swans on the water. Fishing in this area is banned and the swans are supported by a number of organisations including the City Council. The local Tourist Board extols “the natural beauty and general friendliness of these swans”. Note the word “general” – in other words, keep away from them or they could turn nasty, like the notorious one in Cambridge called Mr Asbo (Anti-Social Behaviour Order) that had to be deported because it kept attacking people and boats. But, yes, they do look spectacular in the river.

Mr Asbo strikes again

There was no time to stop at the cathedral and say hello to King John who was buried here in 1216 after contracting dysentery in Lynn. John is most famous for agreeing to the Magna Carta, which was a charter of demands made by John’s rebellious barons and the basis for much of our present rights as individuals. When he died he had lost most of his French lands, and was in the midst of a civil war against many of his own barons, though the current consensus is that John was a hard-working administrator, an able man, an able general, albeit with distasteful, even dangerous personality traits, including pettiness, spitefulness and cruelty, which is why he is always the “baddie” in the Robin Hood movies. Anyway, here’s a picture of him getting angry because someone forgot to put the top back on his bottle of Worcester Sauce.

Bad, bad King John

But I digress. I was on my way to the Bevere Gallery, an oasis of ceramic calm on the outskirts of the city, where visitors can really enjoy a high quality and varied selection of pieces on display and then sit down in the café and enjoy what’s on offer (the food is very good). Bevere is the name of an island in the Severn, 2 ½ miles N of Worcester. It is supposed to have been a resort of beavers; was a retreat of the inhabitants of Worcester during the plague of 1637; and is now, they say, a good bathing-place. It commands a fine view of the Abberley and the Malvern hills.

“Interior” vase at Bevere

And talking of ceramics, how could I not mention Royal Worcester porcelain which used to be made here in the 18^th century until the Severn Street factory was closed down in 2006? One of its best-sellers was the Evesham Gold series, and samples can be seen at the Museum of Royal Worcester. There were various factories each producing distinctive wares: Flight and Barr, Chamberlain, Hadley and Sons, Kerr and Binns, Grainger and Dr Wall ( Dr John Wall perfected a recipe for porcelain that could withstand boiling water and this discovery led to the fame of the factory).

Evesham Gold

But back to the Bevere Gallery. Informality is an essential element here. You are encouraged to look at, handle and talk freely and openly about what you see – you can be as rude or polite as you like. Stuart and Clare like to engage and talk about the making and creative process. They also hold a Makers’ Lunch, an informal opportunity to talk with ceramicists and artists whose work is exhibited; an unpredictable two hours of conversation with open and frank discourse with the invited maker. They would be very happy to welcome you.

Crouch vase at Bevere

12 hours in London (is like a year in any other place)

June 24th, 2018/in Blog, Latest News /by Peter Arscott

derelict Victorian Public Toilets into a cracking little pub.

A quick overnight trip to London was called for, ceramics to be delivered in the morning to the Cecilia Colman Gallery, so arrival was late in the evening – the idea being to spend the night and get up early.

closing time at Pueblito Paisa

London is an extraordinary place, which is why I found myself late that night somewhere in Haringey eating aborrajado (deep-fried stuffed plantains) and empanaditas (meat turnovers) all washed down with cold Colombian beer. The city is ever shifting, neighbourhoods seem to change overnight from the down-at-heel to the slickly bourgeois, and this perpetual construction of flats for the professionals, the foreign “land bankers” and who knows who else seems to be hitting Seven Sisters, so that the little restaurant we were eating at is now in danger, along with its neighbouring businesses, of making way for another redevelopment scheme.

ceviche

Within this large building more than 100 Latin American traders have created a busy complex of cafes, butchers, travel agencies, restaurants, clothes shops and greengrocers all under one roof, and is a fine example of a city that can boast to being the most multicultural place in the planet.

Relocation is promised, but everyone knows that it would never provide the genuine atmosphere that exists when people unselfconsciously transform a place through the need to make a living and make use of their own experiences and backgrounds. It is called Pueblito Paisa, and long may it thrive. Pay it a visit and try the ceviche.

passers-by outside the High Cross pub

We then walked a couple of blocks to a solid Victorian public toilet. This very hospitable place turned out to be a pub, recently converted, and we sat down outside under a cherry tree to drink and watch the night traffic flow by, mostly double deckers and taxis, and pedestrians of all shapes, sizes and diversity, track suits, hijab, business suits, shorts, sauntered past us.

At one point we looked at the shrubbery at the base of the cherry tree and were startled by the untroubled gaze of a fox which gave up on us and turned away.

the canal, early morning

The next morning a visit to Tottenham Hale and the canal that runs alongside the Walthamstow wetlands offered a complete contrast to the urban activity of the night before. Here all was placid and calm, and, if it had not been for the trains, it was easy to imagine you were in the countryside.

Cecilia’s place

And then the trip to St John’s Wood to visit the Cecilia Colman Gallery. Another contrast: spacious Regent’s Park, the London Zoo, the Regent’s Park mosque, Lord’s cricket ground, and St John’s Wood High Street with its cafes and shops – a small world away from edgier Haringey, but cosmopolitan nevertheless.

small three legged bowl at Cecila Colman’s

The Gallery has been in London for forty years having opened in 1977 and is one of the few remaining shops on St John’s Wood High Street which survived the transformation of the area in the last few decades. Cecilia chooses all the pieces and artists herself and is passionate about the work she exhibits. She chose eight recent Arscott ceramic pieces – do drop in to have a look.

large stoneware vase

On another note, we are all very pleased that CUP ceramics project (see previous blog) hit its crowdfunding target with 5 days to spare. Over 90 people pledged contributions, an excellent indication of the support for an open-access studio providing a creative community for all types of ceramicists to share skills and ideas in a relaxed environment

blue vase

array of glazed fine art ceramic bowls by belatrova

Far from the Madding Crowd

September 8th, 2017/in Blog, Latest News /by Peter Arscott

far from the madding crowd

Heat has a strange effect on some humans. When temperatures hit a high, as they did this August in many parts of Europe and the Mediterranean, confusion and dizziness set in, common effects of too much exposure to extreme heat because of increased blood flow to dilated blood vessels and fluid loss through sweating. This sometimes happens to belatrova when the kiln is going full blast and ceramic production is in full flow as we try to feed the insatiable appetite for our products – on the other hand a cold Dry Martini often wards off any lasting effects.

Mallorca inland

This August was an excuse to go abroad for a break before moving into the new workshop in Ledbury (about which more in the next blog).

towards the monastery of Sant Salvador

Mallorca is a beautiful island that has lured many foreigners over the years, from Chopin to Robert Graves, and, this year, belatrova. But mass tourism is affecting it much as it is elsewhere. Barcelona, Venice, Edinburgh, Lisbon, Dubrovnik, Skye are all examples of unmanageable jam-packed destinations filled with visitors on holiday. ” Tourist: your luxury trip / my daily misery“, says a placard in the Parque Guell (Barcelona). “Tourists go home. Refugees welcome” was the graffiti that greeted us as we drove to Felanitx for our week in Mallorca.

tourist

And who can blame residents when all anyone can do on the beautiful beaches and calas is to stand waist-deep in the water surrounded on all sides by others similarly engaged in staring at the horizon with arms folded and wondering how to escape – we did find a great spot though, as you can see from the first image.

tourist with mobile

Go inland and the atmosphere changes and the landscape is an engaging mixture of the agricultural and dramatic, from fertile farmland and Aleppo pine forests to the limestone mountains of the Serra de Tramuntana and the summer flowering of oleander, hibiscus, marigolds and orchids.

away from the tourists

If you really want to get away from any crowds, we recommend a visit to Botanicactus, a cactus sanctuary (though belatrova believes they are quite capable of defending themselves) where the cacti flourish in the dry and sunny climate and the landscape has been specifically designed to protect the plants, with the creation of the artificial lake and raised terraces protecting the plants from the wind. While everyone is at the beach you can wander about in perfect solitude surrounded by these giant prickly beings.

belatrova’s Miró bowl

Among the many artists associated with the island is Joan Miró, painter, sculptor and ceramicist born in Barcelona, but resident in the latter part of his long life in Palma where he bequeathed a collection that is the basis for his Fundació Joan Miró which we visited one morning.

retro bowl (three legs)

It is a purpose-built exhibition space that uses thinly cut alabaster as a source of light into the rooms and has pools of water outside in the gardens that reflect their own light through low cut openings at floor level – and the whole complex stands on a hill overlooking the bay of Palma. We watched white sails racing each other in the distance, the ferry from Barcelona ploughing its way to the docks, and three giant cruise ships blocking part of the harbour architecture as they disgorged their passengers into the city for the day.

fundació Joan Miró

But back to Miró; tiny forms in huge empty spaces, deep blue cerulean sky-like canvases, crescent moons, birds, meandering shapes, his work is captivating and has inevitably inspired belatrova, back in Herefordshire, to make a few ceramics in his style.

inspired bowls

If you’d like to see them come and pay us a visit at our old workshop at No9 Bankside Studios during hArt, which runs from Saturday 9th to Sunday 17th (open daily 10 – 5pm), just follow the red hArt signs in Ledbury, or use the postcode: HR8 2DR. You are most welcome. As the hArt website says: “Meet hundreds of individual artists, see an array of artwork across the county in the city and countryside, in fabulous locations such as manor houses, historic barns, farms, churches and beautiful gardens.”

Finally, belatrova shed a tear on learning of the death of Walter Becker, guitarist and composer, who with Donald Fagen was one half of the unforgettable Steely Dan. We invite you to click here and listen to one of their middle period songs (skip the ad): subtle player that he was, technically dexterous, meticulous master of the instrumental gesture and never a grand-stander, “some of his most intriguing work is embedded in the background – the architectural arpeggios of “Aja,” or the wry, blues-tinged asides that dot the margins of “Hey Nineteen.” (Tom Moon / NPR Music)

Many a bowl was made listening to Walter on his guitar.

When all the dime dancing is through, I run to you..

Springing Open in April

April 10th, 2017/in Blog, Latest News /by Peter Arscott

Pasque roses in Spring

Everything is blooming in this part of the world, the sap is rising, winter’s greys are turning into varied shades of green, and cherry and apple blossom are everywhere. April is a month when things turn for the better, it even gets its name from the Latin word “to open”, describing flowers opening at springtime, though Aphrodite the goddess may also be another root for the word. Did you know that April used to be the second month of the year until January and February were invented by the Romans? No, nor did we.

Nor did we know that “April” was the 250th most common name for a baby girl in the UK, or that in the UK it is National Pet Month, or that in the US it is National Pecan Month. And our meticulous research has unearthed the following:

Zebra crossings were introduced in Britain on 4 April 1949, when James Callaghan, then parliamentary secretary to the ministry of transport in the British government, came up with ‘zebra’ as a name for the crossing which it was thought would be easily understood and remembered, particularly by vulnerable groups such as children.

Russian cosmonaut day is April 12, commemorating the astronaut Yuri Gagarin who became the first man in space on April 12, 1961 aboard Vostok 1. He spent 108 minutes in space.

And when, we hear you ask, is National Eggs Benedict Day? Why, it is on April 16th, a day to enjoy eggs with hollandaise sauce, crispy bacon and English muffins. Apparently, a lot of people have never had Eggs Benedict, but we reckon belatrovians are sophisticated and most likely to have enjoyed Eggs Benedict a number of times, and perhaps, on a regular basis. See how many of your friends can tell you how its made, or what’s in it. Or, ask them what hollandaise sauce is.
Celebrate by eating Eggs Benedict – click here to see how to make them (first get a hen).

belatrova corner planter

All of this is just a preamble to let you know that we are holding our annual Spring Open Weekend on Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd April (10 – 5pm) at the Bankside Studios. You are most welcome to drop in and browse, and even though Eggs Benedict will not be on the menu, we will offer you tea, coffee and cake.

c’est ne pas un chevre

You would be hard pressed to find a spot anywhere that both makes and sells the variety of goods you can find at the Bankside Studios in Ledbury. You can step into the studio to see Fleen Doran, fresh from her successful show at the British Craft Trade Fair at Harrogate, making her salt glaze pots at the wheel, while Wendy Houghton works away at her delicate ceramic sculptures. This is the same workshop where belatrova produce ceramic planters, fruit bowls, mirrors and birdbaths next to the joinery section where Stuart Houghton busily shapes and cuts wood to perfection – at the moment he is whittling a small goat out of myrtle. Upstairs Dan Barker has his photography studio, shared with the textile designer Sunny Todd, and across the road can be found artist blacksmith Dave Preston hammering iron on his anvil – in fine contrast to Bob Evans who can be found in his studio opposite printing images of striking quality on very new and sophisticated printers.

handmade ceramic flower pot with handles

striped splash pot by belatrova

The studios are situated just behind Alfa-Tech on Little Marcle Rd, which is accessed via either Lower Rd or New St. Please follow the signs. There is limited parking on-site (and wheelchair access) and there is additional on-street parking.

large wall mirror with blue frame

The address is: Bankside Industrial Estate, Little Marcle Rd, Ledbury, Herefordshire HR8 2DR. And do please visit the Ledbury Cooperative’s website: https://www.ledburycollective.com/

For those of you who live in or close enough to London we would encourage you to visit the Cecilia Colman Gallery in St John’s Wood. It is right on the High Street and easily reached by underground. Glass is a speciality but among the many excellent pieces on show, ceramics, paintings and jewelry also have pride of place. The gallery is showing some belatrova pieces, including three legged bowls, wave fruit bowls and a large wall mirror.

Cecilia Colman Gallery

We’ll leave you with part of Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poem Spring:

Nothing is so beautiful as Spring –
When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;
Thrush’s eggs look little low heavens, and thrush
Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring
The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;
The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush
The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush
With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.

hello Spring

March 3rd, 2017/in Blog, Latest News /by Peter Arscott

painterly close-up

You haven’t heard from us for a while, we admit, but we are coming out of our Winter torpor, just like the snowdrops that every year nose their way out into the light before Spring to gladden the hearts of all lovers of beauty and Nature. And we are here to gladden your homes and gardens, with our handmade ceramic lamps and outdoor tables, our fabulous mirrors and the new range of Jazz pots influenced by our old friend Thelonious Monk and others.

blue and yellow

With your gardens in mind, we’ve been making new Brushstroke Blues planters that will bring to life any corner of a garden or patio, and, because they are mostly blue in colour, they will set off the warmer yellow, orange or ochre hues of the plants. Furthermore, blue is serene and mentally calming, associated with intelligence, communication, trust, efficiency, serenity, duty, logic, coolness, reflection, calm, and thus a nice contrast with yellow and its optimism, confidence, self-esteem, extroversion, emotional strength, friendliness and creativity. All of that in one planter, but then belatrova does like to carry out as much research as possible on behalf of its supporters and customers, and this often reveals things we were not aware of – perse, smalt and watchet, for example, are all associated with blue, as are the better known azure, cobalt, navy, sapphire, cerulean, cyaneous, mazarine, pavonated, perwinkle and ultramarine.

watchet

smalt

perse

In all honesty, blue is belatrova’s favourite colour – as you may remember from a previous blog (July 2014).

ceramic blue abstract table top

Click here and you can hear the inmortal lyrics Nel blu, dipinto di blu from Volare sung by Domenico Modugno (skip the ads). Dean Martin also sang it, but Dino’s version is a “tad slick”, according to one member of the team, though another claims that Domenico’s strange arm-lifting movement reminds him of a policeman stopping traffic. See what you think.

thelonious corner pot

Edmund de Waal‘s visit to the Ledbury Poetry Festival last year reminded us how pottery and poetry are only differentiated by the one “t”, and looking at the quality of the ceramics produced in the UK any objective observer would have to agree that the state of pottery creativity is at an all time high, possibly aided by the “Great Pottery Throw Down” on TV. The most astonishing shapes, textures, glazes and sizes can be seen in galleries and in excellent magazines such as Ceramic Review, and pieces can express a range of emotions, from the calm of a Japanese influenced pot to the freewheeling hurly burly of glaze upon glaze on a large abstract shape. Inevitable, belatrova looks to see where it fits in and we conclude that for the painterly abstract quality and the treatment of the ceramic surface as a canvas we belong to a very small group. Our customers are very discerning, and many seem to have a disposition for the visual arts; but however discriminating, sharp and perceptive they are (and, of course, they are), with Spring around the corner and the sap rising we know that a Spring Open Weekend is a much anticipated opportunity to make up minds and go for that particular piece that will enhance the dining room, or sitting room, or patio.

blue planters

“Sometimes the world is a valley of heartaches and tears
And in the hustle and bustle, no sunshine appears
But you and I have our love always there to remind us
There is a way we can leave all the shadows behind us…”

Yes, by paying us a visit!

So please pencil in the 22nd and 23rd of April (10 am – 5 pm), when we will be at Bankside Studios in Ledbury along with makers such as Fleen Doran and Wendy Houghton, and others. Otherwise you can always visit the website.

splash pot waiting to meet you

“Slack ma girdle, Foxwhelp.”

October 18th, 2016/in Blog /by Peter Arscott

“Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness!
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run...” (John Keats)

belatrova bunch

At belatrova we started turning our thoughts to Autumn, what with the leaves beginning to turn and that scent of damp and smoke that permeates the countryside near the workshop. We also discovered a taste for perry – surprising given that we seem (from the blog) to be serious cocktail sippers rather than quaffers of fermented fruit juices. We told you how to make the perfect Dry Martini some time ago. Perry is very much an Autumnal drink, and we visited a local small holding to see how it is made.

perry made from blakeney red

Has this anything to do with ceramics or table making? Probably not. The Blakeney Red is a greenish yellow perry pear with a red flush on the sunny side, an old favourite which was even considered a desert pear in the 1600s. which could also be stewed and used to dye soldiers’ khaki uniforms. This popular pear is renowned for perry making and is considered one of the best single perry varieties. The perry we tried was made from this pear.

How does this link in to ceramics, I hear you ask? Well, perry pears had their heyday in the late 17th and early 18th centuries and it is thought that there are at least 120 Perry pear varieties, many so local that they were only ever propagated on 1 or 2 adjacent farms. The heritage of these pears leaves us with some fantastic variety names, including Dead Boy, Mumblehead and Merrylegs. Some cider apple names? Brown Snout, Foxwhelp, Tremlett, Slack-ma-Girdle.

worcester apples

So far we have found no obvious links to ceramics and pottery, however, Stinking Bishop perry pear is local and used by Charles Martel, cheese maker supreme and reviver of Single Gloucester, whose washed-rind cheeses are immersed in the perry for 4 weeks while it matures. It is made from milk of Gloucester cattle, and became famous when it starred in “Wallace & Gromit: the Curse of the Were-Rabbit“. Here is a picture of late Autumn lillies to wave away the scent of cheese:

some kind of lilly

Throughout Herefordshire there is a strong tradition of farm cider-making. Farmers produced cider to be drunk by the farm labour force during the following year, especially the busy times of hay-making and harvest. Farmers used to sell cider to local pubs and cider merchants for re-sale in towns. By the way, perry pear trees take much longer to mature than cider apple trees, thus:

“Who sets an apple tree may live to see it end,
Who sets a pear tree may set it for a friend.”

fruit bowl

Like the pear tree, belatrova has also paced its maturity to get to the stage we are now at. So if there is a seasonal change in the air, belatrova too reflects this. We have added two new categories to our website which we would love you to visit – just click on either: Fruit bowls and serving dishes and Ceramic art. Enjoy the visual sipping, get merry on home decor ideas, refresh your taste buds.

ceramic art? More Fresian than Hereford

an old stinker

belatrova – Open Studio Art Week 10 – 18 September

September 8th, 2016/in Blog, Latest News /by Peter Arscott

“The purest treasure mortal times afford, is spotless reputation; that away, men are but gilded loam or painted clay.” William Shakespeare

temptation

belatrova’s reputation may well be gleaming, but we would like you to see it up close and give it a good poke. We are happy for you to pick up any of our bowls and test its weight, or sniff it, or hold its cool surface against your cheek, even lick it. Pottery does this to people.

Clay engages the five senses.

listen

Put a porcelain pot to your ear and flick its surface with your middle finger; what a satisfying “ping” sound comes from it, clear and perfect and proving there are no cracks in it. How horrible it is when we take a piece out of the kiln and the ping is more a “plock” sound – disappointment soon follows as a hairline fracture shows up.

look

Touching pots is part of the experience, both when you are making them and when you are choosing one to buy. Do your fingers yearn to feel the rough textured surface of an unglazed vase or do they prefer the smooth milky whiteness of glazed porcelain? And what about plunging them in wet clay and making shapes?

Your eyes can be drawn to certain pots for all sorts of different reasons: colour, glaze, shape. Try holding up a piece of fine porcelain up to the light and wonder at its translucence.

lick

And eating clay? Well, it is an acquired taste, but some people swear by it. It helps keep toxins from being absorbed into the body, the minerals that make up Bentonite clay work together to absorb heavy metals and other toxins in the gut. And kids seem to love it. “I am so happy that there are other people who love eating clay. I’ve been eating it since my pregnancy 20 years ago. I love the smell of wet earth in my mouth. Yum, yum” Mrs Elvira Fingerhut of Neasden, London, UK.

sniff

Finally, smell….mmmm, a bit of a challenge, this one. Sometimes it can smell of rotten eggs. But sometimes it is just damp and musty, like Autumn approaching with all its mellow fruitfulness.

Yes, Herefordshire Art Week is with us from 10 – 18 September, which means that we are one of over 150 makers and artists in Herefordshire who will be open to visitors throughout the nine days.

And for a limited period only we have knocked 10% off the price of everything in stock! Would you like to know how to get your discount? Just click here.

One of the advantages in coming to our venue is that you get to see the work of three other ceramicists who form the Bankside Studios cluster: Fleen Doran, Stuart Houghton and Wendy Houghton.

This annual event draws many people to our workshop, and many are dropping in not just for the excellent cake and tea they are offered; you get to experience an exhibition of contrast and style, with informal demonstrations and the chance to talk to the artists.

Furthermore, there is an irresistible sale of belatrova pieces in one section of the workshop, and wonderful bargains to be found. Do come along, say “hello”, and handle, stroke and pat our pottery.

thelonius splash pot

Directions: in Ledbury follow the red h.Art signs from Lower Rd or New St into Little Marcle Rd. Follow signs to studios behind Alfa-Tech Garage. Parking is available. We are open 10 – 5.30 pm.

big blue