pillowfaces

In my extra spacious new space today and made these pillowfaces from paper.  Been looking at my Botero book - at his fabulous fat everything including Mona Lisa.

At home the blue table has a new resident.

you think you're ready to sign off

...then the cat comes along and files himself in the in tray

and another

It's nearly the end of a gloriously lazy weekend -  buying plants, carbooting, drinking tea and chatting, dancing to Abba in a village hall and buying yet another chair. Dad sent me pictures from RHS Rosemoor of the fantastic tame birds! Can't wait to get into my fab new studio space tomorrow.

are we ever going to have a summer

rain and radishes today and the 'idea & act' symposium which was a great stir of the brain and a chance to do some drawing without looking drawings.  (Barnaby Barford was the most stir-y)

idle hands again

following on from the success of last year's idle hands show with me John, Jon and Chimene we are having another go!  We've booked lovely Walcot Chapel, Bath again for this December -i'll keep you posted...

(photo is of last year's show - you can see my heads at the back staring any visitors out and John's cardboard tabletop scenes and that's his 'sinisin' door mat)

meet these two

here are two new pieces, the first yellow standing head (I'm liking this yellow phase) and a tiny green-eyed wall hung face which sits quite cosily in the palm of your hand to give you an idea of size!  Been doing my usual round of jumbling around on the internet and have just found a great site, have a look...... www.reformschoolrules.com

bita this bita that

Page from my sketchbook.....lots of talk of wigs and such like during the show...been thinking about the ruff people and the explorers of the rough sea!

Finally had a chance to sit down today and record my glaze tests from last week - I did some on normal tiles but some straight onto heads to see how they liked being painted with.

Ill be moving to a studio along the corridor in a  couple of days, in with the MA students, so I'll be packing up this lovely space. The stall will come with me, I'm very attached to the stool! 

a day of colours

Sat outside and ate dinner (lunch to some of you) on my lovely blue table today trying to ignore the slope.  This afternoon I bought a new sketch book - always an exciting event, I have just covered it in this great wallpaper bought from South Molton recycling centre! Tomorrow I can sit and invigilate the show and start work in it. It'll be a chance to sit and look at my work on the grey wall and work out where to go next.

a brief adventure into cushioning

This is Owl, he started off as part of a fancy dress costume but became my inspiration for my second cushion.  

My first adventure into cushion making was Donkey - here's a photo of him with Edd Red or Red Ed as we call him in our house by Donna Wilson, maker of all things soft and strange.

Today I've been preparing glaze tests and packing a kiln and being generally inside a building and inside my head - it was nice to come home and look at the garden and watch someone else's hands at work instead of my own!

reverting to type

I said today it was only a matter of time until this blog reverted to birds, cats and plants. IT HAS NOW HAPPENED. Springwatch ended today so I will have to make do with the handful of birds that visit our garden.  I was told a story  by a friend this afternoon -  he spent his evacuation by a river somewhere in the South of England!  One day out exploring in his boat he saw a swallow on the water's surface - wings spread, face down, floating. He rowed over to it for a closer look, scooped it up in his hand to examine it and it flew off.....

One last thing before lights out.......Charlotte Hardy has some beautiful paintings of all sorts on her site.  I've just looked again and they just make me want to see more.  Her birds are my favourite! 

count down to Saturday

2 days to go till '3'! The show looks great, the grey walls have transformed the gallery space and I've had a chance to present my work in a more playful way which I have wanted to try for a while.  (Came into the gallery yesterday to find a huddle of ladders or whatever a gathering of  ladders is!) For show details click and go to the gallery section.

rummaging around

This is me in my study with Tom Jones!  I've been having a rummage around on the internet looking at work by artists some bloggers some not - take a look at Camilla Engman, Hennie Haworth and Rachel Cattle.

My lovely friend and watch twin Ben has his degree show up at the moment - my favourite degree work at Bath -  along with Noir Nailsea and Backwell Lake by Al Pritchard. 

3

3 - a show I'm doing with two other artists opens this weekend in Bath.  I'm excited about having a big expanse of grey wall to play with.  I'm showing a mix of wall hung and plinth pieces including her on the left! 

Venue: Widcombe Studios, Comfortable Place, Upper Bristol Road, Bath, BA1 3AJ. www.widcombestudios.co.uk

two heads are better than one

Been working from home this afternoon with cats and lawnmowers for company.  This picture comes from messing around with stairs and heads and photoshop - making my heads look like they belong in a 70s Terrance Conran  House Book. The stairs give a good idea of the scale, an alternative to the traditional 50 pence piece!  

Busy weekend!

Friday - Visited the Bath Spa degree shows  -  Ceramic students were in the Holburne Museum, fantastic venue and a great opportunity for them to show in a non-white space.  The exhibition was a real treat.  

Saturday -  went to Bovey Tracey to the Craft Fair and came very close to buying a Cleo Mussi piece - but we felt less-than-clear-in the head for such a decision so departed.  Beautiful beautiful work. And to top it all off.....Sunday - a canoe trip down the river Wye.  Sand martins, damsel flies, reeds, swans, beaches, beautiful calm  - apart form the incident with the tree.

axis

Another place to see what I'm up to is on Axis www.axisweb.org/artist/claireloder 

There's some new images up there of the faces - wall hung work.