Last weekend I was in the Peak District. The weather was lovely and promised good walking. I also wanted to drop by an important ceramics fest to see what was new. What struck me this year was the amount of ceramics that owed their inspiration to textiles. Margaret Gardiner is well-known for her intricately designed, opalescent pots and I spent time with her talking about the lengthy process involved. As you might detect from the example of her work above, Margaret impresses near leather-hard clay with her favourite pieces of lace and crochet to create this unique surface, which also seems speckled with sequins.
In the special exhibition gallery, Pollie and Gary Uttley had a special exhibition of ceramic wall decorations - hangings - inspired by textiles during their visits to India.
Seen from a distance they appeared just like gently folded cloths, down to their embedded shisha mirrors.
So did I bring back any of this textile inspiration? Not this time. I was rather taken with the work of a Yorkshire ceramist from York, called Chiu-I Wu and I carried home two of her meditative pieces for my studio, as a counter balance, I suppose, to some of the embroidered items there.....
Sunday 29 June 2014
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