CARDIFF OPEN PRIVATE OPENING

Just a quick post to inform you all that my work will be showing in the Cardiff Open with the Cardiff Arts Collective for the Cardiff Design Festival. The opening is Friday the 5th, from 5-7pm and will be there for around two weeks. Really excited to see my work amongst other mixed media art, not only ceramics. 


11, High Street, Cardiff. 
10-5.30 daily, 1-27th of October. 

Have a look at their website:

http://www.cardiffartscollective.co.uk/#/

Exhibition opportunities!

Hello! Sorry it's been such a long time since I've written a post! I've been very busy, creating a facebook page firstly to join both my blog, my work and my friends, I also want to finish a website but not quite finished it yet! 

My work has just come down from the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff which was successful and I enjoyed having my work in such a public place, it was a great experience for me that so much of the public could see the work. I felt a great sense of achievement that the museum I spent time in sketching and taking images for inspiration wanted to show my work. 

I have now split the work into two groups, one has just been handed in for the Cardiff Open which is opening on the 1st of October until the 27th, in a shop near the Castle. This will have three shelves of work with fifteen pieces in all. 

The other group of pieces will be moving to Milkwood Gallery, from the 12th of October for two weeks, over the Made in Roath Festival. They will take their place nicely on the old fashioned dresser in the front of the shop. 

Another project I have in the pipeline is the Aberystwyth Arts Centre Christmas Craft Fair from the 26th of October until the 6th of January. Here I will be selling a collection of ceramic pieces and my hand-made Sterling Silver porcelain jewellery. If your around it's a great place to buy some individual, personal christmas presents for all your family and friends! 

I have been making new pieces to add to the collection of Minimus Maximus, so more seven and eight part molds in the new studio. Some great news, the new kiln was delivered today! So excited to start firing and create the tea set that I've been planning for a while now. 

I'm pleased that there is an interest in my degree show work, and love the idea of having many different bodies of work, from my Minimus Maximus range, to the Welsh Heritage pieces I want to continue from my second year to my porcelain jewellery. Well, we'll see how it all goes! 

Degree Show Success

Well, it's been a busy time! After my work visiting London for the New Designers Fair in the Business Design Centre and Art in Clay, Hatfield House I've been applying for competition and exhibition opportunities. I also graduated this week with a First Class Honors and had a lovely day at the Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay.

My work is currently showing in the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, for the Contemporary Makers Showcase. It will be there until the 1st of September. I'm proud to be showing my work there, as it was such an inspiration to my work, that of the Swansea Pottery Lustreware and the Cambrian Pottery, Swansea.

I'm setting up my own studio space too, which I'm excited about! Just trying to get all the cobwebs out, then it's time to get making! I will be creating new designs of cups, saucers and teapots hopefully to add to the many jug designs from my degree show. 

I will also be showing my work on the creativeGAPS website, which is a great showcase for people to see my work. www.creativegaps.co.uk.

After the degree show I felt a bit deflated, working so hard towards an outcome and not having anywhere straight away to carry on making, but I'm happy to be continuing my work in the studio I have now. 

I will be exhibiting at the Made in Roath and Cardiff Design Festival, showing my work at the Milkwood Gallery in Cardiff. I love this gallery so it's great to be showing my work there. Here is their website, check them out! :)

www.milkwoodgallery.com/ 

I'm happy with the reaction towards my work, and have had some great comments on how to improve and develop the concept. 

That's all for now. I'll leave you with a picture of my studio, mid-painting and moving in!! Happy times! 

New Designers

I have been chosen to represent Cardiff Metropolitan University at New Designers this year. I will be taking a selection of three shelves of my work from the degree show.

I'm very excited for this opportunity. The work will be shown along with twelve of my peers from the 27th-30th of June. 

Rwyf i wedi cael fy newis i gynrychioli Prifysgol Fetropolaidd Caerdydd yn 'New Designers' y flwyddyn hon. Mi fyddwn i yn mynd a detholiad o tair silff o waith o'r Sioe Radd.


Rwyf edrych ymlaen i'r cyfle. Bydd y gwaith yn cael ei ddangos ynghyd a deuddeg o weithiau eraill o'r 27ain-30ain o Fehefin. 

Minimus Maximus

For my final show plan I wanted the idea of excess and grandeur to be evident. How, although I've looked at minimalistic and modernist ideal for my contextual research, the contrast between this and this collective piece that reflects upon the title 'Minimus Maximus' and how modernism and post modernism has inspired me. As Robert Ventun and Mies van der Rohe both famously argued, 'Less is more,' 'Less is a bore.'

I believe that both movements have inspired me. Another inspiration is the ceramic galleries in the Victoria & Albert in London, how vessels and forms are shown together even if they're from different periods and made in different countries. The pieces that I have bought are re-born to create new forms where the idea of history rubbing against each other and connecting.

I wanted the illusion of height and mass due to the amount of pieces on the shelves. I wanted the collection to look as if every different piece was a different design. Although the work is on shelving, it's possible to see the forms at a 360 degree as the same forms are showing but at different angles. I wanted to fill the shelves with the vessels and create as much as possible with hints or highlighted editions in the deep green glaze to accentuate the form and design.

Gwaith a syniadau newydd / New work and ideas

I have designed these cups to go with not only the jug designs I have been working on, but also I want to create a tea set with a set of saucers and a teapot too.

Rwyf i wedi dylunio'r cwpanau yma i fynd gyda'r jygiau rwyf i wedi bod yn gweithio arnynt, rwyf i eisiau creu set de â soseri a tebot.

Y gwaith yn dod at ei gilydd / The work coming together

I think the jugs together are very successful in showing the idea of excess, I will be putting lustres on the work too, to show fluidity throughout the work.

Rwy'n credu bod y jwgiau yn llwyddiannus iawn yn dangos gormodaeth, mi fyddaf yn rhoi gloywedd aur ar y gwaith i ddangos llifedd trwy'r gwaith.

Centrepiece for my degree show / Darn canolog fy sioe radd

I have been creating these vessel shapes for a while now, and have been getting some good and some bad results from the pieces I was creating. Then, I realized that the main reason that some forms were not working was due to the fact that I was letting my mind get influenced by the colour in the pieces I included in the forms. I wasn't purely looking at the form, and how that could be pushed by using contrasting pieces for the jugs. So, creating this centrepiece helped me to realize what was most important to my work in my opinion, and that's not colour, or texture, but form and shape. I think that's why this next piece is so successful, and I feel as if I've been able to re-create my making process from the first successful jug I created, back in December. 


I'm casting them at the moment and after casting three I still love when it comes out of the cast. I think the form being slightly lop-sided with a slight unease of the front of the jug being heavier than the back, really works with the flamboyant handle and extravagant bottom piece. 




Rwyf i wedi bod yn creu y siapiau vesel yma ers tipyn o amser rwan, ac wedi bod yn cael tipyn o lwyddiant, ond hefyd tipyn o anlwc. Yna, fe sylweddolais y prif reswm pam doedd rhai ohynynt ddim yn gweithio oedd fy mod yn gadael fy meddwl gael ei ddylanwadu gan y lliwiau y oeddwn yn ychwanegu i'r darnau. Doeddwn i ddim yn unig yn edrych ar siap y darnau, a sut y buaswn yn medru gwthio'r darnau cyferbynol gwahanol ar y jygiau. Felly, gan greu'r darn canolog yma mae o wedi fy helpu i i sylweddoli beth sydd mwyaf pwysig yn fy marn i, a nid gwedd na lliw ydy'r ateb, ond siap a ffurf. Rwy'n credu mai dyma pam fod y darn yma mor llwyddiannus, ac rwyn teimlo fel fy mod wedi gallu ail-greu fy mhroses gwneud fel ag y wnes i â'r jwg cyntaf, yn ôl yn mis Rhagfyr. 


Rwy'n eu castio ar y foment ac ar ôl castio tri, rydw i dal yn gwirioni ei tynnu o'r mold. Rwy'n credu bod y ffurf yn llwyddiannus iawn rhwng cydbwysedd y ffurf a'r darnau coegwych ar yr handlen, a'r darn gwaelod a gan ei fod wedi pwyso i un ochr ychydig â tipyn o bwysau ar y blaen i gymharu â'r tu ôl. 

We are getting on with the advertising and booklet for our degree show, Unearthed:2012. Have a look at our online blog:


Rydym ni yn symud ymlaen yn dda â'r gwaith i'r llyfryn a'r posteri hyrwyddo'r Sioe, Unearthed:2012. Edrychwch ar ein blog ar-lein:


www.unearthed2012.wordpress.com


Also the Facebook Event for the Degree Show opening on the 9th of June. The Show runs through till the 15th of June, at Howard Gardens, Cardiff School of Art & Design:


Mae gennym ni hefyd ddigwyddiad Facebook ar gyfer agoriad y Sioe Radd ar y 9fed o Fehefin. Mae'r Sioe ar agor tan y 15fed o Fehefin, yn Howard Gardens, Ysgol Gelf a Dylunio Caerdydd:


http://www.facebook.com/events/322866917778903/

Decal designs / Dyluniadau Decal

I have been designing my own decals recently, I'm planning on using colour and gestural drawings on the pieces.
These are some of the designs.

Yn ddiweddar, rwyf i wedi bod yn dylunio fy 'decals' fy hun. Rwy'n meddwl defnyddio lliw a â ystum fy  narluniadau yn y 'decals.'
Dyma rhai o'r dylunadau. 

Work out of the kiln / Gwaith allan o'r odin

I have been casting the shapes of the deconstructed jugs for a while now, and have a very exciting idea for my degree show, I'm not going to share just yet, but here are some of the works. I think that the light hitting the back of the work almost makes it look translucent, I'm very happy with these pieces and am currently experimenting with colour and decal designs.

Rwyf i wedi bod yn castio siapau y jwgiau wedi ei ail-siapio ers dipyn o amser erbyn hyn, ac wedi darganfod syniad diddorol ar gyfer fy sioe radd. Dydw i ddim am rannu'r syniad eto, ond dyma rhai o'r darnau o'r odin. Rwy'n credu bod y glau sy'n taro cefn y gwaith yn llwyddiannus iawn, ac yn gwneud y gwaith i edrych yn dryleu bron, rwy'n hapus iawn â'r darnau ac yn arbrofi â lliw a dyluniadau decals ar hyn o bryd.

I have also finished my artists statement, ready to apply for many residencies for next year so exciting times ahead! Here is the statement.

Rwyf i hefyd wedi gorffen fy natganiad artist, yn barod i drio am nifer o brofiadau preswyl yn y flwyddyn nesaf, felly amser cyffroes o fy mlaen! Dyma'r datganiad.

Viewers will ask, 'What's it about?' And the reply must be: this art is about nothing but itself. Marshall N. Price

I am inspired by the form of the classic jug from the 20th and 21st century. The modernist movement has been my point of reference. This is explored through the cohesive integration of form, drawing and surface pattern. I deconstruct my drawings and create my own interpretation of the abstract jug. It is the marriage of form and function that intrigues me and the distortion of the domestic object which is familiar yet foreign in form. I deconstruct the shape of them by folding the drawings and re-designing them through a layout pad. This is where they evolve into three dimensional objects. 

Development towards the Degree Show / Datblygu tuag at y Sioe Radd

I haven't wrote for a while, but have been very busy with work in the kiln and an assessment period. In the last two weeks before my penultimate assessment my work changed rapidly. To think that the natural development between my final pieces and my new designs have come so quickly, I feel excited to research and experiment with this new technique of working and feel that it truly is the way forward for my degree show, and the body of work for the near future.


Dydw i heb ysgrifennu ers dipyn, ond dwi wedi bod yn brysur iawn hefo gwaith yn yr odin ac asesiad yn coleg. Yn y ddwy wythnos cyn yr asesiad olaf fe newidiodd fy ngwaith yn fawr. I feddwl bod y datblygiad naturiol wedi digwydd mor gyflym, rwy'n cyffroi i archwilio ac arbrofi â'r techneg newydd yma o weithio ac yn teimlo fel ei fod yn ffordd dda ymlaen i mi ar gyfer fy sioe radd, a fy ngwaith yn y dyfodol agos. 

  

After creating the shape in plaster, which was my last post, experimenting with fragmenting the form was an interesting way to perceive the work. In the way that I’ve simplified the jug to this minimal stage, then re-built the additional abstracted form by cutting and joining.

    Ar ôl creu'r siap mewn plaster, dyna'r tro dwethaf i mi ysgrifennu, roedd arbrofi â tynnu'r gwaith yn ddarnau yn ffordd diddorol i weld y gwaith. Gan newid y gwaith i fod y siap mwyaf syml y gallyth o fod, yna ail-adeiladu'r gwaith gan dorri a newid siapiau. 

I was interested in creating a space that would flow and merge from my 3D pieces to my 2D drawings and sketches as I find them essential in creating my final designs. Being inspired by the Constructivist movement of the Russian Soviets, in particular Popova I felt that the linear qualities would suggest this influence on my work. 


Mae gen i ddiddordeb mewn creu gofod ble fydd fy ngwaith yn medru llifo ac uno o'r gwaith 3D i'r darluniau 2D gan fy mod yn credu eu bod yn hanfodol i greu fy nyluniadau terfynol. 

Working with inlay helped me gain a skill but also gave me the idea to include my  post-modernist  sketches that I'd started to develop at the same time. The contrast between both modes of linear qualities, one purely gestural and one purely geometric worked well against each other. 

Gan ddefnyddio 'inlay', fe wnaeth hyn fy helpu i elwa sgiliau ond hefyd fe roth yr 'inlay' y syniad i mi ddefnyddio fy narluniau post-modernaidd yr oeddwn i wedi dechrau datblygu ar yr un pryd. Mae'r cyferbyniad rhwng y ddau wahanol nodwedd llinol, un yn unol ystumol a'r llall yn geometrig wedi gweithio'n dda gyda'i gilydd. 

Working with acetate helped me decide whether decals of my own drawings would contrast the form in the appropriate way. I found that I was attracted to the idea of the decals running off the form, although this would be very difficult to do as they would burn off in the kiln.     

Roedd gweithio â acetate wedi fy alluogi i i benderfynnu os oedd decals o fy narluniau fy hun yn cyferbynnu ar siap yn y ffordd gywir. Fe sylweddolais fy mod wedi fy nenu at y syniad o'r decals yn rhedeg oddi ar y gwaith, ond bydd hyn yn anodd iawn i greu, gan fod unrhyw ddarn o decal ddim ar y gwaith yn llosgi ffwrdd yn yr odin.

My final piece for the assessment 
Fy narn gorffenedig ar gyfer yr asesiad

·       And the pieces not only work as one piece separately, I had placed the jugs specifically so that they would join to work as a three to create another fragmented jug in a series. This to me suggests a clever, well-thought-out design.


   Ac mae'r darnau nid yn unig yn gweithio fel darnau ar wahan, fe wnes i osod y decals fel ei bod yn ffitio mewn grwp o dri i greu jwg arall o fewn y gwaith. Mae hyn, i mi, yn awgrymu dyluniad  sydd wedi ei hystyried yn ofalus. 

  

  I have been developing this idea that a handle would be included to the design of the jug, but from a very different style. This would join the drawing on the surface with the handle, and the handle to the form. I have not yet expanded this idea fully, and hope to do so for the next part of this body of work.
Rydw i wedi bod yn datblygu'r syniad o roi handlen ar y siap geometrig, ond o steil gwbwl wahanol. Bydde gwneud hyn yn ymuno'r arwyneb i'r handlen, a'r handlen i'r ffurf. Dydw i heb gwbwl ymchwilio i mewn i'r syniad eto, ac yn gobeithio gwneud hynny ar gyfer y rhan nesaf o waith. 

Sooooo... the final idea and the present designs...

Fellyyy...y syniad terfynol a'r dyluniau presenol....

      I have also been developing a new way of working that literally deconstructs to recreate my own forms. By collecting old jugs from Charity Shops, smashing them up and reconstructing them to a new interpretation of a jug form. Here I have only taken images of the jugs and made a form on the computer. Buuuut....

Rydw i hefyd wedi bod yn datblygu ffordd o weithio sydd yn llythrennol ddad-adeiladu i ailgreu fy ffurfiau fy hun. Gan gasglu hen jwgiau o siopiau elusen, malu nhw a'i ailgreu i greu fy nehongliad fy hun o siap jwg. Uchod rwyf wedi tynnu lluniau ac yna ei ail osod i greu'r ffurfiau. Ond....

  Here I have started introducing this new idea into my work. I can see the pieces cast in plaster then pure white earthenware slip, with a lustred addition, either to the handle, to the spout edge, or to the decal design of my previous images that I would also like to include in the work. It would be my own personal body of work that is influenced by my many sources, but primarily is from my own research, experimentation and evaluation of a jug form. I think that these three aspects would be successful in fulfilling my original brief and would really push the boundaries of deconstruct to recreate. We'll see how everything goes, but I'm very excited to create the final pieces for the degree show, and can't wait to get my work out there! 

Fama rwyf wedi dechrau cyflwyno'r syniad i mewn i'r gwaith. Rwy'n medru gweld y darnau wedi ei castio o blaster ac yna o slip mewn slip clai gwyn, â darn llewyrch, naill ai i'r handlen, i pig y jwg neu i'r dyluniadau decal. Mi fydd y gwaith yn bersonol i mi, sydd wedi cael ei ddylanwadu gan nifer o ffynonellau gwahanol, ond yn bennaf o fy ymchwil, arfrofi a gwerthusiad o ffurf y jwg. Rwy'n credu bod fy mriff cychwynnol wedi ei gyflanwni wrth wneud y gwaith yma ac mi fydd y gwaith yn gwthio'r syniad o ddadelfennu i ailgreu. Gewn ni weld sut eith popeth, ond rwy'n cyffroi i greu'r darnau gorffenedig i'r Sioe Radd, a methu aros i gael fy ngwaith allan y gyhoeddus!