Christmas in Argentina

Christmas 2010

O'malleys all, that's me in the front right and my brother Harold beside me.

                                                                                             

After a gruelling 12 hour flight I landed in Buenos Aires and experienced an emotional reunion with my brother whom I hadn't seen for 11 years. The warmth of  the Argentinian summer soon thawed out my bones frozen by the hard winter back in Ireland.

 It all seemed so unreal celebrating Christmas with blazing hot sunshine. Too hot to go exploring but my brother took me to see the following ceramic artist and I was suitably awed by her story and her studio.

Angeles started ceramics when she was six and is now fifty. She never went to college and believes in the saying 'learn by doing'.She works mainly with stoneware and enjoys experimenting with glazes.Her work is shipped all over the world and indeed she is sometimes so busy she has to delegate much of work to her apprentices and even send  her pieces to other ceramitists to be fired. Her studio was very busy when I went there but she still welcomed me as if I was an old friend and was very interested to hear of my own ceramic journey.

Here are a few of the pictures I took of her work.

pots for gardens



                         

                         Angeles in her studio / shop

Angeles in her back garden.
   Check what she does with her

damaged pots behind her.

              With the help of an old gate as a trellis, 

                        her brokenpots become attractive flowerpots
      espeicially with her bright glazes

  

ceramic journal continued

With this as my starting point I began to experiment with making hexagonal cubes.

first the clay. I experimented with paper clay both porcelain and stoneware mix. The porcelain paper clay was premixed from supplier and the stoneware I made myself with tissue paper and slip.

I also tried dipping pipecleaners in slip .  I wrapped some of these coils with thin stips of the same clay and found this to be the most like the effect I was looking for.

So using ordinary stoneware, I extruded coils long enough to cut to shape. I then cut and joined small pieces to create a hexagonal grid similar to that of the chicken wire.

                      

Then using tubes of card for support I constructed the first tier of my object. I then wrapped each column or coil with thin strips of clay.



ceramic journal 3d work

I began with my 3d work, building structures inspired by the wasp's nest(see previous post)......


Tissue paper and glue





Wire,string and wax





Lolly pop sticks and
masking tape







Chicken wire and masking tape

This is now my starting point for my clay piece





ceramic journal.

The interior of a wasp's nest

One of Natures marvels! How an insect can form such a structure with no tools other than its mouth and legs never ceases to amaze me!

 Choosing this as my object,  I hope to do it justice with the many tools available to me. To study it and be inspired by it : to come to my own conclusions and a final structure which may not look like this amazing object but will contain its essence.