New pieces I have been working on over the last few months. I am working with a much smaller kiln at home, and am trying to find out how to get the most out of it, and incorporate it with fabric and other materials I would work with quite a lot.

FYP Finished

Pictures of my finished work, installed in the degree show space.

Close ups of work:

Blue and Yellow Cones

 House

 Point

 Umbrellas

 Layered Cone

 Box

 Cave

 Pocket

 Inverted

Colours!

The shapes are developing in my pieces really nicely, I now have about 8 shapes that I want to use for my degree show. I felt the shapes which were just white and black were a little utilitarian, and had lost some of the playfulness they had in my sketches.














 I experimented with different slips and applications before I found one that worked for me, which gave the piece a smooth block of colour and was quick to apply.

Humanities Collaboration

These are the results of a collaboration with the humanities department in LIT. We each created a design for a set plate on the theme of 'Food' for their catering course restaurant. My design is the nearest one on the lower row, of the group of people talking and eating.

and here are the three winners!

UCD Observer article

http://www.universityobserver.ie/2012/04/11/whats-on-festival-of-irish-design/

article on the exhibition I am in at the moment

Project 51

I currently have a set of cups I designed on show in the 'Festival of Irish Design' in Project 51, a design shop/gallery in Dublin city centre. The exhibition is really worth checking out, there is a lot of beautiful design on show, from jewellery to woodwork and fashion design, and it's on throughout the month of March.

http://www.project51.ie/
http://www.facebook.com/Project51Dublin

Paper Clay Results

Here are the results from my first paper clay firing:

 Putting a cardboard cone in the paper clay seems to support it enough for the firing, the cones without supports collapsed and the ones with wire frames looked to bulky, so I'm going to stick with the card supports for now. I like the simplicity and delicacy of these pieces, I need to work on the shapes more to find some that get across a sense of protection and care, at the moment some of these pieces seem more like flowers than anything else! I also need to work on the finish and experiment with the clay more, to try and see what I can really get out of it and how far I can push it to get the results I want.

Paper Clay

After looking at the work I had done last semester, I tried to figure out what approaches were working and which weren't. I set criteria for myself for how I wanted the work to be, to help me make some decisions. I really admire simple, clean, well made pieces, so I decided so leave the 'furniture' like work I had been making, and try get my concept across in a clearer manner with simple, abstract shapes.

I made some simple paper maquettes to try and make my ideas 3D, and see where I might run into problems.

The paper models looked well, and had something of that clear, clean property that I admire so much in other people's work. I want to keep the slightly fragile look of these pieces, the paper makes them look a lot less solid and strong than thick clay walls, yet the shape of the pieces still retains that feeling of trying to protect something by putting it out of reach, or hiding it away. I decided to experiment with some paper clay models, to try and get the height I wanted in my pieces and still keep that wafer thin form. I havn't worked with paper clay much before, so I'm experimenting with different types of supports and construction to see what results I will get when they are fired.

 porcelain paper clay, no supports

 porcelain paper clay, resting on cardboard cone

 paper clay cones, attached with slip

paper clay, rolled with sheet of card inside

 paper clay, no support

 selection of tubes, some attached with slip

paper clay cone with wire and string support

 When this first batch are fired I will be able to look at them and see where to go from there in order to support the pieces better. It seems a little odd to build them with supports which I am fairly certain won't work, but it will give me a better idea of how the clay works, and what it needs in order to remain standing.