Coasters: Famous Scots!
Lord Kelvin coaster, 2010. Earthenware, white glaze, inglaze ceramic transfer.
Image of Lord Kelvin hand drawn by Campbell Brown
Here’s something a little fun that I’ve started making – a series of coasters with caricatures representing some famous Scots.
My husband, Campbell Brown, who is a philosophy lecturer, has a hidden talent – one of many – which is a deft hand at a caricature. When I saw his drawings, which were mainly doodles in his notebooks, I set about trying to convince him to let me use some of them for my ceramics. It was exciting too, to collaborate together on some work.
The transfers are printed using ceramic inks – that is enamels – and then fired on to the piece, so that the enamel melts into the surface of the glaze. It thus can’t be scratched off or fade. Some of the coasters also have a hanger on the back, so if you’re not using them, you could hang them up like small pictures. The coasters themselves are hand made and glazed by me, so that they’re not completely identical to each other (whilst very similar) but they still have that hand made quality which distinguishes work actually made by human hands and not pressed in a factory by a machine.
Lord Kelvin (William Thomson b.1824 d.1907) is a major historical figure associated with Glasgow University and Glasgow in general, which is where we live. There is the river Kelvin, Kelvingrove park and of course, the temperature scale.
Robert Louis Stevenson coaster, 2010. Earthenware, clear glaze, inglaze ceramic transfer.
Image of R.L. Stevenson hand drawn by Campbell Brown.
This coaster has a clear glaze, giving it a warmer, more parchment-like look. (I make these in white as well). Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894). He was born in Edinburgh and is most famous as the author of “Treasure Island” and “Dr. Jackyll and Mr. Hyde”. He also came from a long line of lighthouse engineers, so many of the lighthouses around Scotland were designed by someone in his family.
And last, but not least – or should I say first – because the series kicked off with this one, David Hume (1711 -1776), Scottish philosopher and historian:
David Hume coaster, 2010. Earthenware, white glaze, inglaze enamel transfer.
Image of David Hume hand drawn by Campbell Brown.
So there you go. I’m not clued up on internet sales and Paypal and all that as yet, but you can always call or email me if you fancy purchasing one or two of these, because I usually have them available. They’re £6 each or £20 for a set of 4 and the diameter is standard coaster size – I think about 11cm or about 4.5 inches – plus postage, the cost of which will depend on where I’ll need to post them to and the weight, but that’s determined by Royal Mail. I’ll be working on expanding the series slowly to include other famous historical Scots – and lets face it, there is no shortage of subject matter.