Porcelain fox by Susan O'Byrne

I made a really quick flying visit to London to see Ceramic Art London this weekend. It was a little crazy because it involved getting up very early to get the only available cheap flight from Glasgow, and as a result I was walking around all day in a bit of a haze. Oh, to be young again, when sleep deprivation didn’t affect me…

My friend Susan O’Byrne was one of the exhibitors this year and I was really happy to see how excellent her work looked when installed. It was definitely different to every one else’s. Susan is inspired by dreams, dreaming, story books and story telling. The creatures she creates populate our imagination and the memories of our childhood. It is also an incredible technical feat – to create such large porcelain work. The sculptures are composed of thousands of pieces of individually mono-printed porcelain paper clay.  To see more of her work check out her website.  I’ve also been putting some images of Susan’s work in progress on this site for a while now, in the Glasgow Ceramics Studio album.

Susan O'Byrne, porcelain sculpture, about 90cm high

I’m really looking forward to going to Ceramic Art London this coming weekend. Although I’m not showing any work personally, my lovely friend from the Glasgow Ceramics Studio, Susan O’Byrne, is exhibiting her life-size lyrical printed porcelain sculptures. This work has to be seen to be believed, both in its scale, virtuosity and emotional impact. We’ve been watching Susan’s narrative sculptures take shape at the studio for many months now and are very excited to see them nearing completion. It is definitely promising to be a stand-out stall at the event.

Ceramic Art London is on in London (obviously) on the 26th, 27th and 28th of February.

On another note, if you are in Scotland, in the vicinity of Glasgow, please come and visit us for Open Studio weekend. The Open Studio weekend is being held across all WASPS sites all over Scotland. The Glasgow Ceramics Studio where I work, will of course be opening it’s doors alongside all the other artists’ studios.

It’ll be on Saturday 4th of October (11am till 5pm) and Sunday 5th of October (12 noon till 4pm). You’ll be able to see where we work, our work in progress, as well as finished work for sale to suit all budgets. Hope to see you there.

This movie is about an 18MB file. I suppose it depends on the speed of your connection how long it will take to load, but for me it takes about 2 minutes. The actual length of the movie is under a minute.

It shows a PICBasic program which turns LEDs on and off in sequence running on a programmable PIC chip. The sequence of the lights is the same as I will use for my final installation, although the time period the lights are on is only 1 second in this instance. Each of the lights represents an LED tag which will come on long enough to scroll a message across it.

You can see that one LED tag has been connected to where the first diode should be. It reads “Message” but as it’s on for one second, you only get to see the first couple of letters scroll across it.

I would like to offer sincere thanks to Dave Russ, without whose help this project would not have been possible.

This is a very short movie showing some of my work in progress – a translucency test in Glacier Porcelain, fired in reduction to cone 9/10. Glaze is Leach cone 8 clear (well, a variation of it). I’ve put the LED tag behind, so you can see how the text would look through the porcelain as it scrolls.  By the way, the LED tag doesn’t blink like that. The blinking is due to the processing speed of my digital camera, which is rather old.

Susan O’Byrne, Cheetah, 2008

This amazing sculpture is on exhibition at the Aberdeen Art Gallery, in Aberdeen, Scotland until the 31st of May, as part of the Aberdeen Artists’ Society seventy-fourth exhibition of Painting, Sculpture, Drawing, Photography, Architecture, Video, DVD, Design and Craft. If you would like to see it for yourself, information on gallery address and opening hours is here.

I’ve just made some new work for the Parade Artists sale, and I’m quite excited about it. These are thrown porcelain bowls with a black stoneware glaze. They’re the sort of size that settles comfortably into cupped hands, quite nice to hold. I’ve polished the base as well, because I love the velvety feel of polished porcelain. This is the start of my new functional body of work. Come and see them (and hold them) at the sale this weekend!

Here’s one of my bowls with a clear glaze. I’m quite impressed with how lovely the Glacier Porcelain turns out. Initially, I had a little trouble with the bases cracking if the bowls were dried too fast, but I soon remedied that by drying them slowly under plastic. We have big automatic ceiling heaters in the studio that I think were mostly responsible for me losing quite a lot of the pieces I made first time round.

Here’s the statement that goes with these:

These fine porcelain bowls are inspired by the swirling water currents of the Water of Leith, as it winds its way through the city of Edinburgh. The liquid-like spirals in this work are formed with the aid of the meditative spinning action of the potter’s wheel.

I share my life between two beautiful, ancient cities of Scotland, Glasgow and Edinburgh. A walk in the green, natural and cultivated spaces, along rivers and waterways in those cities, provides a relaxing break from the pressures of everyday urban existence. In my work, the natural beauty of water serves as a metaphor for life.

Having a unique hand made ceramic object from which to enjoy a peaceful meal, gives time for contemplation and respite from everyday pressures. It is just a small object that can be cradled in the palm of the hand, yet it is warming and comforting, and makes even the simplest meal a special occasion. In an age of fast food and disposable containers, the hand made ceramic object offers individuality and a connection with the earth, from which it is created.