Tickets for the International Ceramics Festival at Aberystwyth, taking place from 28 – 30 June 2013 are now available. They sell fast so early application – either from the website

www.internationalceramicsfestival.org/tickets or by phoning (+44 01970 623232) or emailing sob@aber.ac.uk

Ticket prices for 2013 are Full Price £130 / SWP. NWP £120 / Students £90 (see full details on website)

Demonstrators at this prestigious event include: Takeshi Yasuda, Sung-Jae Choi, Mick Morgan, Beth Cavener Stichter, Virginia Scotchie, Rafael Perez, Jeremy Steward, Richard Notkin, Doug Fitch, Monica Patuszynska, Joe Finch and Camarthen School of Creative Art Students.

Festival Assistants:

It is also possible to apply to be a festival assistant (deadline 1 March 2013) – see details on website: www.internationalceramicsfestival.org/information/student_information

Background Information: 

The International Ceramics Festival is the UK’s leading international ceramics event, attracting over 800 participants to a series of lectures, practical demonstrations and exhibitions over three days. The focus is both practical and inspirational – kilns are built and fired, pots made and demonstrations given. Guest artists also have their own workspace enabling more in depth discussions and exchange of ideas. Over the years the Festival has built up a reputation for featuring some of the world’s best known ceramic artists and potters.

From top to bottom and from the left: Penny Green, Carole Irwin, Claire Finlay, Kay Gallwey, Mori Yamauchi and Yesmin Baz. There are lots of new members exhibiting at this show. Always a great show to see – try and get there if you can!

The Barony Centre will host the first showing in Scotland of the Irish Contemporary Ceramic Awards 2012 exhibition, which will be one of the largest exhibitions of Irish Ceramic Artists outside of Ireland.   We are delighted to continue the long tradition of cultural exchange between our two countries.

John Goode, a ceramic collector for over 30 years, inaugurated the Irish Contemporary Ceramic Awards (ICCA) in 2008. This annual adjudicated exhibition raises the profile and exposure to the wonderful diversity and skill in the medium. The ICCA has established a number of awards for innovation, decoration and distinction and more importantly a new and larger audience for this work. The ICCA are open to anyone working in clay. Mill Cove Gallery also provides awards at Sculpture in Context, national Botanic Gardens, Dublin and the Ceramics Ireland exhibitions.

Diane McCormick “Through the Trees”                                         Mandy Parslow

“The ceramics in this exhibition have two essential ingredients truth and passion that help to enhance our intellectual stimulation and pleasure. Today the busy pace of life may limit our exposure to art, or we may even be made to fear it by a perceived exclusiveness and elitism. There is nothing to fear, ceramics are just a communication of subjectivity with no social responsibility except to be first class.”  John Goode

The work of 34 ceramicists in this exhibition reflects the breadth of approaches evident in contemporary ceramics whilst referencing the rich tradition of mans’ use of clay as an integral facet of society for thousands of years. From transporting water to storing foods to its use in ceremonies and celebrations, humans have relied on potters and their craft.  Pottery, however, does n

Christey Keeney “Tuba Player”

ot only reflect the function it was created for, but often is a work of art in its own right.  From very early times clay played an important part in the life of man and has been the medium that symbolic figures are modeled through.

List of Exhibitors:

Annika Berglund, Cormac Boydell, Frances Brosnan, Patrick Connor, Jodi Coyne, Gemma Dardis,Helen Doherty, Ana Duncan, Sinéad Fagan, Claire Finlay, Sinead Glynn, Etain Hickey, Alison Kay, Marianne Klopp, Christy Keaney, Fidelma Massey, Charlie Mahon, Sandra Mc Cowen, Diane McCormick, Mandy Parslow, Elizabeth Petcu, Helen Quill, John Rainey,  Neil Read, Clodagh Redden, Sara Roberts, Ann Marie Robinson, Fieda Rupp, Alex Scott, David Seeger, Eileen Singleton, Eleanor Swan, Jim Turner, Grainne Watts.

All work in the exhibition is for sale.

• Venue: Happyhills Gallery
• Address: The Barony Centre, 50 Main Street, West Kilbride, North Ayrshire, Scotland, KA23 9AR.
• Telephone: +44 (0)1294 829179
• Web-site: www.crafttownscotland.org/category/events

Celebrating 40 Years as a Potter – Nick Rees’ Solo Exhibition in the John Leach Gallery at Muchelney Pottery.

Anyone who’s ever tried throwing a pot by hand on a wheel will know how incredibly difficult it is to control that spinning lump of wet clay. Imagine then the challenge of hand-throwing fifty or a hundred pots, one after another, all to the same design.
But Master Potter Nick Rees, right-hand man at John Leach’s famous Muchelney Pottery, near Langport, Somerset has achieved that. And much more. As well as taking a major role in producing Muchelney Pottery’s renowned catalogue range of handmade kitchenware for the past forty years, Nick has been closely involved with the pottery shop and the business bookkeeping; managing the crucial and gruelling two-day firing of the pottery kiln, and explaining the workings of the pottery to visitors from all over the world.
John Leach is quick to acknowledge that the continuing success of Muchelney Pottery owes much to Nick’s deft hand, critical eye and potting skills. “He’s amazing. I feel we’re more like partners than employer and employee,” says John. “The shapes of Muchelney pots may be my designs, but Nick is fantastic at interpreting them. And, it may seem a small thing, but he is an absolute master at getting lids to fit! He could make, say, fifty garlic pots with lids – and the lids would all be interchangeable. Incredible.”
The pots that Nick makes range from mugs and bowls to jugs and plates. “Goodness knows how many I’ve made over the years – it must be tens of thousands,” he estimates.

Looking back over his forty-year career Nick, a highly intelligent but unassuming man, sums it up: “I’ve been so privileged to work with John at Muchelney. I love the pot designs and my nature is such that I positively enjoy the precision and the discipline needed to achieve and maintain the level of craftsmanship hand-made pottery demands.”
The physical toll of the work is demanding, he admits. Mixing the heavy clay; carrying boards of unfired pots from workshop to kilnshed; incredibly hot, back-breaking hours feeding wood into the kiln. But the rigours have always been immensely rewarding, not only in the satisfaction of mastering the required potting skills but in the excitement of discovery at each kiln opening and in the ultimate contentment of using one’s hands to produce desirable, useful objects.
Even in his spare time, Nick continues to make pots, but to his own personal designs. Pots which, although founded on his years of experience in the Leach tradition, are noticeably different from the sturdy, classic shapes of his “day job”. Nick’s decorative pots have an elegance and a subtle refinement in outline and their surfaces are accentuated by carving and fluting and experiments with slips and glazes.
“Making my own designs has been about finding a voice and making a spiritual statement”, he explains.
Most of his designs are fired in the Muchelney kiln which gives them the unique, organic signature of wood-firing. But two years ago Nick began experimenting with an electric kiln and this has led him to new exploration into the possibilities of oxidised firing, “a process that allows no hiding places.”
Since his first one-man exhibition at a prestigious gallery in Ringwood in 1990, Nick has established a laudable reputation for his distinctive personal work in stoneware and porcelain. More exhibitions have followed and his pots are now for sale in a selection of leading galleries throughout the country. They are also in the Leach Pottery at St Ives and in the gallery at Muchelney Pottery.
It is here that an exhibition is planned for September to celebrate Nick’s achievements over 40 years, with the launch of his latest collection of individual, signed pots.

Nick’s career could have been very different. Somerset-born in 1949, he initially trained as a teacher in creative design at Loughborough College of Education and spent two years teaching woodwork in a Coventry comprehensive school before deciding to change direction and train to be a potter.
But Nick’s teaching abilities have proved very useful at Muchelney. During public kiln opening events at the pottery, he is always on hand to answer visitors’ questions about the making process. “And he has been so good at running a practised eye over the work of students and apprentices who have trained with us over the years,” adds John.
Nick remembers his own 1972 initial “trial period” at Muchelney very clearly. John Leach set him the task of making 150 coffee mugs. After inspecting the finished work, John threw out 148 of the mugs and passed just two as saleable. “I didn’t think he’d keep any of them” was Nick’s reaction.
It was this reaction which helped to convince John that Nick had the right kind of temperament to become a potter and that they would work well together. “I really admired his patience – and I still do,” says John.
John’s confidence was fulfilled. With the aid of a government grant Nick successfully completed his five-year apprenticeship. Then, at John’s suggestion, he left Muchelney temporarily to experience work in Brian and Julia Newman’s nearby Aller Pottery. Three months later he returned and the rest, as they say, is history.
In 1998 Nick was elected a Fellow of the Craft Potters Association and in 2005 was elected a Full Member of the Devon Guild of Craftsmen.

Article written by Marian Edwards for John Leach Gallery, 2012.

Curated in conjunction with Arts and Crafts property, National Trust Standen, De Morgans and the Sea gives visitors the opportunity to explore maritime influences in the work of the De Morgans. The theme of the sea was a major source of inspiration for both William De Morgan’s Arts and Crafts ceramics and his wife Evelyn’s paintings. Medieval galleons manned by sailors on the lookout for giant fish, dolphins and sea monsters form part of William De Morgan’s quirky cast of characters.  Evelyn’s paintings of mythological subjects such as Ariadne (looking more stoical than distraught after being abandoned on the island of Naxos by her lover Theseus) or her depictions of Hans Christian Anderson’s much adored little mermaid reinterpret these classic tales for a new audience.

As well as drawing inspiration from the sea, much of De Morgan’s work was destined to travel the waves themselves, as commissions for the P&O shipping line. The superlative Galleon tile panel, designed for the P&O ship S.S.Malta in 1895, will be exhibited alongside key pieces from the De Morgan collection, including a spectacular moonlight lustre punch bowl depicting fanciful fish which represents the pinnacle of De Morgan’s technical prowess, and a very rare, early seahorse tile whose production techniques mirror the matt quality of Morris and Co. tiles. Among Evelyn’s exhibited works are the nude male figures of Phosphorous and Hesperus, which, imbued with potent sexual symbolism in the form of phallic torches and conch shells, caused scandal and controversy when first exhibited, and the allegorical ‘S.O.S’ with its symbolic sea monsters representing evil and death.

The De Morgan Centre, 38 West Hill, London, SW18 1RX.    Phone: 020 8871 1144

This Pottery & Ceramics show will, once again be held at the Farnham Maltings, Farnham, Surrey. There will be a range of work from newly qualified artists working in clay to potters with many years of creative work behind them. From animal sculptures and circus clowns to kitchen and garden pots with a variety in between to interest any one that enjoys skilfully crafted objects.

Niek Hoogland, Pim van Huisselling and Dorte Ahrenkiel, will be coming over from Holland along with Francoise Dufayard from France. Mary Rich, Peter Beard, Peter Starkey, Guy Routledge, Jonathan Garratt, Jenny  Beavan, Nicola and Tony Theakston are just a few of the 60 + makers attending.

Katie Smith, Anna Hunt, Marshall Colman and Jane Sleator are part of this years Newcomers. Come along and support the next generation and be rewarded by the creativity and skill on display.

With such a strong emphasis on homes and interiors we are looking forward to welcoming not only collectors and enthusiasts, who know to expect vibrant, high quality work, but also people looking to buy something different for themselves or their friends and family this Christmas.

SPECIAL OFFER:- 2 for 1 admission for Studio Pottery followers. Bring  a copy of the page or contact Andy on andymcinnes1@yahoo.co.uk  0115-9873966.

Time: Saturday 10am to 5pm & Sunday 10am to 4.30pm. Adults £5.00. Seniors £4.50. Children up to 15 years free.

This annual event draws up to 90 potters members of the London Potters Association together in London at Morley Colleges’ Gallery.

   

Linda Dangoor; Richard Ballantyne; Gunizi Amirak; Isobel Allan-Lowe; Norman Yap; Carole Irwin (top left to bottom right)

The MA degree show is the culmination of the excellent work undertaken by Masters students for the University of Wolverhampton over the last year or two and shows the diversity of creative thinking, skills and professional approach to practice that they have achieved in that time.

Both full-time and part-time students have come from a variety of backgrounds and experiences to contribute to the debates and extend their individual practices, with a good proportion of international students to offer enriched cultural understandings of art and design. This is therefore, a particularly lively show from the three courses of Fine Art, Art & Design and Design for Advertising, with multi-disciplinary work ranging from painting, sculpture, print, illustration and photography to audio-visual pieces, animation, ceramic, glass work, textiles and installation.

Thanks goes to the highly motivated and dedicated staff who have supported theses students through the Master’s programme. Dr Alistair Payne, Prof John Roberts, Lester Meachem, Pat Dillon, Dr Louise Fenton and the rest of the MA staff team are all experienced researchers and/or professional designers and artists in their own right, who have shared their knowledge and expertise with the students to deliver exciting and challenging opportunities for learning. The result of their valuable input is clearly evidenced in the quality of the student work on show at The Public.

MA Fine Art
The course is an intensive studio programme, supported by technical workshops, theoretical lectures and seminar critique. It is taught by practising artists with strong research profiles and highly specific subject knowledge across the broad range of contemporary Fine Art Practice, to include painting, sculpture, printmaking, expanded practice, installation, sonic and social art forms. As the presented works show, the programme develops an in-depth knowledge of the history, concepts and ideas aligned to art practice.

MA Art and Design
The course provides a creative platform for students to question and develop their practice in preparation for their creative futures. Our graduates are presenting exhibitions in Animation, Visual Communication, Ceramics, Glass, Interior Design, Fashion and Textiles. The work is the culmination of many months of concentrated study, independent research and technical enquiry, resulting in creative statements that inform current and future art and design practice. It represents outstanding work in contemporary art and design.

MA Design for Advertising
The course gives students the opportunity to develop their creative design abilities but also equips them with marketing and branding skills and knowledge essential for a career in the competitive market place that is International Advertising. The final submission for the graduates of Marketing, Branding, Design and Advertising forms two parts: a dissertation that demonstrates their academic competence and knowledge of the subject and a practical project that illustrates their design credentials.

PhD Students
The projects of the PhD students at the School of Art and Design are highly creative, innovative and diverse, some theory-based, some practice-led, but all challenging in their unique approaches to the contribution of new knowledge across art, craft and design. This exhibition has an array of work from a number of the practice-led research students who have outcomes ready to show.
Free and open to everyone.

Gallery opening times:
Wednesday to Sunday – 10am – 5pm
Sunday – 11am – 3pm