Artist's Statement

I make cast bone china pieces which are either mounted and framed for the wall or mounted on plinths. I cast from fabric. The fired bone china is left in its original white colour. I love working with textures and I look for 'interesting events in the surface' I like to include both the controlled, such as the weave and seams and also the random, for example, a stray thread. I am also exploring the way the material drapes and hangs, either as abstract pieces or as dresses.

I use two methods - either I dip fabric in bone china slip, hang it to dry and then fire it so the fabric bums away in the kiln or alternatively I cast from fabric into plaster and then take a cast from this in bone china.

Excerpt from a review of my work in London Potters Newsletter Oct/Nov 2002:

"Deborah's third method is to impregnate pieces of fabric with clay by drawing them through the shallow trough of china slip before hanging them to dry. During the firing the fabric burns away leaving a china ghost of the original. I found handling one of these pieces surprisingly moving. It reminded me of the folds that one sees in the garments of marble angels in Victorian cemeteries and also like sloughed snakeskin when it has dried. It was a strange combination of looking alive and yet feeling lifeless. Mind you, these pieces are not displayed to be handled. Once completed they are mounted into specially made deep frames behind glass like iconic remnants from an earlier age. As with the flat pieces, colour is used minimally and may just be a couple of areas of copper or a faint blush of celadon green."

Current Work

Work generally available from:
Cecilia Colman Gallery, St Johns Wood, London
Contemporary Ceramics, Marshall Street, London Wl
Alexander Gallery, Brighton

Memberships

2007   Selected for Membership of The Sussex Guild.
April 2001 - Selected for Professional Membership of the Craft Potters Association
November 2000 - Selected for Membership of the Society of Designer Craftsmen
Member of London Potters Association

History

June 1998 - BA (Hons) Three Dimensional Design Glass and Ceramics 2-1, Middlesex University

Selected Exhibitions

2007 - Spring Show. Alexander Gallery, Brighton
2006 - Designer Crafts at Chelsea, Society of Designer Craftsmen
2006 - British Glass Biennale, International Festival of Glass, Stourbridge
2006 - Battersea Contemporary Art Fair
March 2005 - Affordable Art Fair, Foss Fine Arts
November 2004 - OXO Tower, Society of Designer Craftsmen
October 2004 - Oxford Studio Ceramics, Craft Potters Association Festival
August-September 2004 - British Glass Biennale, International Festival of Glass, Stourbridge
May 2004 - Battersea Contemporary Art Fair
2002, 2003,2005 - Mall Galleries, Designer Crafts, Society of Designer Craftsmen.
November-December 2003 - Living Gallery, Material Matters, Stourbridge
October 2002 - Chelsea Crafts Fair, Chelsea Town Hall, Chelsea, London
2002 - Cowdy Gallery, Gloucestershire, Winter Collection 2002, Seeking Light
2002 - Wellbeloved Gallery, Portland Gallery, Dorset. 'Back to the Rock'
2001 - Mail Galleries, London and Williamson Art Gallery, Birkenhead, Art of the STITCH- Embroiderers Guild International Exhibition
2001 - Artmonsky Gallery, St Johns Wood, London
November 2000 and November 1999 - The Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries
October 2000 - Affordable Art Fair, Battersea
January-March 1999 - Orleans House Gallery, 'Light Play', Twickenham

Publications

March 2004 - Living etc magazine
August 2004 - idFX - magazine for interior design professionals
August 2004 - British Glass Biennale 2004 - Book published for the exhibition by the Internation Festival of Glass

Commissions

2004 - Glass sculpture commissioned by guitarists Gordon Giltrap and Ray Burnley for CD Cover - "Double Vision" - released August 2004.
2000 - Design and make in glass 5 piece display for food prepared by the Scottish team for the International Culinary Olympics, Frankfurt