After the Firing

My exhibition for Maker in Focus at the Mission Gallery in Swansea is fast approaching and I’m running out of shelf space in my studio! I am having to do a number of firings in quick succession especially as I was held up earlier this week by Storm Imogen when the electricity kept cutting out.

julie brunskill studio

I will be Maker in Focus from 23 February – 3 April.

Vulcan Black and Earthstone

While producing this work for Maker in Focus at the Mission Gallery in Swansea, I’ve used, it turns out, several different clay bodies – two different blacks, terracotta, white earthenware, at least one earthstone, and three different paperclays. I think the most enjoyable for the actual making have been the two clays in these pieces – the white form – ‘House of Leaves’ (at least it’s a working title but really how could I resist when the book is sitting in my studio!) is made with Earthstone and the dark form ‘Sea Change II’ is Vulcan Black. Both are beautiful to work with and not so heavily grogged that they rip my hands and nails to shreds as others have. Both these pieces though have other clays and materials incorporated in them.

The images below show the work in progress.

House of Leaves in progress

House of Leaves detail

New kiln – shiny!

In May I was thrilled to receive an Arts Council of Wales grant to buy a new kiln (following a firing catastrophe with my old one) and time to produce new work for my upcoming Maker in Focus exhibition in the Mission Gallery, Swansea from 23 February to 3 April 2016.

As soon as possible I went up to Stoke to get the new kiln, had it installed and had a few test firings before taking a much needed holiday. Since then I’ve had a few more firings – still getting to grips with the controller – but work is now in progress.

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