fields + festivals

This week has passed in a post-festival haze. Relishing the reclaimed solitude of the studio, pulling it back into a working format, photographing pots to list on the Food Assembly and eventually Etsy, catching up on a long-neglected inbox, uploading Festival photos to Facebook, throwing dinner plates (and odd eggcups...), trimming (the plates dried in the sunshine today (YEAH, really!), making it a much quicker process), making spoons, working out production lists.

New designs were well-received over the weekend, with many of my favourites selling quickly - always a good omen! These green patterns are inspired by the Island's fields, seen either from the hills or the air. They make an intriguing patchwork. Using 3 or 4 greens at various dilutions, I'm pleased with the uneven coverage in each 'field'. I unearthed some ancient ceramic pencils, which vaguely lay out the field boundaries before painting, but work better on bisque-fired clay, so I added some extra detailing before glazing. 

The watercolour-esque effect allows for layering of either hand-painted illustrations or decals.

Tiny details that amuse me; those blue triangles originate from my old daffodil pattern - rotated 90 degrees without stems. 

I want my work to be very much grounded in the place in which it is made, but to avoid the cliches. Some of my illustrations are more obvious; the Manx cottages, the loaghtan. I worry that those designs can be too commercial and lack soul, but the diffused and abstracted field-inspired backgrounds could rein that in. 

It's going to be a good summer of making. Oh yes.