Went to one term of evening classes at a local school and was then completely hooked on clay!
Eventually, I was lucky enough to be able to move into the garage to work. It wasn’t ideal rolling out clay and then pastry on the same kitchen table!
I am self taught making a few expensive and time consuming mistakes on the way. Clay must be completely dry before it is fired, otherwise it just shatters. Raw clay is best stored away from frost as it takes a lot of man hours ‘wedging’ (like kneading dough) to realign the clay platelets so that it doesn’t crack during firing process. Pieces can develop hair line cracks after bisque firing which then have to be abandoned as they wont survive the 2nd firing.
I was in the last 12 finalists for 'the Great Pottery Throwdown' 2nd series. I was quite pleased that I had achieved a high enough standard of work to complete the grueling selection process and further session, where we were required to complete various tasks in clay.
A ‘Day in the life’ usually starts with a cuppa and an idea of a character /animal/dragon..whatever! I don’t work from drawings What I’ve made, I just start with the clay, a rough idea, then let my imagination take over.
I take a lot of inspiration from John Teniel's fantastic 'Alice in Wonderland' illustrations.
I have re-created them many times, making large sculptures and recently smaller versions of the characters.
I also love medieval illustrations and ‘Martin Bros’ grotesque birds.
Thanks for reading!
Love, Sandra x
