The Victorian era inspiration

I've been very productive in the past week which makes me very happy! The downside about being productive is that I spend my free evenings at the COFA ceramics studio, working on my pieces and getting home at 10pm almost every night. Oh well, I think that's the only way to do it isn't it. Can't have your cake and eat it too.

I'm almost done with one of my tables now. I've done some test pieces and at the moment loving the tenmoku glaze. It's supposed to come out black but for some reason it looks more green than black in oxidation. The picture to the right is the tenmoku glaze test (it does look green, doesn't it?).

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My plan is to make two more side tables and apply different surface treatments.  On one of them, I'm going to apply slip decorations using stencils. The stencils I will use are inspired by the Victorian terrace houses around COFA and their wonderful balcony balustrades. Coincidentally I'm reading the biography of Agatha Christie who wrote a lot about growing up in the Victorian era (wonderful read, totally recommend!).

I'm basing the design of the stencils on this book called "Victorian Stensils for Design and Decoration" by Edmund V. Gillon, Jr. I think it will be better for me to create my own design rather than to blatantly copy the designs from the book. I'm not very good with my cutting skills and need to create a stencil design which I would be more adept in working with.

Speaking of books, I have to say I think COFA has a wonderful source of books in their library. It makes it so much easier knowing that I can always rely on COFA to have the resources I need to create my art work. When I first started, I kind of envisaged that I would need to go around Paddington taking pictures of people's Victorian terrace houses and then tracing the design on my computer. It's such a relieve not to have to do that!

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If you're looking for things to do this weekend, I would recommend going to Kerrie Lowe Gallery in Newtown and check out their current exhibition: Transferring the Image. My friend Terri Tang is part of the exhibition. Who knows, you might see me there too at the gallery!

Until next week...

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