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spending money on things that are a little over the ol' budget.... nothing drastic, a book, a magazine, a cake, a wheel, some stylie shorts for my man, and the ever faithful budget ruiners - food and booze.
Pictures from in fashion magazine issue 33, loads of crazy inspirations for my pottery, colour structure, detail, its all there, I just need to trial and error to adapt techniques from textiles to ceramics... very exciting!
Valentino Garavani for VALENTINO. I love the structured half circles clinging to the delicate highly patterned
framework.
Alber Elbaz for LANVIN, almost the opposite, the ruffles fall as they pleased, tipped with gloss to highlight the curves.
Paulo Melim Anderson for CHLOE. so expressive in colour and application, great asymmetry.
Riccardo Tisci for GIVENCHY, Albert Kriemler for AKRIS. loving the scales, can really see this translating into surface treatment for ceramics. The geometric and folded shapes are beautiful too, reminds me of traditional pleating treatments we experimented with at Massey.
And last of all images from a recent ebay purchase Decorating pottery with clay, slip and glaze by F. Carlton Ball 1967! which could give me a few clues on my way to achieving some of the prettiness I desire for my pots...
A wave of I don't know what came over me about a week ago and gave me the idea to make a christmas cake. Its started, Nan sent the recipe today and the mixed fruit is soaking up the brandy and glycerine goodness as we speak. The soaking stage has been quite enjoyable so far, I feel relaxed, no trouble seems to be brewing, and I can spend as much time as I like reading other craft blogs and clawing my way through the mountain of amazing things to be seen on flickr.
THE cake can also give you permission to drink the rest of the brandy (ahem, quite a lot) and boast about your domestic prowess to others (regardless of the outcome, making a christmas cake is quite impressive).
½ lb butter
½ lb sugar
6 eggs - separated
¾ lb flour
1 tspn mixed spice
3 lb mixed fruit – I generally add a packet of glace red cherries to that.
8 0z tin crushed pineapple
2tbspns brandy
1 tspn glycerine
1 tspn each of essences, lemon, rum, almond and vanilla.
Soak fruit overnight in pineapple, brandy and glycerine
Cream butter and sugar, add egg yolks one at a time, add spice and essences then flour, fruit and lastly beaten egg whites.
Preheat oven to 150 then turn to `135 when cake goes in, cook 4 hours or until tested. (Prick with a skewer and if it comes up clean it’s cooked. Cover top with baking paper for the first hour so the top doesn’t get too brown.
When it’s cooked and cooled down I poke it all over with the skewer and then pour LOTS of brandy over I – well about 3-4 tbspns I’d say.
Good luck and sorry about the imperial measures.
Even pottery went out the window last week... Logan and I went to dog-sit on the other side of the river making early classes and late work impossible for someone erring toward lazy. Positive points of note are however
- I did a favour for my boss
- I got to hang out in a house with just Logan and one crazy boxer
- I clocked a few hours at work (thus lubricating some outrageous spending)
- Had another other side of the river experience
- Was nearly attacked my a magpie for the first time (positive point for the thrill of survival)
And now some New Zealanders are here to distract me with their duty free and onion soup/reduced cream dip...
The house over the river is full of things (and magazines of things) that are so super design-y... the jealousy raged! I couldn't stop looking at this painting. I feel bad for not remembering who painted it, but I think its supposed to be breasts. So simple and beautiful.
Ps walking past an aboriginal art gallery on Bourke street about a week ago, I noticed a painting similar to this... a bit of detective work and the artist is.....Minnie Pwerle.The idea that the motif is breasts is slightly questionable?
my one woman collaboration currently is lacking in both free time and inspiration.
I shouldn't be so impatient with myself it is slowcraft after all, and I did glaze some of my big pots yesterday (fingers crossed they come out looking amazing!) I marvel at women like Melissa who can inspire and encourage crafty obsession while secretly raising children, animal rights awareness and baking her own crackers...
The only temperature I am truly comfortable in has been unattainable recently... the scary summer is making day long appearances then hiding in the clouds. Yesterday was so unbearably hot that today when I opened the door decked in my swimming togs and ready for refreshment, I was surprised to find the summer trapped inside and a fierce winter outside. Its so confusing we swam anyway.
After the glamorizing of the house yesterday a new flatmate was selected to move in in November, this is good news because looking for people is not fun and uses all of my computer time in boring and occasionally frustrating ways.... not today!
Some Images to share....
Gwyn Hanssen Pigot, Travellers 2000.Porcelain beakers and bowls arranged rhythmically play with shadows, scale and end use (how could you possibly separate one to use in an inferior domestic act???)
Jane Atfield T-Towels, Washing Up Series 1, 2000
Pillows Lounger, Hanging Things and Stuffing Things Series, 2000.
"I am interested in the familiar elemental forms found in archetypes leading to simple and functional objects that evoke strong associations and narratives, often addressing environmental issues."
A discussion on sustainable craft here.
The most satisfying design surely addresses concerns of ethical obligations to the consumer and the environment, I have always worried about making more crap for a market that doesn't need it. How is a healthy desire for products created? When I say healthy, I mean more aware of productio
n (how it was made why it was made where it was made how many times was it made) and more importantly its role in your life - the end use (does it become more valuable to you or less valuable what is its life span is it recycled is it loved????) After thinking about it too much will you still buy it? what am I to do with all of this frickin pottery? Re-gifting and waiting for Christmas cant solve the dilemma of someone guilty of making more crap without addressing any of these issues.
Anyway some more distraction perhaps...
Ettore Sottsass From the Rocchetti Series 1956-59
I am completely in love. I picked up this book (Ettore Sottsass Ceramics, Chronicle Books 1996) in Adelaide after a boozy tour around the Barrossa (check out Torbreck wines, amazing) and despite being infinitely inspired by an array of pure forms, colours textures and his own meanderings and gallery notes, none of my pots look like this (I have tried, will post some picks later after I recover from how awful they are).
Interview with Sottsass 2000
Alessandro Mendini Manici (Handles) Vases for Studio Alchimia, 1984
These vases are a sweet relief, and give me confidence to attach as many handles as required to my own wonky vase tomorrow....
I found Lydia in one of my design books,
Design of the 20th Century, Charlotte and Peter Fiell, Taschen 2001
These are from a book called Heaven and Earth, Unseen from the naked eye, Phaidon Press New York 2002. The pink image is a desert in the United Arab Emirates, Imagine achieving this surface on a ceramic.... Below, Rainbow Trout eggs. You can see the embryo inside, a beautiful painterly contrast to the symmetry of the eggs on the black background. Destined for interpretation on fabric! 
The Ganges river delta, desert irrigation in Saudi Arabia, like a painting by Klimt and Sudan's patchwork of irrigated fields.Heres hoping for a comfortable 21 degrees tomorrow in a perfect(ly inspirational) world!
Had my first pinelime splice iceblock treat of the season today... very aussie, green and delicious on a hot day after an unlrealistic attempt to beat my hangover at the pool by swimming lengths, really it was all about the iceblock.
At this very moment, not one but two giant three piece pots are drying slowly under plastic at the pottery studio. One is a true success, the other came up lop-sided and looks a bit hilarious, but a handle or some other distraction should re-balance it. All will be revealed on Tuesday morning when I next vi
sit...
Other exciting pottery news includes putting these buttons in for firing They are made with porcelain, Connie has some bright underglaze colours I can use on the surface, I should really plan what I want them to look like... I do enjoy the rough shapes of these buttons, which I cut from various sized logs of clay, but the inconsistency of the shapes and the clay (airbubbles!) only added to the tedious task leaving me wondering if this is the way you should make buttons? I really don't know, I just thought any textile freak with the means to make ceramics MUST make some buttons. I have had a severe craving for a cloth covered button machine for a while now, so I am hoping this is a practical fix. Anyway, the po
int is I went mad purchasing cookie cutters for the next lot of buttons...
Obviously the round ones, more specifically the round one in the middle is what I was after, but how cute are letter magnets and animal badges??? will let you know when it happens (slowcraft).
I kind of finished the top, But as you can see those edges were in fact not resolved, just stitched down with hope.. Its not going to be everyday wear, maybe when it gets hot? It looks cute pinched at the waist with skinny belt too.
In the hunt for a new flatmate its time to glamourize the house a little (obviously cleaning will go a long way but its very boring) so I made a display shelf for a few pots to look pretty on instead.
Yes its an old ladder painted black.
And, the most exciting ebay package arrived yesterday....2kg of leather all the colours are amazing and only two bits are too shiny for my taste. An absolute bargain (always good for those of us with only 
very tentative ideas about the end use/product).
Also was chuffed to be invited to join madeit group on flickr, I dont have anything to sell yet, but its nice to have the contact - I wasnt sure if I should tell them I'm from New Zealand! If I'm ok being Australian, Australian crafters will accept me as their own right?
Pick a name for your blog...
Having created this thing with only the most vague ideas about what I might like to publish on the internet, the only truths that have developed during recent explorations of my crafting ambitions are the following.
- I have crafting ambitions
- I am quite slow at achieving said crafting ambitions...
Slowcraft is born. Essentially an attempt to not only document and share my crafting, but to speed it all up to the point that I feel productive! Having dragged myself to the bitter end of a bachelor of design while working full time in restaurants and bars (see current occupation as evidence of what stuck) its time to resurrect what few design sensibilities I may have left after all this time out of the game.
My current focus orbits around a local pottery studio where I have been learning to throw on the wheel since late last year. I do own a sewing machine (the evil Lydia who I purchased from ebay purely because she is gorgeous) there is also evidence to suggest that from time to time I do know how to construct bits and pieces on a sewing machine. (Even the evil Lydia). Recently I have abducted our second living area as my sewing/storage room. As of yet I am not paying any extra rent for this rude appropriation of space (bless my flatmates)... Just to top of my list of 'no more excuses' I have reduced my roster to a pitiful 2 nights a week. The poverty is horrifying, but the free time is
gold.
Starting with the most recent success to come out of the kiln, these two bottles were the last of the bottle shapes I made in a 'make them until you can make them' trial that took quite a long time (Slowcraft, remember).
In a break from the norm I actually chose some silk from my pile of fabric (all purchased in advance for potential projects), and am on my way to finishing a top cut from an old gorman t-shirt.
I still love the print and the softness of the cotton on this t, but its become dangerously crop-top-ish and stretched a bit sideways. Despite issues of wear and tear the shape is simple enough to host a print/pattern, and all has been going very well including the tidiest seams I have ever sewn along the shoulders and sides.... until I was challenged by some curvy neckline and arm hole action. Yet to be resolved, as am determined to continue the tidy thing to the end with limited course language.
hmmmm
