Demonstration by Rob Parr and lecture by Aliyah Hussain

Rob is our Tutor here at Uclan. He is a well known and respected Ceramic Maker, probably best known for his iconic animal figures on plinths.

When I was at Aberystwyth International Ceramics Festival in 2017, Rob won the Kecskermet Residency award. I hope the department will have a trip to Kecskermet next year.

Rob demonstrated the making of a cockrell to the MA students. It was interesting to see his process. The plinths are slab built, with use of heat gun to firm up. The process was very immediate, which I am learning is good in ceramics to convey feeling and empathy, be it sketching or making especially with animals, who dont stay still for long! Always best to work from sketches, not photographs, again this conveys immediacy.

The finished piece ('one I did earlier')

Rob has also made some chess sets. The animals are exquisite and stand together in solidarity.

'And They Went Forth'

Rob uses stoneware clay with engobes painted on and washed off. White engobe for black clay and I presume black engobe for white. He kindly gave me the engobe recipie he uses, John Murray engobe (bisque slip). This is put on after bisque firing, wiped off and fired with the glaze firing. I used it on Little Black's box in Box of Secrets (documented in paper journal). I have also used gold lustre, which Rob uses on some crowns and embellishments on his pieces. Again I have not used glaze (except for eyes) on my Box of Secrets pieces.

The pattern is rolled in by using anaglypta wallpaper.

An extra piece for Mum.

The chess sets I have been involved with recently were made by my friend Pauline Lowther. She exhibited at Astley Hall, Chorley, (with me and other Northern Potters), and rose to the challenge of the Leonora Carrington competition. Leonora Carrington was from Chorley a surrealist around the 1950s and her work is really wacky. What an imagination!

This is one of Pauline's chess sets. The other was of African animals.

And the African Chess Set. Very intricate and exquisite detail again!

What comes across to me in Rob's work is his feeling of justice for animals. As well as beautifully executed sculptures, with simple not over the top decoration. Maybe we should all lead simpler lives - we seem to be caught up in the whirl of wasted and excess. A lot of animals do not have a choice like we do.

The website is simple yet effective too. 'Less is more', as Michael Eden used to say to me!

Aliyah Hussain

Aliyah is an A2A artist, who has a residency this year at Uclan. She has always been very generous with her time in listening to other people talk about their work and give helpful pointers. It was nice therefore to hear her talk about her own work.

One of the first things she said was a quote "Can you move toward yourself without flinching?"

Very powerful, I'm not sure I could answer that one.

The things that struck me with Aliyah were that she has achieved a lot in the terms of residencies and work and projects completed, so she obviously works very hard, and is often the last to leave the department (along with myself) of an evening.

Her vision of concept is very clear, and she works in other medium as well as clay, and including sound! This clarity of concept is conveyed in her work. She likes the use of colour and also works in collaborative projects involving community groups. She is not afraid to travel and leave her comfort zone I think. Her recent print work is stunning!

She also makes jewellery and has worked in the community with making jewellery and recording the sound it makes! Very innovative and ground-breaking. She then used the left over clay for a collaborative project!

Children's stories and 'The Sleep of Plants' are just a few of the projects that Aliyah has completed. She has also done some art work to accompany music. An example is 'Women on the Edge of Time'.

Aliyah's work is almost magical. It seems ultra modern in a reassuring way, upbeat like the confidence you have as a child, reminding me of a happy childhood. This to me is conveyed a lot in the use of primary colours.