Stoke Potteries Museum and Airspace Gallery

I enjoyed looking round the museum. There was a good BCB exhibit/installation below the museum, with a very shiny black glaze. Again it was quite a long time ago, and a lot to take in in one day. This is a selection of the exhibits that caught my eye.

My own Peacock vase, handbuilt and decorated using underglaze colours, cobalt oxide, wax resist and a wash of copper oxide. This was my Potfest competition piece one year, now sold.

A throwback to the seventies I think!

I contacted Josie Walter for my Research in Context essay. Although not by her, this reminds me of her work, in its concept of depicting (celebrating) the food it is holding. Quite fun.

Wedgewood tureens in their context.

I admire Michael Eden's 'Wedgewouldnt ' pots. Very innovative, and totally wacky for the time, though not out of clay. Bold colours and different concepts for each pot. Look in the detail! I saw them exhibited at the Bowes Museum about 10 years ago.

Elements - 01

Voxel - vessel -V

Metamorphosis

Imari - Twisted

Above are very old earthenware platters. I think they were made by Thomas Toft. Using a lead glaze (powdered lead put on top ).

Below the Owl Jug, 'Ozzy' is quite old too,made between 1670 and 1730.

Old tiles with design resembling blue and white ware, and I imagine from Stoke

I thought this plate was charming...elegant ladies with their dogs!

This again is decorated using traditional slipware technique of sliptrailing and glazed with a honey glaze, which was probably containing lead because of its age, though some modern slipware potters still fire occasionally in a lead ( rather than lead bisilicate) glaze. The colour definition is better and very shiny. Though it could lead to your hair and teeth dropping out!

Looks old, though could be a Cardew or Leech platter. Horses I think.

Thank you Hina for coming with me.

We had visited a small gallery called the Airspace Galllery opposite to the Museum. Here there was another exhibition connected to the BCB called 'Social Substance' by William Cobbing.

This was a very interesting and thought provoking exhibition, though I would call the exhibits installations really. They were a mixture of physical exhibits and films where two people covered in clay would reach out and smear clay on each other! Although there were more interpretations than this, I thought they were holding out helping hands to each other. A very novel approach to a 'ceramics' exhibition. I did enjoy it though.

A large scale installation. Very thought provoking with a clay mobile phone. Moving into the digital age or surplus to requirements?

Another small exhibition at Uclan - Highlighting the Taiwanese crushing of small textile businesses and traditional craft in the south island nations.

There have been quite a few exhibitions. Another one I particularly liked had computer simulated walks through gardens at night. Magical - especially on a quiet Friday night!