Hello dear friends, so it’s been a while, I’m cringing as I write as I hate posts that start like this, that said and done a lot has happened since we spoke last. As you can tell from my pictures I’ve been expanding my career as an artist and last year I went back to college to take a ceramics course. Whizz forward to Jan 2019 and I sold my first pieces. Even though they’ve made it to a new home I just wanted to share them with you and talk you through my process as I embark on this new chapter.
It started with the need to create something that was usable. I always struggle when I’m painting or taking photos as I know I’m creating something I love (hopefully other people will too) but other than something being beautiful to look at I had the urge to create something that could be picked up and used everyday, this is where ceramics came in.
I love to process of building something out of clay with my bare hands, at the moment I’m using hand building methods to make vases, I love the wheel but building by hand gives a more organic form, I wanted the pieces to be perfectly imperfect, I love how organic the pieces look, I think something that has come from mud lends itself to rustic shapes. Inspired by nature and my garden flowers I either print into the soft clay using seed heads or I carve designs into it, these are then stained with pigment before glazing. I use a white clay body and the whole process takes roughly six stages to get to the finished piece.
At the moment I’m just making useable pieces, either vases or small dishes but I have plans to do sculptures too at some point.
I’m still painting, I’ve moved onto oils now and I’m still as mad about photography as ever. Still using the olympus pen-f and the old fuji and still loving them both, I’ve even found a new love for lightroom over photoshop which is something I thought would never happen.
So what are you working on right now?
Emma x
Emma Connolly 