The Creative Sparks project involves making a piece that will engage people over an evening that coincides with the opening of the new Commons building. Our theme is water – and specifically, the relationship between water and clay…. and utility…. and life, expressed rather clumsily here as three haiku pieces. Earth and water merge Particles and molecules Soft and malleable   Fire drives them apart Forever ceramic now Platelets, melted…fused   Water no longer Within but without, only Held when whole – unbroken. I wanted to check who long a raw clay vessel would take to break down as part of this piece……!

I am really please that the work I have been doing with Michie Lyne for the Creative Sparks project seems to be on course for the event in two weeks time linked to the opening of the  new Commons building at Newton Park Campus. The pieces are coming together well along with test firings of clay samples as slips and glazes…. Just as with the Clee Hill clay, all the samples have been dried, slaked, sieved, and then either tested as slip or dried and broken into “biscuit” for storage. I am using cylinders cut into quarters for testing slips and glazes on the advice of Luke Haslam-Jones.

Click here to see Michie’s photographs from the field trip…

Newton Park clay samples

Test tiles from quartered practice cylinders