Brakspear Ceramics: Landscape, clay and function. Please click on photographs to see projects / information etc….
Really looking forward to the show at Dean Clough opening on the 15th October. Below are some views of Halifax, including one from Bill Brandt’s classic vantage point at Dean Clough, taken during the days I went up to install the work in the Link Gallery.
Our MA Degree Show is opening on the 23rd September at Sion Hill Campus, University of Bath and will be open for viewing until the following Wednesday 28th. Just to whet any interested appetites, here are some photographs of Soil Hill landscapes that are not part of the show – selected from a range of images taken for the project, and some recent Soil Hill clay pancheons, slipped and drying before firing.
If you are interested in seeing the show but cannot make it over this short “window” (23rd-28th September) – the full exhibition will be on show at the Link Gallery, Dean Clough, Halifax, West Yorkshire from October 17th 2016 – and open for three months. The MA show will only be a small snapshot from the wider project.
I am delighted that John and Jayne at Swifts Bakery, Clee Hill, have decided to include the small pancheon (25 cm / 10 inch inch diameter featured in an earlier post) that I gave them in their photo shoot this week. I’m also grateful to Jayne and John for including me in an interview for the Ludlow Advertiser – the article from which was published today. I’m really enjoying watching John in the BBC Victorian Bakers series – the last episode of which featured a beautiful, original, large pancheon with a clear glaze being used for mixing the dough for the buns! I will be making a large 35cm pancheon for Swifts soon – the size is limited at the moment by the size of my kiln.
As part of my place and pancheons project, I have been photographing bakers and their favourite bowls for mixing and rising dough in their baking process. The hands you will see are of my neighbours, bakers from the locations of my clay hunting, relatives and friends… As you will see from a sample of the photographs shown here, the bowls are made of a wide variety of materials – ceramic, plastic, pyrex, bakelite….materials that come from a global reach – far from the direct association with local materials and makers. I don’t want to cast any value judgements here, I’m not trying to preach a local is best mantra, only perhaps to highlight the discontinuity – and the opportunity to reconnect.
The past year gave me a chance to explore a form that I have long been obsessed by….fascinated with for over thirty years. The form, as you might know from previous posts is that of the pancheon (a bowl for mixing and rising dough or separating cream from milk) that has been used for centuries in the British Isles, and is one loved by many potters and bakers. However, bakers have moved on from these beautiful, practical but heavy and ultimately breakable pots over the past fifty years. More on this in later posts.
The past year has been busy, but a crucial part of it has been the exploration of old / abandoned potteries (such as Isaac Button’s “works” at Soil Hill), searching out natural clay outcrops (and permission to dig samples), and increasingly – visits to the bakeries nearby as I seek to explore the connections between place, material, form and function.
This might make sense of many of the photographs and notes you can see in the blog below. In future posts over the coming weeks, I will expanding on the overall aim and purpose of this project, as I prepare for my final MA assessment and MA show.
The piece below is a pancheon I made for my mother – it was during the experimental phase and is made with Valentine’s earthenware rather than with clay from one of my exploratory trips.
Brakspear Ceramics 