Feed-back from tutors

Today I've had my first tutorial session with all three: David, Anna and Wendy, having missed the last one because of illness. That was very, very encouraging. I'm definitely on the correct path of achieving what I set out to do - AND I'm enjoying it!

It is encouraging that they seemed also excited by what I'm doing and the direction my work is taking. I've showed them my two larger figures, samples of my smaller decorated pots and test tiles along with my various sketch books.

I agree that my little pinch pots are the way forward and not my thrown pots. The thrown pots are not really good enough. I'd need to do a lot more practicing to get them to the required standard. But, more importantly, their shape does not complement my decorations whereas the little, more recent pinch pots, work very well. Their organic quality harmonises with my detailed decorations. Currently, I'm keeping the colours to black and white with just one added other accent colour.

These pinch pots also seem to link much better to my large hand-built figures, which I'm developing. The pouring of slip, which I tried out on the little black pinch pots, should work very well on the larger figures. I like introducing an element of controlled chance, such as pouring slip, which I then can respond to with my intricate decorations. This means that each piece will be different and offer me a new challenge each time of how to respond to the drips and positive and negative areas.

So, I will continue making more pinch pots and thus, hopefully, improving on my pinching techniques. I will build some more figures trying out some different clays. I have just ordered some fine black clay and a bag of Ashraf Hanna clay which I will try out for both pinch pots and larger figures.

Furthermore, I'm also still working on extending my repertoire of patterns found in different cultures. For now, I'm leaving my research in Pueblo pottery and looking at Islamic patterns. My initial reaction to it is one of total awe. The Islamic patterns are so complicated and based on such precise geometry that I am currently not sure how I can integrate them. I need to understand a bit more, so more research is needed.