Eastnor Pottery and The Flying Potter - Pottery Experiences for families, groups and individuals
DSC 0646 from Emily Bitcon on Vimeo.
Emily, a 1st year Photography student at Falmouth University, asked if she could come and photograph Jon making pots on the wheel as part of a college project. Her brief – to capture unique and specialist trades people at work.
We all love this little video clip set to music she produced after a second visit to Eastnor Pottery in the Spring.
When it opened in 2011, Sensational Clay was never intended to be exhibited anywhere other than the fantastic and unique Bilston Craft Gallery in Wolverhampton. However, here we are in 2015 and I’ve just attended the opening of my solo show of interactive ceramics at Leamington Spa Art Gallery.
The exhibition also had an airing in Cirencester, Carlisle and Worcester and by the time it closes at Leamington, will have been enjoyed by over 10, 000 gallery visitors.
To celebrate the opening, I was invited to give a ‘Friday focus’ introductory talk followed by a practical workshop on the Saturday. Participants were encouraged to use a variety of hand building techniques to make musical pots. A creative bunch for sure and some had their own kilns or access to firings. A lovely couple of days with some lovely people. Thank you to all the staff and visitors who made me feel so welcome. You can see photos from the workshop by clicking here.
Sensational Clay runs 6th March – 4th May 2015.
I’ve been enjoying collaborating with poet & writer Mandy Ross on behalf of Ledbury Poetry Festival 2014.
Over the past 6 months we’ve taken fruit, poems and clay into local care homes to share with the residents and staff. We’ve been making, reading, reminiscing and having a lot of fun.
Mandy and myself have produced a body of new work as a response. The ‘fruits’ of our labour are currently being displayed in The Priory Cleaners window in Ledbury High Street. The work will be on show for the duration of the Poetry festival 4th – 12th July 2014.
Those nice people at Experience Days interviewed me for their blog recently. They got me considering how and why I ended up making pottery here on the beautiful Herefordshire Eastnor Castle Estate.
Ash and Dom are Ludicrooms and they seek to transform spaces through technology and play.
In their wisdom and enthusiasm they thought it a grand idea to allow six or so artists and makers to tinker around with their digital wizardry and knowhow.
The project was called Random String.
I was lucky enough to be one of the chosen six and spent the majority of February messing around with makey makey’s, raspberry pi’s and servos. (No, I didn’t either till I met Ash & Dom!) We were all encouraged to contribute to a blog mapping our journeys.
Perhaps the most inspiring thing for me was learning how to record and manipulate sound generated from my musical pots. I even managed to set up a soundcloud and posted some very short and raw sonic experiments. Have a listen!
Having just tickled the surface of what’s possible I’d love to spend a period of total emersion exploring the myriad of posibilities of sound and clay – like thats really going to happen!
Random String culminated in a symposium held at the Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry on the 7th March 2014.
