Alchemy
I created this bowl in the spring time. The bees in my back garden had battened down the hatches against the cold wet westerly winds so they could survive the winter. They emerged in March to collect pollen from willow and other early flowering plants. This bowl was created in response to the bees greeting the new bee year with such tenacity and vigour. One hive swarmed on April 25th VERY early to be swarming!
I was pleased with the first firing of this large bowl – it survived intact! Glazing is one of my least favourite tasks but eventually I had to have a glazing day…I painted the insides of each hexagon with yellow underglaze colour, sprayed the center of the bowl yellow, sprayed the whole bowl with transparent glaze, being careful to wipe away the excess spray from the outside.
Rob has just written a poem about this bowl which has emerged from the intense heat of the kiln shiny golden yellow on the inside and roughly textured ceramic on the outside. The poem’ Alchemy’ from which the bowl gets its name, is a sensitive observation and poetic interpretation of… well you can read it for yourself if you can visit our pop up exhibition on 5th July in Cardiff. Directions coming soon…