Woodland Colours

The muted colours of Sussex in Winter and Spring must have been seeping into my thoughts and into my work over the past few months. Some new ideas and pieces have been emerging as a result.

Colour palette

I’ve spent some time looking at the colour palette I use and working on a range of colours, textures and tones that work well together as a group. The colours that I’ve been drawn to the most are frosty whites, mossy greens, dark browns and light fawn.

I took this photo on a walk I take regularly near where I live. The colours of the dew pond change so much with the weather I end up taking a photo of it almost every time I stop there. On this day, it was so misty in places I could hardly see a few feet in front of me.

One very wet and cold winter’s day I spent a few hours helping willow artist Annemarie O’Sullivan with some of her harvest and was lucky enough to take some bundles home with me. I also spent an amazing day with her and a small group in the Sussex countryside having a go at making a basket. The result was rather wonky, but I’m very fond of it!

Over the same period, I’ve been experimenting with clays, which has involved mixing clay bodies to create colour variations in the clay itself as well as with glazes. I’ve mixed various clays with porcelain in different quantities to obtain finishes ranging from light speckled grey to dark chocolate.

I’m not sure how conscious a thought it was to focus on these organic, earthy types of colours, some of the connections are only now becoming clear as I review what I’ve been doing. Lining up some of the test pieces showed that a graduation in tone between the individual pieces worked really well.

Beyond the test pieces, a range of vessels and semi-functional ceramics are also emerging from this new palette.

I’ve still got lots of work to do in creating a new collection, but I see my work as a pretty much constant state of experimentation, and trying new things with the materials. So though I’ll create lots of finished work over the coming months, I doubt if I’ll actually ever be ‘finished’.

Spoons

As an early indication of where this is going, I’ve found that my ceramic spoons work particularly well in this colour palette, especially when combined with organic materials such as twigs and lichen. So here’s a selection of spoons that have been on show recently, using the new clay mixes.

And some new framed groups of utensils pieces on a ‘woodland’ theme, both recently sold.