Jug of the Month - July

Jug of the Month (Emmerdale theme tune). I know it's all been a bit Bristol recently. Here's another one. This is a Bristol water jug in a bluey grey. Nigel "Long Line" Collins was jealous when he saw it. It has a lovely lid...

 

Here she is next to her Long Line big sister, showing off her lovely lid (big sister doesn't have one).

The Fishponds factory produced durable hotel wares under the trade name Vitrite. During the 1950s hotel ware accounted for about two thirds of the factory's production.

 

 

Found this factory floor plan from the 1950s on the website

http://www.kalendar.demon.co.uk/

New Work from New Studio

Well, it's new versions of old work. I've booked some new ideas for after Art in Clay. I have a date with my muse.

Thankyou A for sanding down and repainting my display stand. And all for a club biscuit.

Top Loading Kiln - Top Tip

One of our In Bristol trio has some tops tips for unloading a top loading kiln.

 M's brooches have been fired once, and are now having a second firing at a much higher temperature. This is because J thought she had removed all of the shelves when unloading, but left one in at the bottom when reloading. Oops. We live and learn.

New Designers

Look what Bath Spa University had to say about New Designers this year...
27 Jun 2011
Bath Spa University at New designers 2011

Bath Spa University has quite different stories to tell about the two disciplines exhibiting at New Designers this year but both look at celebrating the success of combining determination, craft skills and creative design talent.

...

Sadly, this is the last year for a specialist cohort from the BA Ceramics course due to the devastating drop in the subject student numbers across the sector, a great shame to the discipline and to the Bath School of Art and Design whose Ceramic alumni boasts many highly regarded Ceramicists. Not deterred the School continues to support ceramic practice with the Masters in Ceramics and PhD research strengthening, plus new developments at undergraduate level which include ceramics in combined studies courses and the new specialist course, BA Three Dimensional Design: Idea Material Object.

These final Ceramics graduates exhibit an eclectic range of work from the highly graphic, large bold work to sensitive almost-hidden pieces, decorative and painterly to clean sophisticated forms, the pieces are skilfully made and may even create an impact through the power of illusion. These graduates celebrate their great Ceramic craft.

The School is extremely proud to present it's Textile and Ceramics graduates at New Designers.

New Studio In Bristol

First kiln firing in my new studio. J and I have done three late nights this week. 24 hour access so we've been going after work and staying until we turn into pumpkins.

Last night I glazed about twenty earthenware jugs and painted a wooden display stand  bought for £4 in a charity shop in Frome.

Sharing a studio space with Jane Skuse and Martha Orr in Bristol called... In Bristol Studios. It's based in an 1830s Cotton Mill just off Feeder Road in Barton Hill. There are separate work spaces for woodwork, ceramics, print and textiles.

We filled our blank studio space with worktops from J's Dad's shed, shelving from the Ikea bargain corner and free bin, 20p shelving brackets and a shower curtain for a door. We were very proud that it cost us £7 each to kit it out so we have all have a workbench and shelving.  

http://www.inbristol.org/

Giraffe

Saw these pics on ebay. Mum used to own one of these 1950s/1960s ceramic giraffes from the USSR Lomonosov factory. Look at the circles....

And look at my circles...

Roses

Roses at Mum's house last week.

I'm a highlight!

I'm on the Artsthread blog as a New Designers 2011: Ceramics and Glass highlight!

"Bath Spa University’s Jo Corbett brought her Kaleidoscope to New Designers. Composed of a large number of vessels in yellow-green and terracotta red, the triangular space and mirrors reflect the pieces to infinity."

I'm a highlight!

http://blog.artsthread.com/2011/07/designers-2011-ceramics-glass



Results

Very proud to share that I got a 2:1 for my degree. Well done me. Thankyou so much to all of my family who helped me to get there. x

First year...

second year...

final degree show...

Honor Elliot

Such an exciting and unexpected thing happened at New Designers. I was exhibiting scans of a Meakin jug and two Long Line Bristol jugs from the Pountney’s factory...

The 1960s Long Line design came late in the history in the factory and was created by Honor Elliot, a 23 year old college graduate from Stoke-on-Trent. I met Honor Elliot at New Designers. While I was away from the stand she came across my photos and said “I made those.” She had a chat and then had to go. L ran to find me and I did some very rare things – abandoning cake, running and posing in a photo. She was very lovely and incredibly unfussed about the whole thing.

The excitement continued the next day when Honor Elliot’s daughter came to see the work. Her mum had phoned her and told her to come and see it. We’ve all swapped emails and I’m going to send some photos and my dissertation.
She was the youngest member of the design team when she came to Bristol in 1959. She used a pre-existing shape; the "BRISTOL KITCHENWARE" range. The Long Line range was featured in the Woman’s Journal ‘House of the Year 1962’ at Coombe Dingle, Bristol, and won a recommendation from the Good Housekeeping Institute, which is printed on the bottom of each piece.

Jo @ New Designers

Took my kaleidoscope and three photographs to New Designers. No room for the prints too. The kaleidoscope went against the wall which I really liked. It meant that the reflected view through the back mirror seemed to go back into the wall. If you see what I mean. Really enjoyed watching people discover it, and walk away with big smiles. I had interest from a London design week, a graduate exhibition, a private buyer, a blogger and some men who just really liked triangles and angles. Really glad I went. Got a few emails to send and than we'll see if there are any new dates for my diary.

The grey box above was a storage box for all of our business cards. I was worried about it being in my space because it was opened and used such a lot, but I think the other students suffered more because I went on about it so much. Sorry folks!

Press Pack

We were decidedly unimpressed with the press packs that tutor Dan left us. Eight unlabelled CDs in their plastic container. He'd worked over and above his paid hours apparently and wasn't going to do any more. So we purchased envelopes, stickers and pens, and got sticking and labelling and stuffing with business cards. We had a visit from the press office to ask for more, so we bought CDs, got more copied and started sticking and stuffing all over again. We thought they had a hint of Sex Pistols. Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's Bath Spa...

Bath Spa @ New Designers

Just finished four days exhibiting at New Designers at the Business Design Centre in Islington. Lots of standing and lots of talking. Here is our stand looking tip top.