The good and the bad and what does this mean for my MA? Its all happened very suddenly. Ceramic Art London and Earth and Fire have both been cancelled, and now the University is closed. When this was announced it was for a few weeks only but it now seems as if it could go on for months. Fortunately I had a lift home on Monday so have been able to bring my smaller moulds and the ES40 clay home together with some tools, and now I have to tidy the garage so I can work there. We have been set up on Microsoft Teams so we can have remote seminars an tutorials. This mornings trial run was interesting. When we all got into the same meeting the visual and sound quality for me was very poor -and it seems I was not alone. Maybe everyone in the country is trying to do the same or maybe they are just watching films.... Well whats good? Everyone I know is well at present. I can do more gardening. Having a lift on Monday also enabled me to also bring home this piece I started at the Sculpture Lounge with James and Rebecca. It is 36 cm high by 38 wide and weighs 10.7 kg. I would have struggled on the train. I am pleased with this. Its one of the largest things I have made so far, from many many slabs (I forgot to count) and all the joints have held through first a bisque then a cone 6 glaze firing. The making process helped to teach me about large curved slabs, using layers of slip for depth of colour, and has definitely improved my slab joining skills. This piece also has scrafitto, and glaze applied with both brush and sponge. I have another piece from the Holmfirth course, waiting for glaze at UCLAN. When I am (eventually ) able to work on it again I could use more coloured glaze as I will not have the challenge of a visible base. I went to foodbank on Wednesday. The organisers and most of the previous regular volunteers are well over the 'please go home and pull up the drawbridge' age, so there was a concern about whether we could carry on. Fortunately there were new volunteers, all under the age of 70. Going to foodbank is great antidote to worrying about clay. What are the downsides of the Covid 19 changes? The biggest ones are not having access to the workshop at UCLAN and the people. I did not bring the biggest moulds home because I did not feel I could manage them here and I am certainly not set up to create the glazes. If we not allowed back for many months it will be difficult to complete. Working at home is difficult - lots of distractions! There may be another Covid related challenge - I could get sick myself, I could be called in to the hospital to work, or both. I hope they identify more suitable people! Life is now a lot less predictable. We shall have to take it step by step.
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AuthorI am indulging my passion for ceramics by undertaking studies for an MA at UCLAN Archives
August 2021
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