A big thank you!

I'd like to thank all of you for your interest in my work and a big thank you to all who have bought my work over the years.

This blog will be quiet for the time being as I concentrate on more penguin work.  Please follow my new blog to find out what I am up to:

 http://penguinsbybeverleygee.blogspot.co.uk/


I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2013!

Here's a Christmas message from Bowie and Bing ..........
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd6PS179yC4

Christmas Shows

Christmas is coming ...why not buy some handmade British craft for unique Christmas presents this year?

Here are some of the shows I am doing, if you'd like to come along you are more than welcome.

Christmas at the Mill

Thursday 29th November  4 - 9pm  Free entry

Islington Mill, Salford, M3 5HW

Traditional Christmas Market

Saturday 1st December   12 - 4pm   Free entry

The Old Hall Inn, Whitehough, Chinley, High Peak, SK23 6EJ

Victorian Christmas Craft Fair

Sunday 2nd December   1 - 4.30pm   Free entry

Salford Museum and Art Gallery

Handmade and Vintage Market

Saturday 8th December   11-5pm   £1 entry

The Storey, Meeting House Lane, Lancaster, LA1 1TH

Winter Arts Market

Sunday 9th December  10-5pm    £1.50 entry

St Georges Hall, Liverpool

Miro

Miro

Miro

Detail of Miro Bronze

Kodama - Tree Spirits from 'Princess Mononoke'

Miro

Miro

Autumn at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

I rest my case.

That time again - a trip to Yorkshire Sculpture Park.  This time to see the wonderful Joan Miro exhibition.  The exhibition focused on his sculptures which he likened to monsters.  There is a fascinating section that explores his working practices.  He loved trees and clay!  Great.

Yellow Peril's 'Tree'

Featuring a pencil drawing of a tree and the infamous penguin queue.  My new penguin range will be available to buy at The Winter Arts Market on Sunday 9th December.  Also available on my online shops.

Copyright Beverley Gee.

Copyright Beverley Gee.

Yellow Peril's 'Feather'

Next instalment in the Yellow Peril range - 'Feather'.  I like the monotone feel of this image.  The black, greys and white of the feather match those of the penguin. The sun was shining (!) and cast the beautiful shadow of the feather.  Available on Folksy and soon on Etsy.

Copyright Beverley Gee.

Copyright Beverley Gee.

Yellow Peril's 'Paw'

Here's the first of the 'Yellow Peril' range entitled 'Paw'.  It's resplendent on my new product -ceramic cushions.  Available now on Folksy.

Copyright Beverley Gee

Copyright Beverley Gee

Altrincham College Community Arts Centre

I'm taking part in a local exhibition at Altrincham College Community Arts Centre.  I have a range of decorative porcelain products for sale. It's on until 18th November.  Here's the flyer:

Yellow Peril Penguin

Copyright Beverley Gee 2011.

Let me introduce you to Hiroyuki, Moriko and Yuki.  A family group of tiny penguins embarking on a journey of discovery and wonder.  I bought the penguins over ten years ago in Japan therefore I see them as Japanese penguins (if there's ever such a thing!).  Their names apparently mean 'Great Journey', 'Child of the Forest and 'Snow Happiness'.

I'll be picking up my new 'Yellow Peril' Penguin transfers this week.  So watch this space for new scenes from the penguins' trip.

The penguins are coming ...........

Introducing 'Yellow Peril', new penguin work for autumn 2012.  My Folksy and Etsy shops will soon be revamped and 'Penguin Specific' - for all your penguin needs!  Here is another image that will soon feature on a range of porcelain products.  I've done the 'Yellow Peril'  penguin photo shoot, put them through the ordeal of Photoshop, now they are being screen printed onto ceramic paper in Stoke.  I can't wait to see the finished results.

ETSY and FOLKSY SALE

I'm having a sale on my ETSY and FOLKSY shops.  Grab a bargain!  More items will be on sale each day.  Watch out for my new work which will be available in September.  Here's a sneak preview ............

GRASS!

Grass seed

Growing

Lovely grass

Why am I growing grass?  Keep watching as all will be revealed!

The first mould of the day

The form I wish to take a mould from

Cottling around the form

Inside view

Resulting mould with cottling removed

Better looking mould

Our Mabel guarding the mould

As the weather has been kind over the last few days, I took the opportunity to make a couple of moulds in the garden.  It's such a messy business, it was great to take advantage and do them outside away from the clay in my studio (clay and plaster do not mix!).  The stages are shown above.  I was a little rusty as I haven't made a mould for a couple of years.  A few teething errors in gauging how much plaster to use then realising the resulting mould was too big (and heavy) but I'll remember next time.  This (hopefully) will be a drop out mould so the cast piece should slip out.

Lympics

Vase by Fish Pye Pottery, St Ives

'Translating the British, 2012' by Carol Ann Duffy (published in The Guardian 11/08/12)

A summer of rain, then a gap in the clouds
and The Queen jumped from the sky
to the cheering crowds.

               We speak Shakespeare here,
a hundred tongues, one-voiced; the moon bronze or silver,
sun gold, from Cardiff to Edinburgh
               by way of London Town,
on the Giant's Causeway;
we say we want to be who we truly are,
now, we roar it. Welcome to us.

We've had our pockets picked,
               the soft, white hands of bankers,
bold as brass, filching our gold, our silver;
we want it back.

We are Mo Farah lifting the 10,000 metres gold.
We want new running-tracks in his name.
For Jessica Ennis, the same; for the Brownlee brothers,
Rutherford, Ohuruogu, Whitlock, Tweddle,
for every medal earned,
we want school playing-fields returned.

Enough of the soundbite abstract nouns,
austerity, policy, legacy, of tightening metaphorical belts;
we got on our real bikes,
for we are Bradley Wiggins,
               side-burned, Mod, god;
we are Sir Chris Hoy,
Laura Trott, Victoria Pendleton, Kenny, Hindes,
Clancy, Burke, Kennaugh and Geraint Thomas, 
               Olympian names.

We want more cycle lanes.

               Or we saddled our steed,
or we paddled our own canoe,
or we rowed in an eight or a four or a two;
our names, Glover and Stanning; Baillie and Stott;
Adlington, Ainslie, Wilson, Murray,
               Valegro (Dujardin's horse).

We saw what we did. We are Nicola Adams and Jade Jones,
bring on the fighting kids.

               We sense new weather.
We are on our marks. We are all in this together.

Slip sliding

Mrs Mabel perusing the clay hoard

Bone dry clay/Slaking clay down in water

Sieving the resulting slip

A tub of sieved slip

Some of my designs lend themselves to being made via slip casting rather than throwing methods. I have gathered quite an amount of porcelain clay (from throwing and turning) that needs to be reclaimed.  At over £20 per bag of clay, I am not going to throw the used clay away. Therefore, I've been trying to make my own casting slip from it. Making the clay into slip is the easy part, the hard part is making it into casting slip. I  have done some tests but still haven't found the right amount of sodium deflocculant to use yet (this helps to keep the clay in suspension and fluid but not be saturated in water).  The photos above show how to make slip from dry clay.

Spot the cat?

Mrs Mabel enjoying the sun - a rare treat!

The Leach Pottery, St Ives

The Leach Pottery, St Ives

Images from the Leach Pottery.  A working pottery frozen in time where the beginnings of the British studio pottery movement began.  The old fireplace where the potters would gather to discuss form and function.  A place strongly influenced by Japanese mingei (folk) pottery.

The pottery also is home to resident potter Jack Doherty who, with three onsite apprentices, has developed a new range of Leach tableware.  It's good to see new work being developed and skills passed on.  It was interesting to visit the pottery after previously visiting Onta and Mashiko in Japan.  Places where Bernard Leach visited and where I felt I had stepped back in time.  Fascinating.

Eltham Palace

Eltham Palace 

Marquetry Wall

Staircase

Art Deco Clock

Art Deco Fireplace

Mother Of Pearl Inlaid Door

Mrs Courtauld's Bathroom

Mr Courtauld's Bathroom

Walled Garden

I spent a lovely sunny (feels a long time ago now!) day at Eltham Palace, enjoying the perfect setting for a friend's wedding.  Eltham Palace was a Royal Palace near to London. It was last used by Henry VIII as a hunting lodge.  In the 1930's a private house was built adjoining the medieval Great Hall by the wealthy Courtauld family.  Most of the images above show the beautiful art deco interiors.

The first image shows the ship like entrance way. Stunning!  Upstairs the Courtauld's had separate and very different bedrooms. Hers was all curves and gold.  His was angular and functional.  How lovely it must have been to live there!  Very elegant.  The Courtauld's even had a pet ring tailed lemur that was so spolit it had the run of the palace and hand painted wallpaper in his boudoir to remind him of his Madagascan home!