Ceramics & Pottery by
David Schlapobersky and Felicity Potter
Contact us: Click here
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Ceramics & Pottery by David Schlapobersky and Felicity Potter
Contact us: Click here
|
|
|
About Us
"We are the sum of our experience and all who have preceded us. Our commitment embraces an approach implying that life and work are indivisible”
OUR APPROACH TO HIGH TEMPERATURE, REDUCTION-FIRED STUDIO POTTERY
Playing with fire...
The making of pottery is a timeless occupation and the best of pots
through the ages have a quality of timelessness about them that transcends
chronological and cultural boundaries. Pottery is an art form with its roots in
science. As Jacob Bronowski
observed, "The work of science or of art moves us profoundly, in mind and
in emotion, when it matches our experience and at the same time points beyond
it. This is the meaning of truth
that art and science share..."
Pottery is one of the most primitive and universal expressions of human industry and, at the same time, a highly advanced and scientifically based art form. Potters have concerns that are broader and therefore distinct from most other expressive media
Makers of pottery are part of a continuum from man's earliest experiences with fired clay to classical concerns with the perfection of form in the quest for truth and beauty and so often charged with emotion, being concerned with issues of timeless design and enduring quality which only the hands and the caring mind can produce. A sacred tribute to civilisation!
THE POTTER'S WHEEL
The Egyptians are credited with the first use of the potter's wheel in
about 3,000 BC. The most
sophisticated of contemporary thrown work thus relies on a primitive form of
technology that has been in continuous use for five thousand years.
Although wheels are driven largely by electricity today, the search for a
harmony of form and function is as compelling as it was to the men who created
the ancient Minoan jars or 'red and black' figured urns of classical Athens. David's throwing was originally influenced by his teacher, Tim Morris, who was trained in the Anglo-Oriental tradition. The challenge of throwing to meet practical requirements for domestic use has provided a discipline for some 37 years that remains vitally important. To this discipline is added the aesthetic challenge of making objects with a balance and proportion of form that allow them to take their place in an art collection as happily as on a dinner table.
David uses the same wheel to create small, refined pieces of porcelain; and by building up, in sections, giant stoneware urns that stand some 1.2m tall
and weigh up to 90kg. These large
pots - in their stature and strength of form - manifest in their own way the
refinement found in the smallest porcelain pieces. Inspirational sources for David's current work include Egyptian funerary urns, Mediterranean (Minoan) grain, oil and olive jars from the Classical period, Oriental high-fired pottery, 20th Century English studio pottery, and traditional African coil pots.
DECORATION AND BRUSHWORK
Felicity's brushwork techniques and patterns come from her background in
watercolour painting and fabric design.
She applies her brush decoration, to the dry, unfired glaze, using
various combinations of iron oxide, cobalt oxide, rutile and copper oxide, as
well as a range of glazes used as a decorating medium.
The decorative motifs are drawn from a diversity of sources that are
combined to very striking effect. They
include abstract forms and images, those drawn from the natural environment of
the African landscape including flowers, birds and fish, and those inspired by
local and ethnic art. The (urn-type) floor jar that serves as our home page illustration is finished in a jade base glaze that - on stoneware - creates a khaki effect. To this dry, unfired glaze, a pigment made up of a mixture of iron oxide and rutile is applied with a pencil over grainer brush. This is then embellished with touches of a turquoise slip made up of a mixture of cobalt oxide, rutile and clay. In the finished piece the brush decoration and the colour tones brought out by the firing have captured something of the vibrancy and harshness of the African landscape, the richness in its minerals and the fire in its light.
Much of our inspiration is drawn from our predecessors in the Anglo-Oriental Tradition of high-temperature, reduction-fired pots and this tradition is flourishing in an African context where the link between function and aesthetics retains its harmony and takes on a new meaning from the physical landscape of Africa as well as local and ethnic art and craft. "You must believe in free will; there is no choice". Isaac Bashevis Singer 1904 – 1991 The showroom in the old barn which forms part of the studio carries a representative display of our work OUR RANGE OF STUDIO POTTERY INCLUDES:
Buyers and collectors can commission work of any scale and a comprehensive shipping and crating service guarantees reliable delivery to any destination Continued on the next page ...
The public interest requires doing today those things men of intelligence and goodwill would wish; five or ten years hence, had been done. Edmund Burke (1729 – 1797)
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