Today I worked fast with a pounding heart. Putting clay on the top here is asking the previous top sides to collapse. You have to wait till they are dry and strong, but not too dry as a good join is essential. Coil two, even more weight… This is the last one, I […]
There is a great article in The July edition of The English Garden magazine! It is a conversation with Hannah Peschar, curator of the Hannah Peschar Sculpture Garden in Surrey. I have had the pleasure of working with Hannah Peschar for 20 years in which time she has nurtured my talent as a sculptor as […]
I decided to try to build this piece on the lifting table so that I can concentrate on the shape of the base. I want this one to be squatter, which is a far more difficult thing to achieve, without it collapsing under its own weight. The trouble is that it is hard to […]
It is lovely and cool in the workshop today. I am finishing the base of the second piece and have just started making number three. These pieces called The land, The sea, by Viv keel, come to life in the sunshine The sun has certainly put the paint on these this week.
It was great to have Viv Keel in the garden today. Viv placed these beautiful lead crystal pieces here and I am absolutely thrilled with them. They are called Rock, Sand, Glass and are a celebration of what is essentially the same material. They are stunning with the light shining behind them.
Here come the strawberries! Last year I had enough to make 5lbs of jam, it looks like another bumper crop this year, if I can only keep the slugs away! Mixing the colour. I love the clay at this stage, it is so very tactile. I carefully paint in lines of slip which […]
I am loving this Allium Bulgaricum (Summer Bells) at the moment. After it’s beautifully elegant conical papery buds have punctuated the foliage for a good five weeks,these subtly coloured bells emerge like one at a time like the limbs of a butterfly coming out of a chrysalis. The bees love them and once each […]
I am so often astounded by nature. This tiny seedling is growing on the side of my work, where it has been wrapped in plastic for a couple of days in a warm humid environment. I feel terrible taking it off! I have been making the slip for the surface of the piece today. […]
Today I am feeling for all the people who have worked so hard to make the RHS Show at Chatsworth House such a success this year. It is only ten minutes from my garden, so I guess the weather is as wet there as it is here. The one consolation is that the colours in […]
I have been so very saddened by recent events, and so today I got everything ready so that I could sit quietly in the workshop and observe the minutes silence and think about all the people who are hurting at the moment. When the clock was still chiming, a swallow flew in through the open […]