Bud Vases and Tea Lights in Porcelain, with Gwen Bainbridge

9.30am – 4pm
£75 Lunch included
Material Charges from £15

Create lovely Bud vases, night lights, even buttons - in exquisitely patterned & textured Porcelain

Much of Gwen's work is defined by the unique incorporation of textile pattern into her porcelain, making her work so unique and admired.

Gwen will start the day by introducing you to porcelain clay, a beautiful material to work with; you are able to make quite fine pots as a complete beginner. You will learn how to roll the clay to a use-able thickness, then roll lace patterns of your choice into the clay. Once leather hard you will construct a slab pot, which may be a vase, or tea light. These pots may then be further embellished with clay buttons or lace, all of which Gwen will skillfully show you how to do. A coloured slip may be added at this stage to show up the texture in the lace patterns. Scraps of embellished clay may be made into buttons or jewellery.

Your pieces can be detailed in white or a slip or lustre added to highlight the textures that you have incorporated. Adding a lustre might incur an extra firing charge. You should be able to make at least 2 vases and 2 tea lights in a day and use the remaining clay to make some small delicate decorations

Dates for this course - see the table below to book:

Thursday 28 Jan 2021   ~     Thu 29th April 2021

Kindly note there will be a materials, 'fettling', glazing & firing charge payable directly to the tutor on the day of £15, please bring cash. If a lot more is made this will increase pro rate Collection from Brougham Hall Studio or Greystoke a few weeks later.  Or pots can be posted when ready, if required, which is an additional £10 charge. Typically this course runs with around 8 students.

Please bring:  Materials fee from £15.  If you have a particular piece of lace or textured fabric that you would like to incorporate into the vase then do bring it along.Please bring an old shirt or apron to protect your clothing

About the Artist About Gwen Bainbridge: I see my work as a three-dimensional scrap-book coming from both memories of my childhood and from my response to the experiences brought about through research in books, rummaging through bric a brac, antique fairs, old photographs and magazines. I’m always on the lookout for items that I might use in my work, both for inspiration and for direct practical use. I’m drawn to decorative items. Even as a child I had favourite buttons from my mum’s button box that I played with. There were some beautiful green glass dishes that were brought out for parties and the best china laid out when the minister was coming for tea. These are very strong memories for me. But alongside this finery there was the informal, natural world of my surroundings living on a rural farm in Cumbria. The hedgerows where we found birds nests with the treasured little eggs of wild birds, which we watched until they hatched and finally fledged.

I find that nature itself seems too perfect to try to reproduce. I tend to explore the work of craftsmen of the past who themselves might have been first inspired by the natural world. I appreciate the finery of the costumes of bygone eras, and the distinctive qualities of their production. The more limited and yet still lavish colour palette of Elizabethan times, the retro styles of the 1950s and 60s. It’s quite an eclectic cocktail of inspiration stored in my mind and continually re-visited.