Pottery/Ceramics — helenfrancesbaker.com

Winter / Spring 2024

Having two terms of throwing completed, it’s felt good to enter this season feeling more confident in my abilities and wanting to experiment and try more complicated forms and glazing. One of my main aims has been to throw bigger pots! I’ve had some success with this, but haven’t abandoned my penchant for teeny tiny vessels. One of my issues last term was ending up with cracked bases, so I’ve also been working on overcoming this. More to come!

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Autumn / Winter 2023

For the Autumn/Winter term of pottery, I wanted to focus on decoration - with Christmas around the corner, I was keen to make some useful gifts! I became interested in throwing forms that had specific uses - and discovered my love for throwing jugs. Throwing shallow bowls and then forming a spout is so satisfying, and I love that they have a job. I was much more focused on uniformity in design this term, and although all the pieces were different in shape and size, I made the decision to glaze them all in the same pattern.

Using some blue underglaze paint and a very fine paintbrush, I ended up with this simple leaf pattern - dipped in transparent glaze to let the blue stand out.

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Glazed / fired :

Spring / Summer 2023

My first pottery course! It felt so good to get back to making something tactile, and I loved the challenge of picking up a new, very technical skill. The freedom to experiment has been liberating - and having no experience glazing previously, seeing the fired pieces was thrilling.

I was most happy with my teaspoon rest - actually made after I threw a small pot and cracked the rim when trimming. I carved out the crack to make it into something new, and experimented with two glazes layered to see how they would interact. It sits pride of place next to my kettle!

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