Mudlarking

For anyone who may not know, 'Mudlark' was the name given to people who scavenged for valuables in the mud of the River Thames at low tide in the 18th and 19th centuries. Now obviously that's not exactly what I've been doing but I have been playing with a different sort of mud with the aim of making something that might have some artistic merit or value...

One of the things I really love about being part of this AJE team is the huge capacity my team mates have for sharing and supporting one another. You may just have noticed in the last couple of weeks that some of them came back from ArtBliss very excited about the new techniques they'd learnt and were eager to put into practice and about this time last week, that excitement got us all talking about mixed media work and where we wanted our creative paths to go.

I'd been saying for a long time that I wanted to have a go at making ceramic beads and I even bought a sample pack of clay way back last year. I only have a small, low temperature kiln so am limited to what I can do and have to admit to being a little bit intimidated by long and what seem to me to be complex firing schedules. But my team mates were having none of that and immediately proffered advice and information on how to get started and, more importantly encourage me to just have a go. Well, they got me so fired up (pardon the pun) that I got up on Friday morning and set straight to making some little tiles for glaze tests and some beads...

I found working with the clay very therapeutic especially as you have so much longer to work with it than you do the metal clay I'm used to where speed is of the essence to keep the clay conditioned. After a couple of hours I had a good few beads which I left to dry so they changed colour to a dusty grey...

At this point I had to do some shopping as I had no kiln furniture or glaze for the latter part of the process and I have to admit that I did disregard some of the advice I'd been given. Karen quite rightly suggested testing just one or two glazes before investing more but I'm afraid that's not in my nature. When I start something new I can't help diving in headlong and I was helpless when faced with an array of gorgeous colours and so of course I bought 10 of them! Some of them are hiding from Karen here...

I also ordered myself a bead firing rack and was very impressed when it arrived the next day until I realised they'd sent the wrong size...how frustrating to have your plans delayed when you're so excited!

But anyway, I needed to bisque fire my beads before I could do any glazing so after pestering people with a mass of questions all weekend I bit the bullet on Monday and put them in the kiln and left them to fire overnight. Next day I was delighted to find this little pile of goodies all intact and crack free - phew!

By Tuesday the replacement bead rack hadn't yet arrived arrived so I set to and glazed my beads so they'd be ready when it did. It was not at all disconcerting that from 10 glazes I could only discern three colours most of which were nothing like the colour they would be when fired!

So yesterday the bead rack arrived...eek! Now I really had to be brave! After another round of questions about cones and ramps and soaks (might seem simple to you ceramic folk but it had my head spinning!) I took a deep breathe, programmed the kiln, shut the door, walked away and started counting down the hours...

The firing finished late last night and I was literally holding my breathe when I opened the kiln and found these...

Not perfect by any means but all in one piece and nothing stuck together so I am totally 'chuffed' (very, very happy) with the results - especially these two...

I would just like to say a huge thank you to the AJE team for their encouragement over the last week, especially Karen and Caroline who have answered and explained endlessly and without whom I couldn't have done it (excuse me while I have a Gwyneth moment...) and who were waiting like expectant grandparents for news last night.

And if you're wondering if I'm hooked...well I was looking at high temperature kilns yesterday and one of these just happened to fall into a shopping cart...oopsie!

So who has something new they want to try but is a bit nervous about giving it a go...do let us know. I would thoroughly recommend diving in if you can as it's such a great feeling of achievement when you do.

Lesley 
The Gosssiping Goddess