Exploring Knit through ceramics

                                               coils knitted and just been dipped in glaze ready for Raku

                                                     Just out of Bisque Firing

                                                         Closer Look at form

                                                   Plaster cast of knitted Aran Jumper

                                               Knitted with cotton,  Out of Bisqued firing at 1040

                                          Knitted with Jute

                                              This piece knitted with muslin

                                            Knitted a long piece with cotton.. just out of Bisque firing

                                                Closer look

                                            Knitted with Linen fabric, cut in strips.

                                         This piece was knitted with my fingers .Made it 6ft in
                                            length. Wrapped it around a round mould for the
                                            shape

                                              Another piece made with coils.  Biqued

                                                  With a slab of clay made a embossment of
                                                 the aran jumper

                                             This piece was made with the plaster cast. Just before
                                               firing

                                             Used a bag of red clay to make a charin

Ranking project week 1

After visiting a couple of neighbours farms near me.. I soon learnt that there was a lot more to faarming than I realised and how a farmer loves his tools...   Theres the disc harrow which I am really drawn to and the various types of ploughs and the potatoe seeder.  These were very large pieces of machinery but thanks to Franchesca she brought me in a piece of the seeder..  I also had a tool that sheep shearers use.   This is quite a very simple tool that does so much work.   The cutting tool that I got is very old but I belive that the modern wool cutters are still the same.  How these guys cut the wool with this tool I'll never know. 

Sheep shearer's cutting tool.  Realling like the different angles and curves to it.

                                           Taking a closer look

some mark making. 

in depth drawing of the tool

                                            this is a tool that farmers use for cutting the calfs hoofs

I spent a lot of time mark making and then created some 3d pieces.  Working with wire and tyring to deconstruct the cutting tool.  Then with the potatoe seeder, I used wire and plastice and cellotape again looking at the form seeing what different forms I could create..  I worked with plaster paris, wool.  

ceramics

Ceramics.....

Picked the Farmer as my subject for my ranking project.   After doing some brainstorming on the Farmer this morning some of the words I picked out were Bog Oak, Aran Jumpers, Old ploughs or harvesting equipment, corn and wheat and hay...

Why I picked the bog oak is that I find it fasinating that these pieces of wood have been living in the bog for thousands of years and now people are finding them and making wonderful pieces of art.  If the bog oak could talk what a story they could tell us. 

The Aran Jumpers design are very much part of the Irish heritage.  The sheep, shearing of the wool, and spinning...
The Old plough ... This is an tradition that is not seen today and I used to know this man who recently died in his 90's and told me that there was nothing better than ploughing the land by hand.   While modern machinery had come into vogue, he still was very proud of the face that he drilled a portion of the land himself .

I'm going to put the corn and wheat and hay together....   I'm interested in this as it brings back memories of my mother who used to be always telling me of the times when the whole community came together and helped each other with the harvesting.... bringing the tea down to the men and having big dinners ready and then in the evening a big song and dance was held at whoseever house they were at.   Also remember myself playing on the haystacks and jumping off them and the laughter and fun we had during the summer. 

 I printed out some images and thought I saved them on  my k no. but have just gone back and don't seem to have them so have to go back now and find images again....