Fantastic Foxes in Good Homes Magazine

Well done to my friend Keeley for spotting my Fox Face Plate in this month's Good Homes Magazine, sitting amongst some other lovely foxy things...

New Stockist

Having delivered a package of work to In With The Old, a lovely little shop run by Alice Howard on Amwell  Street in Islington, London, I thought this world be a good opportunity to share where you can find my work in real life (rather than online):

In with the Old

57 Amwell Street, London, EC1R1UR

(about a 10 minute walk from Kings Cross and Angel)

They stock a selection of my Urban Animal Plates, Porcelain Military Ribbons and Brooches.

www.inwiththeoldme.com

North Street Pottery

24 North Street  Clapham, London SW4 0HB

A busy urban pottery in the heart of Clapham, where I did an apprenticeship to improve my throwing skills. They stock a selection of my screenprinted jewellery, amongst their many pots.

http://www.northstreetpotters.com

io Gallery 

39 Sydney Street  Brighton, East Sussex BN1 4EP

A spot to find my porcelain jewellery in Brighton.

www.iogallery.co.uk/

Flow, Rupert Cavendish & Ceramic Review

Visited my porcelain bottle-ladies at Rupert Cavendish antiques a few weeks ago. They seemed to be fitting right in on the iconic black and amber furniture of this antique shop, sharing the space with some beautifully textured pieces by Lisa Stockham amongst others.

Also discovered the pieces have also been featured in Ceramic Review Magazine's article on pop-up shops in their latest issue. And also Flow Gallery, who are co-hosting the show, have written a lovely review of my pieces in it, on their blog http://flowgallery.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/pop-up-exhibition-at-rupert-cavendish.html

http://flowgallery.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/blog-post_19.html

Feels like the hard work is paying off when things like this happen!

Fragile In Transit comes to London

While in Denmark earlier this year I formed a collective with eight other international ceramicists...We are collaboratively curating an travelling exhibition: Fragile in Transit

Each of us have made a piece of work that references 'balance' in some way. The work will travel to each of our hometowns, where we will host an exhibition.

I will be hosting the London show at the Doodle bar, Battersea, London this October. 

The pieces have so far travelled to Belfast’s Maxwell Street Studios as part of Northern Ireland’s Craft Month, and are currently showing in Designer Souvenirs in Bornholm, Denmark as part of Bornholm's Culture Week.

Come see this exciting exhibition in London next month at the Doodle bar; an arts and drinking venue set up in an old Victorian dairy warehouse in Battersea. 

The show opens at 6pm on Thursday 18th October 2012 and runs for one week.

For more information and to follow the journey of the pieces visit http://projectnetwork3.tumblr.com/

or http://www.facebook.com/FragileInTransit

You can also find more about the London exhibition at http://www.facebook.com/events/368436323237379/

The work packaged up after its journey from Belfast to Bornholm

Work by Helene Søs Schjødts. Denmark 

The journey, illustrated on my piece; a travelling shrine

My piece: Katie Spragg. England

Katja Kotikoski. Finland 

Fresh out the kiln

New work for an upcoming exhibition hot out of the kiln today...

New Gift Shop Pieces 'Schwartz und Blau' for  Flow Gallery's pop up exhibition at:

Rupert Cavendish Antiques 
610 King's Road, London SW6 2DX
Tuesday 25th September - 2nd October

The pieces are made in new combinations and in blues, blacks and greys to coordinate with Rupert Cavendish's antique furniture. 

Traces 'Junk Shop' Now Open!

Visit Tom Dixon's Portobello Dock to rummage through some high end, designer 'junk' (in the good sense of the word!) including my Urban Animal Plates and Military Mascot Porcelain Ribbons...

Summer Escapades

The past few months I have been busy creating, selling, travelling and exhibiting, but unfortunately, not blogging. So here's a quick round up of what I've been up to....

June

I had a very successful, albeit incredibly soggy Diamond Jubilee Festival at the Etsy Marketplace in Battersea Park. Didn't see the Queen, but I did see a very nice (male) look-a-like and a pearly Queen which was enough for me.

In case you missed out on getting your own limited edition alternative Diamond Jubilee Souvenir, there are still a few left at http://www.etsy.com/shop/katiejspragg?section_id=11539850 

July

Saw the opening of Tina Tsang's, director of Undergrowth Design (where I have worked part-time for the past two years), psychopomp exhibition at Mead Carney. 

I had created delicate porcelain details for some of her sculptures including porcelain flowers with glass eyeballs for centers and porcelain seaweed and limpets.

'ascension II' by tina tsang as part of her 'psychopomp' exhibition
all images courtesy of mead carney 

Look closely and you can see the flowers I created nestled amongst the moss.

Also in July I exhibited new work at the amazing Secret Garden Party, in its 10th year the theme was 'Standing on Ceremony', so I took the opportunity to celebrate the bazaar tradition of military animal mascots. 

Commemorative platters hung in the trees of the Badger Woods and the audience could award the mascots oversized medals of different curious facts. 

August

In August a very exciting journey began of 9 ceramic artworks, created by nine international, emerging ceramicists, of which I was one.

Fragile In Transit is a ceramic travelling exhibition; an idea conceived at Guldagergaard in Denmark where I completed a residency earlier this year. 

Each artist has created a piece that weighs less than 5kg and references ‘balance’ in some way. The pieces will travel between each of the artists’ hometowns, visiting Helsinki, Vilnius and Milan amongst others.

The exhibition opened  in Belfast’s Maxwell Street Studios as part of Northern Ireland’s Craft Month and has now the traveled to the island of Bornholm, Denmark where is will be park of Bornholm's Culture week.

The Belfast exhibition, hosted by Claire Muckian  http://www.clairemuckian.co.uk/

My piece for the exhibition; a travelling shrine to places I have never been.

Follow the journey and adventures of this work at http://projectnetwork3.tumblr.com/ 

Like us on Facebook for frequent updates and news of the upcoming London exhibition http://www.facebook.com/FragileInTransit

In August I also travelled myself, back to Denmark to visit other members of the collective and take down our exhibition that had been showing in Grimmerhus International Ceramic Museum.

New Gift Shop pieces were exhibited in the Traces exhibition, an emersive exhibition in an old Victorian pub, The Marquis of Landsdown in Hackney.

Diamond Jubilee Commemorative Plates and spot at Festival

The past few weeks I've been busy researching and drawing away for a new range of The Queen's Diamond Jubilee alternative commemorative plates.... (small and large and mugs and teacups too)


Here are the finished designs.... they all reference facts about the Queen, celebrating the British sentiment towards the often unusual traditions of our monarchy.


Watch this space for photos of the finished real thing which i'll be making this week.

Also excitingly I've been selected to show them off at the official Jubilee celebrations in Battersea Park in the Etsy market place... book your tickets for the festival now (only £5) looks like it'll be a ball! http://www.thamesdiamondjubileepageant.org/DiamondJubileeFestival.aspx

Designer / Makers Market @ Spitalfields this Saturday

Come see me and Alice Walton at Spitalfields Market on Saturday 21st April

Upcoming work at Secret Garden Party

I have been invited to create an installation for this year's Secret Garden Party Festival.

Inspired by my previous Eppaulettes for Army Pets project, and fitting this years theme 'Standing on Ceremony' my installation will celebrate the curious tradition of animal military mascots.

The installation will take the form of 5 commemorative ceramic plates, hung amongst trees in the forest. Each plate will commemorate a real animal army mascot.

An interactive element is added by oversized military badges describing bizarre but true facts about the animals. For example: William Winsor, the goat, ‘receives a ration of 2 cigarettes a day’ while Sir Nils Olav, a penguin ‘was knighted in 2005’. These badges can awarded to the military mascots by participants who can hang them under the commemorative plate of the animal which they think that fact applies to

Here is a sneak preview:

Clay Intervention in Camden Art Centre's Garden

This weekend I ran a family workshop at Camden Art Centre.


With the help of many small pairs of hands we created clay plants to take over imagined urban spaces... using plaster moulds to make leaves, extruders for grass and sieves to grow moss! I was happy to see others as excited by these processes as me.


http://www.camdenartscentre.org/home/

Insufficient Data: a ceramic map

The work I completed in Denmark lifts and borrows from the accepted visual language of maps; using this I created a dialogue that explores my insufficient sense of direction.


I am fascinated by how maps offer a visualisation of space, they show us the connections and distances between places and this formed the basis of my research during the residency.


This work uses clay to appliqué my interpretation of the new place of Skælskør and Denmark with  collected maps and other people’s observation of that same place to create a collage of expectation, reality, imagination and perception.


What I thought Denmark would be like (mountainous) was very different to what its is actually like (very flat and spacious) and this became an important part of the work I created.

The culmination of our residency was the Guldagergaard Project Network III Group Exhibition at the Apple  House Gallery. 


The exhibition will travel to Grimmerhus International Ceramic Museum from 16th April - 20th August 2012.


http://www.grimmerhus.dk/

The culmination of our residency was the Guldagergaard Project Network III Group Exhibition at the Apple  House Gallery. 


The exhibition will travel to Grimmerhus International Ceramic Museum from 16th April - 20th August 2012


http://www.grimmerhus.dk/

Back of my head makes a guest apperance: Guldagergaard Newsletter

Just before the end of Project Network (the residency programme I was taking part in) the quarterly Guldagergaard Ceramic Research Centre newsletter was published, featuring an article on the Network and a picture of me working away. 

Guldagergaard Danish Ceramics Residency

Two weeks ago I returned from the small harbor town of Skælskør in Denmark after completing a six week residency at the International Ceramic Research Centre; Guldagergaard.


I had an amazing time  creating new work, meeting international ceramic artists and exploring both the local countryside and sights of Copenhagen.


I created a new body of work inspired by maps. I worked with very different clays; experimenting with low-fire coloured earthenware clays including a local brick clay in both red and yellow, terracotta and a black clay. I shared new processes and ideas with the other 8 ceramicists sharing the studio.


Here are some highlights of my time there:

The 2D Table... an important place set up in the library for me and fellow networker Elodie Alexandre http://elolala.wordpress.com/

 Here our ideas took shape in paper, collage and drawings before being developed into clay in the studio.

Each night two of us would cook for everyone... a shopping trip for 16 people.

The demo plate of traditional Danish Smørrebrød, introduced to us by Helene a Danish Ceramicist on the networkhttp://www.helenesoesschjoedts.dk/?page_id=110

The beautiful view of the fjord in Skælskør on an extended bike ride to the post office

A new process I explored; backpainting coloured slip onto a plaster bat before rolling in clay, sometimes the bits left over are as beautiful as the result

Build your own Lego man in the Lego shop in Copenhagen, the possibilities are endless.

Sailor trousers, Check. Scuber diving helmet, Check. Banana, Check.

The view of the farm house we stayed in, through the sculpture park where it was located.

Working through ideas with drawings, maquets and unfired pieces

Working away in my (unusually clean) studio space

Posed Pondering over one of my collaged maps

The ice has melted, only 2 weeks ago this was complelety frozen (see earlier blog posts for evidence!)

The huge bridge at Korsor linking the Danish Islands Zealand and Funen, we were given a tour by Helene's inlaws after being invited over for lunch and taken to a flee market

A natural wonder... this strange ice forms were re-imagined as a mountain in my finished pieces

Tiny mountain tests

An array of test tile islands

The vast expanse of fields that formed a lasting impression of Denmark in my mind and featured in my completed ceramic map