Segments - Ceramics 1

Cream seems to be our theme.  I selected two cream jugs from the collection this time and this proved to be a rich source of creativity!

First a moment of innocence: 

The Cow 

Robert Louis Stevenson

The friendly cow all red and white,

     I love with all my heart:

She gives me cream with all her might,

     To eat with apple-tart.

She wanders lowing here and there,

     And yet she cannot stray,

All in the pleasant open air,

     The pleasant light of day;

And blown by all the winds that pass

     And wet with all the showers,

She walks among the meadow grass

     And eats the meadow flowers.

The cow creamer jug was quite charming and we wondered if the cream went down its legs ..(it doesn't).  We wrote acrostics on CREAM which revealed a deep inner conflict between health and hedonism.

The second jug was a tiny Worcester jug with fanciful flowers and insects painted on it.  With paired this with the poem "Bees" by Carol Ann Duffy. It begins:

  

Bees Carol Ann Duffy Here are my bees, gold blurs on paper, besotted; buzzwords dancing their flawless airy maps. Here are two of the responses: Yvette Red, Round and No Spots Here is my poem, which I’m writing not knowing this little creature; It’s red, rouge, rose, tinto Oh! Yes red It’s round and makes no sound Wings gossamer thin Delicate, yet cutting like jets through the air It lands, red and round Silently upon it’s prey How else would it stay Ember red, eager for the kill Gently creeping on a delicate leaf And I wonder does it every sleep? In life’s cycle it’s time is short May be we should take note of how this silent little thing All red and round Fills life with endless beauty As though it has a duty to astound the human race Perhaps I should have spotted That it is not But that would be too easy as it could have been A lady of the winged variety Sonia Blue Haze Here is my fairy damsel fly                                          Blue haze of flight Filigree fantasy in the light Into the deep periwinkle of thought – sought, fought brought into the lace, place, taste of the nectar of life spilled into the ink of all I think. We also looked a the Arts & Craft movement led by William Morris: “If you want a golden rule that will fit everything, this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and libertarian socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement. He founded a design firm in partnership with the artist Edward Burne-Jones, and the poet and artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti which profoundly influenced the decoration of churches and houses into the early 20th century. As an author, illustrator and medievalist, he helped to establish the modern fantasy genre, and was a direct influence on postwar authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien. He was also a major contributor to reviving traditional textile arts and methods of production, and one of the founders of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, now a statutory element in the preservation of historic buildings in the UK. The theme of beautiful and decorative led to this: Strength in Stitches Yvette An army camp without power, unthinkable, unbelievable but what about the man or men who made it happen?  At 4 am one dark and dank evening the lights could be seen burning outside the military church in Aldershot town.  There, sweat pouring down their faces, could be seen the team of electricians snipping and clipping wires while the generator coughed and splattered.  Not a battle tomorrow but a royal visit!  No excuses, no problems could be presented, this was the military and everything must run like clockwork.  The man in charge would bear the brunt if their majesties were in anyway inconvenienced. Stresses such as these lead to a man’s demise and not many months later my father in law, who was that man, had a complete nervous breakdown.  Not now the man who fixed but the man that needed to be fixed!  So this harsh and sometimes overwhelmingly strict world gave way to hospitals and the quiet realisation that he would never be the same again.  The beautiful tapestry that now adorns my wall is therefore quite special.  He became adept at needlework and the country cottage with its perfusion of flowers and the path leading to the door of a thatched cottage is a tribute to a man’s life.  I often think that the stories that are locked behind the closed door of that cottage are so very far from the military but encapsulated for all time.