Before I learned to use clay properly, I made a small solid clay figure. Thinking it needed an armature, I formed it around some coat hanger wire, but, of course, as the clay shrank around the wire, it cracked.
When at last I learned to properly use clay and to throw on the wheel, I began to make various sculptural shapes from thrown pieces and join them together, as with the eye, horse and coil, and later triffid. Even Madonna was thrown first and altered.
Another sculptural technique was cutting solid slabs of clay into shapes and joining them together in various ways, as with palace and castle.
Wishing to build larger pieces, to overcome clay’s lack of tensile strength, I tried sandwiching nylon mesh (crinoline material) between two thin slabs of clay. The conductor, cosmic snail, torso and easter head were made using this method.
Around 1981, I acquired an extruder, which allowed me to make long, hollow tubes of clay, the shapes and sizes of which depended on dies that I carved into flat steel circles. Two examples of pieces made from extruded clay are tube assemblage and bridges, all pictured below.
cry to the stars, 1963, first try with clay, using a wire armature, 15 cm long, ∆04
madonna, 1975, thrown and altered iron rich clay, 27 cm h, ∆10. This piece, I must admit, is a copy from memory of a similar piece made by my good friend, Jim Marshall, the famous Medicine Hat clay-brick muralist and artist.
eye, 1975, thrown closed form assembled on a cylinder, 62 cm h, glazed stoneware, ∆10. Among my very first sculptural attempts with thrown elements.
coil, 1975?. First you throw two or more closed tubes on the wheel, then you cut each in cross-section, lay one on top and join them, enclose the ends, dry and fire. This one was unglazed in high iron clay, ∆10.
horse, 1975, wheel thrown tubes altered and joined, 41 cm h, glazed iron rich clay, ∆10.
open tower, 1975, assembled clay slab pieces, 36 cm h, unglazed ∆5.
fence, 54 cm long, tall closed forms attached in a row, iron oxide wash, unglazed, fired to ∆10.
huffalump, 1975?, 63 cm long, five thrown closed forms, joined with small thrown cups, white glaze, ∆10.
huffalump, 1976? I was thinking of Whale backbones. My daughter and her husband have this piece decorating their back yard in Stratford.
triffid, 1976, assembled thrown tubes and balls, 42 cm h, iron glaze, ∆10.
conversation, 1975, two pieces, apx. 100 cm high, slab-coiled unglazed stoneware, fired to ∆5, mounted on wooden bases.
conductor, 1975, slab-coiled stoneware, 115 cm h, iron oxide rub to emphasize texture, ∆5.
conductor, left, 1975, stoneware, slab/coiled, 115 cm h, iron oxide rub, ∆5
crack in the cosmic snail, 1975, slab-coiled, plastic mesh-reinforced clay, 120 cm h, unglazed ∆5.
crack in cosmic snail, left side, 1975, mounted on a wooden base.
torso, 1978 (private collection), clay, fig. 89 cm h, ∆5, mounted on steel & concrete base.
palace, 1981, made during a workshop at the Banff Centre. Thick slabs of textured clay assembled vertically, oxide rub, ∆5.
castle, 1981 (made during a Banff workshop), assembled clay slab pieces, 54 cm h, unglazed, ∆5. (❋)
easter head, 1981, slab-coiled stoneware, 135 cm h, black glaze, ∆5.
tube assemblage, 1981, 39 cm long, extruded stoneware, clear glaze, ∆10. Exploring extrusions.
