Thoughts from Hanley Museum

Took the boyfriend round the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery and drew this:

which is a sketch of the pattern on a Vase made by Mark Dally in 2002. He uses stencils and slip trails/drips to create these beautiful calligraphic shapes and was like a wave of fresh air standing next to ugly brown slipware and over-decoration galore. I think a lot of pottery designers in the height of the Stoke-On-Trent industry had never really heard of the phrase "less is more". It was like somebody had walked into their studio and started yelling that they could see some free space on a teacup or whatever that wasn't plastered in flowers.

It gave me a lot of inspiration for my bowl project though, and having looked at Mr Dally's work, I think I might have a look back at dear Mr Aubery Beardsley (whose work I always end up coming back to eventually). I made some new designs for my bowl based on animal cells.

I thought that maybe I could link my designs in with cancer, because my grandfather died last year due to  stomach/lung cancer and liver failure and without him, this project would not be possible. I was thinking that I could donate some of my proceeds to cancer research.

It was also great to see work by Arthur Berry being hung up again, as he was one of my heros when I was 16 and just starting to learn how to paint in college. I think his work identifies strongly with the cultural ethos of Stoke-On-Trent and it's a shame that so much of his work wasn't preserved.