2015 Update and A Work In Progress from 2014 from me! Rose Maguire at THE BLUEDOOR STUDIO...MORE 2015 news coming...

Fishing In the Hippocampus
ROSE MAGUIRE      Porcelain  

Yes it has been a while and this is really an exercise to see how much the 'Blogger' dash board has changed. This is a lovely porcelain sculpture in the making that I did this time last year. Its about 18 inches in height and made from 'cool ice' porcelain with a light cobalt wash and once fired.

So much has happened in the past year or so. and the business is keeping us busy. We do get a chance to get out into our studios though. 

Right now we are gearing up for our third annual 'Muggs Day' event at Milan Rouge Contemporary Craft and Design... so the cauldron will be bubbling with the aroma of spices from the mulled wine. We have about 15 local potters making mugs for the day as I write this post. 

As well as that we are busy making for our next exhibition here at Milan Rouge Contemporary Craft and Design for the annual 'South Australian Living Artists' Festival in August. This year we are down sizing a tad with only  3 ceramic artists, Alison Arnold, Angela Walford and myself ( Rose Maguire) and the fabulous Painter Rebbeca Cooke.... Who said the middle of the year is boring!!!

Some of the mugs I made last year
 for Muggs Day... ROSE MAGUIRE

Promo shot for last year...
  ROSE MAGUIRE and ALISON ARNOLD

Topping up the spices for the mulled wine

MASKS IN PROGRESS @ THE BLUEDOOR

From this Blank of my face

To the finished Masks

Detail one of Gorgeous

We've had a some great pottery weather here at the BLUEDOOR STUDIO over the last couple of weeks...Well some really lovely days mixed with a few not so great ones...Today the sun is shinning and the air is crisp and I've had a lovely flow in the studio over the past two weeks.

I started with a play with Tea Bowls which I'm really happy with,although as yet unglazed and then fiddled with the Altered forms that I shared a sneak peak with you in an earlier post and I've been having a great time over the last couple of days doing a long needed Mask 'Run'.

I love the shadows on damp terracotta

Sweet dreamings

 I use a plaster press mold of my face to form these 

 which I detail with dentistry tools at the firm(ish) 

 leather hard stage.

 After they are dried I apply an iron oxide wash  

and then fire to about 1000degrees.

Sweet dreamings two

I must say that although Today is lovely the cold got to me by about 4 o'clock yesterday so I set up a table in front of the heater inside and finished the last couple of masks over a glass of wine...How civilized!
Just thought I'd share these pics because I love how they look at this stage as much as when they're fired!
Well Cheerio for now... Off to finish the last couple of masks in the sun!


Cheers from ROSE MAGUIRE @ THE BLUEDOOR STUDIO

Rose and the Tiny Dancer

It's been a very busy couple of months for me with work and preparation for our SALA exhibition, which opened last Wednesday night at the Urban Cow Gallery in down town Adelaide.


The Clay Collective put on yet another great show with our usual eclectic mélange of works! It was a terrific to catch up with some old faces and meet and greet many new ones. A very bubbly evening, fun with a capital F.

Time and weather where certainly not on my side with this one. How many times did I throw my hands in the air and and yell... 'That's it, it's never going to happen, I'm pulling out!' ...(in true Drama Queen style)... Plenty! but it all came together somehow and I am so in love with my Tiny Dancer.
I had to give into the weather, it was just so wet and cold up here at the Blue Door Studio, so I converted a newly vacated bedroom into a cosy Hand building Studio (Luxury!) A couple of tables, a comfy chair, a CD player and a Heater, what more could you ask for!









I didn't have time to test the materials for this project but a lot of educated guessing and a bit of luck and I couldn't have been happier.




It really was a tense 7 days from start to pulling her from the kiln still warm and bundling her into the car on exhibition set up morning,but now I know it can be done in the middle of a Lenswood winter, OK so I did steam her for 24 hrs and leaving the oil heater on 24/7 for a week did nothing for my carbon footprint.




A blend of Feeneys Buff Raku and Keans White Hand building clay allowed very quick building. and created a lovley softening undertone where the porcelain slip top layer was lightly sponged back.


I used Gestley Borate and body stains (1 part GB as to 2 parts BS) mixed with water to apply light washes to the dress, boots, headscarf and the banding over her eyes which again I sponged back into. She spent 24 hrs steaming in the kiln and then slowly once fired to about 1200 degrees,may be just under.















Rather than a literal representation of a dancing figure I was striving for a painterly dream like suggestion of an intimate moment of introspection and I couldn't be more pleased with the results...

And somehow it all came together and I am so in love with my Tiny Dancer!





Till next time Cheers from the Bluedoor (Rose Maguire Ceramics)