New Gardening with Morris tableau at the Laing arts gallery

Plant arrangements

Gardening with Morris tableau has been adapted for a new space in the 
Arts&Crafts exhibition showing at the Laing art gallery in Newcastle till 30 Jan 2016

Final installation - 8.5 metre tableau

Detail- Alium , glass eye and blue organ  with  fruits, birds and pomegranates

Detail - Glass corollas and ceramic organs on daisy and Chrysanthemums

Last few days of shows in London and Compton

   
Nearing the end of a busy summer with the last 2 days of exhibition Essence at the London glassblowing gallery in Bermondsey street and the wonderful cup show curated by Alison Briton Many a Slip at the Marsden Woo gallery  ending on September 5th.

My contribution with Cup for goose egg - Glass, wood, egg

Cup for goose egg and cup for quail egg. image © Philip Sayer  

Gardening with Morris at the Arts and Crafts House Then and Now is still on till the 13 September. The show has already attracted 12000 visitors! Will be preparing to garden William Morris wall paper designs for the next venue in Newcastle's Laing gallery where the Arts and Crafts show is opening from the 10 Oct - 31 Jan 2016

Detail Gardening with William Morris's Daisies and  Chrysanthemums

Latest Chimera Collection bowls on sale at Compton Verney

Latest Chimera collection of unique hand decorated bone china bowls  will be on sale from  Saturday in the Compton Verney shop. The collection mix William Morris florals with my own wild meadow and  road side pickings.

  

Indoor Gardening with Morris at Compton Verney

Day 1. Ground laying the wall paper for Gardening with Morris with professional help from Graham and Steve. The dark grey night panels with Morris&Co designs of Willow Bough, Chrysanthemum and Marigold are the 1st to go up. 

Very excited to finally see all the paper up. Night and day panels  from left to right incorporating William Morris designs   Chrysanthemum, Daisy, Marigold, Bird & Pomegranate, Fruit, Compton, Willow bough, Marigold, Chrysanthemum, Willow Bough.

Day 2. The garden beginning to take shape with ceramics and the latest glass forms - Corolla bulbs and root bulbs.

Day 3. Adding plantations including Sunflowers, Aliums, Dandelion stem, Achinacea, Poppy seed heads, Black leaved elder stalk, Yellow yarrow, Blade grass, Cow parsley.

Installation assistants Jack, Jo and JP viewing at the end of a hard days work. Thanks guys!

Impressive views outside the Compton Verney gallery - Faye Claridge's giant Kern baby commission accompanied by a  small show of her photographs by the cafe. 

And one of the glorious Lebanese cypress trees!

Gardened Morris wallpapers

Print on Bird and Pomegranate, Fruit and Compton

Final layout of wall paper prints for Gardening with Morris installation. 2 distinct colour parts, light sunlight yellow and dark dusk grey.

Print on Willow bough

Row of green patches on the pavement this morning along with the last blossom shower.

New glass for Gardening with Morris

A day working on new glass forms with Jochen for 'Gardening with Morris' installation.

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Trying out some new opaque colours with some success and some failures!The whole process of lamp work is quite organic and fluid like drawing.

In the studio. Collection of stick work and ageing potatoes

Glass pieces, Winged and tailed forms and Corollas

http://www.comptonverney.org.uk/events/414/the_arts_and_crafts_house_then_and_now.aspx

British Glass Biennale 2015

Life on a Stick

I will be showing 3 of my glass pieces at the next British Glass Biennale in Stourbridge. Thrilled to have these pieces selected and to be showing alongside a great line up of other artists.

Blue Avis on yellow branch

Nose, tail and handle form

Dan Pearson's Morris Meadow

The Arts fund has successfully crowd funded Dan Pearson's 'Morris meadow' commissioned for the Arts and Craft House show. Dan has designed a William Morris-inspired garden within a wild-flower meadow.

I'm very excited to have been commissioned a  special edition series 'Chimera collection' decorated bone china bowls as one of the donators rewards. My designs will include a selection of meadow flowers from Dan's plant list and Morris flowers.

                                                                         The garden museum's in Lambeth recent addition to theirnew contemporary craft collection 'Contemplations in Burges park' 

  

Small plot

A small plot studio installation with some of the new glass pieces made with Jochen last week. The 9 meter 'Gardening with Morris' installation  will be up at  Compton Verney for the 'Arts and Craft House' e by the 26th June.

Printing at Sonsoles studio

Now a member of the vibrant Sonsoles print studio in Peckham where I have been screen printing onto Morris's designs. The whole process of  reconfiguring and making 'Space' among the fully charged repetition of pattern is akin to weeding, pruning, dividing and landscaping. The garden elements I want to return Morris's plants to are the ground , what happens underneath and way above  in the sky. 

Stencilling panels on studio floor

Working so closely and physically with the wallpapers certainly increased both my appreciation of the complexity and beauty of William Morris's designs as well as knee and back pain!

Organic designs - plots of earth, seeds, couch grass

Print on Pomegranate and bird

Daylight panels on Daisy

For anyone who wants to understand the aesthetic of space this book is a must.