Todays firing and sugar pot

I did a mock up of the sugar bowl design - really badly but I really like it! It looks a bit like a cement mixer! This afternoon I also put on a Kiln with some test mugs so that once they are fired I can test the balance of the handle! So all very exciting...

Copenhagen Ceramics Quest

On Friday we all set off for Copenhagen at 8am! We had been given a tour to follow of different galleries and shops as well as suggestions as to where to have coffee and lunch. However Anne and Tanja proved to be far more knowledgeable and better tour guides then an A4 piece of paper! We started at Design Zoo which showcased up and coming danish designers work. They also had in house studios and the bottom floor was mostly taken up with the manufacture of tables, that were ordered bespoke through the shop.






Our second stop was meant to be open studios however this did not seem to happen anymore but the studios where there and the kind tenants let us have a look around! It was amazingly clean and tidy, I don't know how they all managed it. The atmosphere was so calm and inspiring. It made me want a space in the studios and move to copenhagen even more!




From here we went to 2 Galleries in the Meat Market. This area was so much like Smithfields of London, early morning the meat was brought in and distributed, during the day there were galleries and at night a number of bars. However I may be biased and believe Smithfields is better looking! One gallery had Photos by Sigurdur Gudmundsson which were both hilarious and interesting as well as paintings by Ivan Anderson which I really enjoyed his use of media and form.



We stopped at a Coffee and Vinyl shop, which had some suspect music playing. There was a Parade of soldiers arriving back from Afghanistan, which was sad and patriotic all rolled into one.






Next was Keramik og Glaqsvaerkstedet which was full of Paul Scotts work and the lady who mage the light shades in our dinning room. I brought a new top on the way to the shop from a second hand shop that we popped into just quickly to get warm. Its a cute which shirt that I wore out that night. Our last cultural stop was the Decorative Arts Museum which had a timeline of objects similar to the Geffrye Museum in Bethnal Green. I saw some ceramic topped tables which were interesting that I thought I could do some work with. Also some modern design Classics by Kaare Klint, Poul Henningsen, Arne Jacobsen and Verner Panton as well as a ladder chair by Cecillie Manze that I liked.




That Night we had Dinner in a vegetarian restaurant in Christiania before going back to Tanja's house and getting ready to go out in the Meat District.

Skaelskor The Village

Skaelskor is the village that we are staying in. It is very small with one main street of shops. There is a huge harbour and apparently in the summer it is very busy due to people on boats and taking holidays, but right now its quiet and sleepy. The busy summer months might explain the small villages need for 4 large supermarkets! There is a second hand store to the north of the Village on the main road in. It is amazing there are two sofas that I want - but somehow I don't think that they will be coming home with me! I wanted to drive home in a bit of a road trip, but having looked in the rental prices it would be at least £1,700! We have a second exhibition that I wasn't aware of that is not here but somewhere else that is the end of april and may. Maybe Ill drive over for that and pick up all my moulds? We shall see if i produce anything good first!

Plaster Work

While I'm here I want to make a balancing tea set that looks at british etiquette. I have had this thought since being in norway and i want to do it so that it is out of my mind. The concept relies on balance and the weight of cay compared to the weight of water but I 'm yet to fire any slip so i don't know its fired weight. In the mean time I have made several one piece moulds for the cup bodies and carved a handle,(which I snapped tonight)! While on the plaster lathe I had another idea of lathing at and angle. I really enjoy how there pieces have turned out and would like to work more with them while I'm here. So I will make moulds of the new idea as well as thinking about hoe to make a mould of a teapot!

The Lake

LIz and I went on a walk around the lake at the weekend. It was the first two days that there has been sun! We cooked dinner on saturday which took all day, so made good use of the weather on sunday! It took us about 2 hour to walk around the lake and it was so calm and beautiful, with loads of wild life. We saw deer, hare, coots, swans and other birds.

The Studios

The House

Guldagergaard

I left Copenhagen and got a train, bus and walked to the beautiful Guldagergaard. There are 12 on the Project who come from Poland, USA, UK, Sweden and Denmark. We have been shown around, found a charity shop and a hardware store. There is a port nearby and a Huge lake that take 2ish hours to walk around which I am yet to do! There are ceramic pieces everywhere around the house and the park that it is situated in. We eat off the most amazing creations that have been left behind by previous people! Many of whom are very famous so I'm very careful at washing up! The Applehouse is the Gallery at Guldagergaard where will will have a show in a few short weeks. The Apple house has an archive of work left by people that have been here since the scheme started, its and amazing collection - so interesting and varied. I have realised that We have hardly anytime at all and Im already feeling that I'm running out of time! I have so many ideas of little projects that I want to do. It feels great to be back in a studio and working environment, event though I am yet to do anything!! I think that I would like to get a studio when I'm back in England, but we shall see how I feel in a few weeks.

While in Denmark

The first place I visited in Copenhagen was the Design Museum which was the perfect introduction. They had three exhibitions on, one about Danish design through the last century, one about the future of design and the third was the Danish design awards. The atmosphere and exhibitions were all very intriguing and exciting and i was instantly inspired.
Tivoli, the pleasure gardens opposite the design museum and next to the main train station do not open until april, but I intend to go before I leave Denmark. I had imagined a garden that victorian ladies with parasols strolled around for pleasure - but Tivoli is defiantly a theme park! Although I have been told that it is very old and very beautiful inside.
Copenhagen is all very centralised. In one day I walked around the old fort with a windmill to the north of the city, Kastellet, then down to a modern art gallery in a fabulous old building that had moved location but had huge ceilings with sloping panelled ceilings and ceiling windows. The space was amazing and it felt like a great studio. There was one piece in there that I really enjoyed it was photographs inside an apartment block all of the sitting rooms and how different people had used the space.
A walk through a landscaped small park brought me to the Statens Museum for Kunst. This gallery was a very old and impressive building with a fantastic modern extension on the back that had a wonderful feeling of space and openness. Unfortunately a lot of the permanent gallerys were closed for renovation but lunch was good. I raced from here to the Botanic gardens and fantastic victorian glass house but I didn't make it and they were shut, but it was a fantastic utilisation of space within the centre of the city. I met up with a friend of mines Dad - Arne who was an amazing host we met at the Carlsberg Glyptotek Museum of art, which had a beautiful indoor garden in the middle and this also had a wonderful modern extension. Copenhagen Cathedral is surprisingly plain on the inside but has an interesting seating arrangement! From here we walked to the royal Palace which was 4 mirrored buildings forming a square that different members of the royal family lived in. We also went up the Rundetårn (round tower) which is an observatory that is not climbed by steps but a sloping floor. Apparently when it was first built in 1701 (i think) The King ascended it by horse! Crossing over the bridge to the south of Copenhagen on to Christianhave there was a more residential feel and I had fantastic blueberry pancakes. Christiania is a separate area of Copenhagen governed by itself, it has roughly 900 inhabitants and was started in the 70's when squatters took over old military barracks and has been kept as a "social experiment" I went early in the morning and did get the true experience of food, and craft stalls, so Ill have to go back!

Arriving in Copenhagen