Artists Palate ‘Lockdown’ Tableware

We use this tableware everyday at home – which makes every meal and cup of tea feel special. If a piece gets broken- rare because its high fired stoneware - I simply make a replacement. It’s been a fun project and I have been thrilled at how popular it is. I’ve sold lots of pieces, and have some loyal customers who keep coming back for more -particularly the seconds or when I’m having a clear out! This really helps with paying for my studio costs so a big thank you to everyone who has bought some of my Artists Palate Tableware.

Each piece is hand painted. No two pieces are the same. Prices are between £15 and £85 . If you would like something, and you are not in a rush do contact me by email to see what’s available or possible. 

About this work....

Functional work isn’t really my ‘thing’. Nonetheless, at the start of the second COVID 19  lockdown in November 2020 I stopped going into my studio, took a bag of clay home and started making a ‘table-for-two’ dinnerware set. My husband and I used this to celebrate his birthday (also Christmas Day) quietly together.

I made two plates, two bowls and two tumblers. Everything was handbuilt and made using ‘found’ household objects - a rolling pin,a tray, cardboard tubes, plates as moulds and so on. The surface decoration was based on some work from an old sketchbook where I had explored mark-making through brush strokes and colour-mixing.

After Christmas we went into our third lockdown and I continued the project - all the while waiting to be inspired about the ‘Real Art’ that I would eventually make for my Bristol Clay Exhibition in November! However, by the end of the third lockdown it had become clear that this wasn’t going to happen. Like everyone, my world had become smaller. My usually personal/political art making had become more domestic and housebound.

I became curious about my resistance to the idea of utility in art-making and more accepting of my creative process and how I was expressing myself at this point. I played with the poetics of artists palette/palate and the idea of ‘taste’ both in relation to ‘fine art’ and in our domestic worlds. I started to feel more ‘at home’ with the idea of making tableware

As I worked my mind would wander.... missing meals with friends, imagining post-lockdown gatherings and reflecting on the importance of food, families and community. In the quiet of my kitchen the meaning of ‘breaking bread’ and the idea of a sort of deconstructed secular ‘Holy Communion’ emerged.

The theme took shape partly in response to Government pandemic guidance on social gatherings. This was often confusing, but two messages that seemed to be clear for extended periods were ‘The Rule of Six’ and being allowed up to thirty people at a wedding or funeral . Making a set of tableware for six, matched the number of people who had typically sat around our dining room table when our four children were younger. Similarly, because thirty people had somehow become the boundary of our new world order I made drinks tumblers for thirty. ‘Cheers! ‘

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