moving house

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Moving House started out as two coiled pieces made from white earthenware clay, which stand approximately 35cm high x 25cm wide.  The pieces have then been indented with pattern and fired to 1160 c. Coloured glaze has been rubbed into the carving and wiped away, as well as being painted on to the surface area before being fired to 1080c. Coloured enamels, gold lustre and mother-of-pearl have then been applied to some areas of the outside to give more definition and fired again to 800c.  The ceramic pieces sit on a small 1960s coffee table, which has a decoupaged surface made from some original old wallpaper found in a cupboard upstairs in the new 1940s house. In one ceramic piece, which shows a painting of the cottage in the countryside, sits a goldfish bowl – a little home in its own right – filled with uncut key blanks. These are reminders of the many houses we have to view when moving house; as are the newspapers filled with details of houses for sale at the time that the move took place. In the other piece of ceramics showing the new home in the town. A chain links the two pieces together.  Although this piece is not like a sea creature who makes its home in a second hand shell at all, this entire piece reminds us that we leap from one home to another much as a hermit crab might do when it has outgrown the shell it is in. It is a precarious time in between homes and we can feel vulnerable and scared. This piece is a bit of a memory of the lovely bits of both homes. It is signed and dated 2012. This piece has been exhibited in the Victoria Art Gallery Bath.
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