Please head to research link for my write up and pics about my visit to this event

After discussion with Rob the piece was altered to take the points away so the ‘alien’ or ‘see anemone’ look to the piece changed. We also discussed where to take the single form with the rounded base, Rob suggested building on top of the form to create a segment that would stack on top or could lie separately, with a potential to appear fragmented sections sliced up. I was intrigued by this suggestion so decided to pursue it further, I wasn’t sure what it would look like but thought it was worth exploring. I also chose to look at using porcelain slip to cover the entire surface of the larger piece so I made a large quantity of porcelain  slip from a dried out bag of porcelain clay.

Below are images of the rounded/rocking based piece and the start of the first segment being built on top. This took a lot of thinking about as the top of the rounded base segment isn’t flat it has a curve that bends in two directions. I used a paper template and built the piece on this, resting it on top of the base so it would adopt the shape of the top surface of the curved bottom section. 

I am continuing with the coiled forms, I have chosen to build one to a larger scale, and after discussions with Rob decided to cut the tops off at an angle as this echoed the top of another coiled from I had put a slab on the top of. There is still no specific outcome here, it's just about construction, refining the techniques, using a variety of tools to coax and paddle the clay into shape, Rob was keen on concealing evidence of how the piece had been made, working to refine the surface to remove any joins between coiled sections, am not sure how important this is to me overall but am happy to learn and develop techniques in how to do this as I still feel like I have no direction for my work but also that this is probably as it should be for this stage in my MA journey. It's interesting though that despite the more intuitive approach I am making the forms are becoming body likeand organic in nature, am enjoying the making but need to be more patient and be prepared to invest more time in refining the forms. I can’t think about colour yet, I have been using B17C which isn’t the best clay to use for unglazed work  as it’s such an uninspiring colour as a raw high fired stoneware. As these are experimental forms I will explore different clay bodies as the forms develop. I am not even sure if `i want to use glaze in my work.

Below are some images of the forms developing, am using lots of foam and different formers to encourage them to retain there shapes whilst they firm up, am working on multiple pieces at once as managing the moisture is key to building up the shapes, especially with coiling as the downward force applied to attach coils can easily cause soft clay walls to buckle and collapse in.