Although Heather's main focus for her work is to create decorative objects, the work she produces has intricate details inspired by and derived from the natural world, resulting in pieces that are organic but with precision and intricate detail. I feel that some of  her pieces are a bit too literal in nature for me but I find the detail of her sculptures inspiring and admire her ability to identify a market for her work and then develop and build on that to create a successful business. 

I work in a decorative ceramic expression that involves both form and decoration. Decoration is integrated into the form and the form itself is spatially decorative
The sculptures are all unique. The process is based on hand-built elements built up in terms and variations or freehand modelled objects. I focus on a high level of craftsmanship, with ceramics being the central part of my works.
My works are glazed and fired several times to achieve a perfect and monochrome surface. In contrast to the object, you can see colored strings or hand-decorated patterns to express the influence of the sculpture´s movements and how to put the works into a spatial context showing a strong graphic expression.

https://www.steen-ipsen.dk/about/

Ipsen hand builds each element then assembles them together, he is interested in playfulness and movement in his pieces, he focusses much more on process and finish and less on a specific narrative, for him the joy is in the hands on process of making, he doesn't use any casting or wheel throwing in his work, but yet they do have a mechanical precision to them. I like the use of pvc cord, there is something more chaotic about how these look, almost like he's trying to hold everything together, perhaps a metaphor for control, who knows? I can see myself making work in this way and recognise that I can take my pieces in two very different directions. I can make work that continues to strive for that meticulous surface and utilises simple abstract forms, or I can make work that is more like that of Toni Losey, where every piece is very different, the surfaces and additions are more textural and the pieces have a more surreal 'other worldly' look to them. This is an important decision to make and one that I need to be confident I can sustain going forward into my final module.

Am interested in Aamir's work as she focusses on the macro structure of plants and creates pieces that are very organic, she uses lots of surface texture and detail and her use of colour is really clever. All her work is in porcelain and the various structures she achieves are  quite remarkable. Aamir admits to not drawing out or planning her pieces before hand rather letting them evolve organically and I find this process of making much more akin to my own. I find her pieces very inspiring, many are very small which makes the complexity of there construction even more impressive.

After my last assessment and more recently after I had begun to push the work I was doing I revisited Toni Losey's work and hadn't realised how amazing it is! The pieces are so inspirational to me, I would love to be able to get to a place where my work is evolving like her has done. There is a discipline and meticulous nature to her approach to making, she uses the potters wheel but the resulting forms do not reveal this, they could have been hand built with pinch pots and coils or even slip cast or press moulded. I think she achieves an incredible  aesthetic where there is a tension between the surreal and uncanny and the organic world. Could they be macro versions of seeds, sea creatures, funghi or plants.

I have been concerned about making work that was obviously trying to mimic the real world, getting hung up on things ending up being too mushroom looking or plant looking. Looking again at Losey's work I can see that if I just keep pushing, experimenting, using colour and glaze in different ways there is potential to achieve something that could be really interesting and evocative. I need to be braver!