Exploring Porcelain and the Art of Useless Bags

I’m always looking for new ways to move my work forwards and often find introducing new techniques to develop my practice an effective strategy, so when I saw fellow Adur Art Collective member, and amazing ceramicist, Amy Frankie Smith was running porcelain workshops from her studio on the beach, I jumped at the chance.

Having already made my first useless bag, from salvaged materials - packing materials, crab shells, old handles – (don’t ask about the handles, that’s a whole other blog!)

First Useless Bag!

Amy’s workshops now provided an additional material which could be explored, porcelain bags are useless, right?

During the first session we were asked to explore texture, so I brought along a meat tenderiser, (why not?) bought from Tarmount Studios Vintage Emporium in Shoreham and when I tried it out in the porcelain I loved the resulting texture. Industrial and sculptural, right up my street, so I planned a box-bag. (to fit in with Amy’s plan for the participants of the workshops to create a box and my own ideas of creating a useless bag.)

First experiment with meat tenderiser texture in Porcelain

But working with porcelain proved trickier than I expected. I had to simplify some of my ideas, especially around features like hinges, which didn’t translate well into the material. Or, more acurately, my limited skill with the porcelain made it a little beyong my skill level. However, learning to build to create the box-bag made all those episodes of watching Great Pottery Throwdown come into play...although mine has no base (even more useless!)

And so, slowly but surely the bag evolved, with the addition of a few salvaged materials (of course!)

'So, what's next Cath?' I hear you ask! Well, having previously mocked-up a useless bag from some cardboard packing material, I wondered how I could translate the lovely diamond pattern into the porcelain, so I bought a lattice pastry cutter (unfortunately despite trying the emporium again and the wonderful SOLD shop and other charity shops in Shoreham – I try not to buy new materials if possible – I could only find an egg slicer) So, unfortunately, Amazon it had to be. Luckily, it arrived in time for the next workshop, so I was able to do some test pieces and so, the useless ‘string’ shopping bag is now underway....

Work in progress - Porcelain string bag!

If you're on Instagram you can watch this space @cath_art_ic to see my collection expand.

I highly recommend Amy's workshops, she is a wonderful facilitator and experienced ceramicist and really helped me in my persuit of my slightly crazy and often rather challenging ideas.

If you have any comments, suggestions, or even ideas for new Useless Bags to add to my series, I’d love to hear from you.

I will be opening my house and studio in June, so look out for my useless bags at venue 9 during the Adur Art Trial. I will be open the first 2 weekends.