Plan For Making Of Clay Artefact Documentary

Plan For Making Of Clay Documentary:

Part 1: Introduction

Mix/ blend footage of artist talking in front of everyone with her work/ clay examples. Switch to quick shots of me making my original clay artefact, and perhaps quick shots of the class at work.

Part 2: Original Clay Artefact

Mix a couple of photographs of the progress of my original owl designs, with photos of the research photos and any other objects I had gathered to help me with it’s making. I will include a voiceover stating why I initially chose to make an owl, how easy/ difficult it was to make, and why I chose to move on and instead create a snake.

Part 3: Clay Artefact

Explain briefly why I decided to change my ideas from an owl to a snake and show examples of research. Show original (failed) attempts to craft a snake, then demonstrate what I did differently on my final attempt. Show finished product. 

Patrick Johnson 11S1

Marjan Wouda, Sculptress

Marjan Wouda was born in the North of Holland in 1960 and after she finished secondary school she came to England to study.

She went to Manchester Polytechnic where she took a Visual Arts Foundation course then specialised in sculpture at North East London Polytechnic, gaining a First Class Honours Degree in Fine Art. She also has an M.A. in Fine Art (Sculpture).

She grew up on a Dutch dairy farm where she enjoyed drawing the cows using charcoal. These days most of her work is about her favourite subject, animals, which she casts mainly into bronze from clay originals. The animals are mainly life size with highly tactile surfaces which make you want to feel and touch their bony, curvy forms.

Marjan lives with her husband Immy Deshmukh and her children in the oldest house in Darwen in Lancashire, where she has space in the outbuildings to create her sculptures out of clay, bronze, welded steel, wax and recycled materials.

Marjan’s commissioned sculptures include, a life size knight on a horse for a shopping centre at Ashton-Under-Lyne, a very large mole in a park in Newcastle upon Tyne and for a new town near Preston, a wild boar chased by two hounds.

As well as having exhibited her work in galleries in Amsterdam and London, she has toured the UK, Holland and Ireland with exhibits of her sculptures, some inspired by traditional nursery rhymes from around the world.

She has also worked in a Lancashire park creating animals out of recycled materials and done large scale commissioned bronze sculptures for the publisher Felix Dennis’ Garden of Heroes.

She has developed a fascination for monkeys and, as with all her animal sculptures, she tries to incorporate humour along with the connection of emotions which apply to both humans and animals.

Examples of her work are

This heron commissioned by United Utilities at Entwistle Reservoir, north of Bolton, can look quite different, depending on the water level and weather conditions. This bird is in an appropriate place as there is a nearby heronry.

These two gigantic mating tortoises can be seen on the island Mustique, in the Caribbean, and are about ten times there actual size. They are copies of a small, native born species which have red scales on their legs.

This owl replaced the one lost on the newel post at the Victorian Library in Accrington. He keeps his beady eye on all the visitors, reminding everyone of the nursery rhyme ‘A wise old owl, sat in an oak; the more he heard, the less he spoke’.

A very enlarged sleeping squirrel monkey reminding people of the similarities between primates and ourselves. 


Patrick Johnson 11S1

Ceramic Artist Julie Miles

Ceramic artist, Julie Miles


Julie Miles based at Barrowford in Lancashire went to college and originally wanted to become an embroiderer. However, as many of her family had worked as brick makers and tile painters in the Potteries, she decided to follow in their footsteps and became a ceramic artist.

In 1998 Julie graduated from Cardiff with an M.A. in Ceramics. During her career she has been artist in residence at Drumcroon Education Arts Centre in Wigan, Abraham Guest High School and Giggleswick School in Yorkshire.

Her work, inspired by nature, ranges from delicate porcelain pieces to large brick constructions. She uses brick clay in block form and carves the surfaces creating large scale works which give visual impact to portray scenes or stories on public buildings, playgrounds or landscape projects.

Much of Julie’s porcelain work is sold in galleries across the country, but she also helps community groups and schools with projects, ranging from sculptures, clay murals, mosaics, seating and way markers. Her clay workshops with disability art groups have proved to be especially rewarding.

Her technical skills incude basket making and sculptured work using willow and her technical skills involve screen printing fabric and clay, weaving, hand and machine embroidery, felt making bakik work

Examples of her work can be seen in

‘The Shoe Trail, Rossendale’ which celebrates the shoe and slipper industry in that area. Children in Rawtenstall created the designs and Julie Miles carved them in red brick from a local clay pit in Huncoat. In the 1900’s there were more than forty brickworks in the Rossendale area and many houses were built using the famous Accrington brick.

At the entrance to the car park to Marks and Spencers Simply Food store in Moortown, Leeds can be seen another fine example of her brick pieces of work art.

These brick thrones represent fruit and vegetables grown and harvested by children from their allotments in Birmingham, to produce a feast fit for a king and queen of the vegetable patch. The thrones will eventually be put in the school’s playground.

Julie Miles also makes delicate, unique porcelain vases She incorporates leaves,flowers, petals and seeds which are rolled onto the vase before the porcelain is dry leaving the imprint of their shape and the veins that run through them. Each piece is therefore unique. Her designs are simple and mostly white as she doesn’t like using bright colours.

Patrick Johnson 11S1

Health And Safety Regulations When Working With Clay and Glazes

HEALTH AND SAFETY REGULATIONS

FOR WORKING WITH CLAY AND GLAZES

Clay contains crystalline silica and ‘free silica’. Fine dust particles containing free silica can be a serious health risk as in normal light they are invisible to the naked eye, and consequently can be easily breathed in. They then penetrate deep into the lungs and over a period of time may lead to the irreversible lung disease, silicosis.

It is a good idea to try to keep clay damp. Clay dust gets everywhere and so it is important to make sure windowsills, ledges, tools and work surfaces are washed down well, not just dusted.

Any spillages on the floor must be cleaned up before they dry out, using a wet cleaning process – not a dry sweep, as this will only spread more dust.

Care must be then taken on wet floors to avoid slipping.

It is a good idea to wear old clothes or an apron when working with clay to reduce the risk of carrying silica dust on your clothes.

To prevent accidents it is best to wear sensible shoes (no open shoes or flip flops)

and tie your hair back

Wash any equipment used such as buckets and jugs as soon as possible after use.

When you leave the workplace remove your apron and ideally wear a clean one each day.

Never smoke, eat or drink when working with clay. Wash your hands thoroughly with soap before eating and drinking and when the work is finished.

Wear a mask when mixing dry materials such as plaster of paris or a glaze, and to create less dust, always add the powder to the water rather than the water to the powder.

It is a good idea to choose a lead free earthenware glaze, as lead is poisonous.

To protect from dust, keep belongings such as mobile phones and personal stereos out of the workplace.

Finished work should be stored safely on shelves provided.

Patrick Johnson 11S1