Ceramic Tile Wall Pieces
One of Jan’s favourite objects in the Museum is quite a humble and unglamorous thing; a largish sheet of paper, folded in two, with 15 squarish loosely felted pieces of wool on each half.
This is a card of Cheviot wool dye samples, c1960 (TRWMB: 1987.13 ). Jan found the mosaic effect of the squares very pleasing. She liked the fact that they were made of felt, but loved the fact that each square sported a sticker with a hand-written number on it and the numbers are not in order!
Jan was excited by the challenge of transforming an object made of paper and felt into clay, indulging her love of texture and detail whilst capturing some of the character of the original. The velvet under glazes which she likes to use were well suited to reproduce the soft, blended colours of the woollen cloth.
Jan love’s typography so she found it great fun making the numbers, a decorative element within the design. The frames were imprinted with information about the card of Cheviot wool dye samples. The factory it originated from etc., but the words are also part of the visual appeal, the letters are beautiful in themselves – the ampersand, an added bonus!
The smaller piece developed the idea a little further. The numbers relate back to the card of Cheviot wool dye samples (she selected those nearest to the colours of the rainbow) but she chose to place them beneath the tiles to give a bit more scope for surface decoration relating to each colour.
Ta Dah!
Why not come along and see the exhibition for yourself?
Match up the numbers on the ceramic tile wall pieces with the wool dye samples!
Don’t forget everything in the exhibition is for sale ‘Affordable Art’
Mockingbird 2014 