| Introduction |
Hi, My name is Martyn and I am from the south coast of the UK.
I mostly make functional ware and especially planters for succulents, cacti and bonsai but also dabel in some tableware for which I either use commercial glazes or, sometimes slip decoration and use hakame brush techniques – still learning these!
I’m interested in natural forms, inspired by nature and also want to expand my use of ‘natural’ materials such as wild clay and home made glazes etc – sustainability is important to me.
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| What I Love about Ceramics |
or me, as I am sure it is true for others, the act of ‘playing’ with clay is a deeply intimate one in which I at least come close to being one with nature – at one with the earth literally and my buddhist interests simply fit this bill also. I can find making something from clay (especially hand built) an almost spiritual experience as I try to mould the clay in a predefined idea in my head yet knowing and appreciating that the clay will have its own ideas about what it wants to be so we end up with a synthesis of my idea and the idea of the clay – I love that small, or sometimes big, degree of unpredictability that comes with each new batch of clay, the batch of glaze and the kiln firing itself – so much less predictable and constrained than science 🙂
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| How I started with ceramics |
I came to ceramics late in life – I worked as a biomedical scientist for 28 years in the NHS and also had managerial roles after that. But, as a child, I loved nature and being immersed in nature so when I came towards the end of my working career in the NHS as a scientist I decided to try something completely new – something relatively unbounded, unpredictable and requiring a more emotionally engaged approach such as art – after trying a couple of local courses run by the local council I was almost immediately hooked.
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| What inspires me |
The natural world and great artists – I have always had a deep love of nature be that woodland, seasides, mountains or simply the plants and animals that inhabit those – especially butterflies and moths (I spent many years studying those when I was younger). I love how the seasons change the appearance and character of all the above and I love how nature, despite having fairly rigid blueprints for everything, is fluid and ever changing – never quite perfect yet because of that there in lies the perfection of what some might call Zen or Dao or ‘the way’ – beautiful and awesome!
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| What I'm working on at the moment |
I am currently looking at two particular areas:
Making small to medium planters for cacti or bonsai that are extreme rustic – such that the pot might look like it is made of rock. For this, I want the finish to be as natural as possible so to use local clay for glaze, to use oxides in the deep crevices of the ‘craggy’ surface I will create using rough rocks on the beach etc and to use some form of natural firing for at least part of the process (maybe saggar in a brick built kiln fired with sawdust etc and using oxides, seaweed, banana skins, other organic materials for colour).
The other pieces I may want to make are more of a societal statement about childhood abuse – specifically the less obvious forms where there is, for example, an alcoholic father who creates an environment of fear even though no one is actually physically attacked but the doors hand holes in where he has punched his hand through them on returning from the pub – I currently only have one example which is a small box with one side being the outline of a door with a ragged hole in – the rear has an opening for a light bulb or candle and on the inner surface of the back of the box is a dark silhouette of a boy sat with his knees held in his hands in a clearly distressed state. This is currently drying as greenware and the boy has been added as underglaze using a stencil. It may take me some time to continue with this as it is quite upsetting at times but I would like to finish it one day.
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