Potter Andrew Matheson from Sutton Coldfield has long had the desire to make large vases. and after a great many years he has embarked on his greatest challenge yet.
“I’ve only managed to make six successful ones,” reveals Andrew, an elected member of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists. It’s the most difficult piece I do and I’m still developing the technique. I find that throwing the shape over two days has more success than trying to do it in one go.
I throw a cylinder of clay on the first day and allow it to firm up. Then on the next day I expand the form to create the rounded shape. I then trim and turn it and using a variety of decorating techniques to apply different cobalt blue slips, a range of blue shades are created to achieve the final design. It takes several days to produce one large vase.”
The first two will be exhibited for £160 each at the RBSA Members and Associates exhibition from November 23 to December 23.
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