The Victoria and Albert Museum, these days known as the V&A is one of the UK’s powerhouse museums. An amazing collection of all sorts art and applied art, and a great focus on design, which is used endlessly by creatives. It is a wonderful antidote to the modernist, now ubiquitous cube and adapted industrial building style of museum of our times. We’re not particular fans of over decorated Victoriana, but the boring over done ancient classical pastiches of stolid buildings built, or at least funded, by the over blown rich and powerful as vanity projects museums and galleries, are no match for the very quirky and, dare we say, queerness of the South Kensington V&A building. But it can be a nightmare to navigate, so look for a volunteer guide they are amazing.
The museum has a huge and extensive collection of ceramics and this gallery houses not only Lucie Rie’s studio, but also a working ceramics studio. So going on a clay screen printing course with Banu Bal, ceramic artist, was something Mike didn’t want to miss and it proved a very enjoyable day building clay printing skill. The location in the gallery means that many gallery visitors just get fascinated watching people make with clay, but although Mike doesn’t usually like to be watched when doing, with other adept course participants it made the workshop more fun.
Intriguingly the course brought happy teen memories back of screen printing, and suddenly the gap between printing on clay and paper, or fabric, was much easier to bridge. So the day allowed for creative thoughts to develop about Mike’s own work. Screens and squeegee have been bought for the studio needless to say with the rest needed already in stock in the studio and Earthwaves will now benefit directly with work Mike planned on that day.
Some examples of the unfired learning pieces using V&A museum designs on pre-course prepared screens are in the blog for interest.
But regrettably the course at the end of January still had not delivered fired pieces by April. It was supposed to take 6 weeks and they would notify you to collect. But the back office coordinator for the V&A academy is poor at responding and very slow on communications. But with a lot of prompting and explaining, verging on a complaint, finally got the work back in May. It had been fired on time. Luckily the front of house staff and switchboard/customer services are wonderful and kept up their passing on communication when the direct route failed.
The fired work was good, but to get a really good finish to pieces it probably needed a two day workshop which would have been even better to allow more hand building and finishing time.