Ceramic Vases, Inspired by the Sea
spume / spjuːm / froth or foam, especially that found on waves.
"the spume of the white-capped waves”
Photo - Godrevy Point, Hayle, UK - by Marcus Cramer on Unsplash
I love the sea - I wonder if this is because I have never lived by it, so it hasn’t become ‘everyday’. After a long drive from landlocked Oxfordshire that first sight of a sea-sparkle on the horizon still gives me the thrill it did when I was small, and we’d drive from Leeds to Scarborough. For some reason that journey always took us about four hours, sometimes with a nip into York for a quick half for the drivers (it was the 1970s) and a drive past Wetwang, just because it’s such a funny name…peers over glasses and tightens shawl: we had to make our own entertainment then. We always went at “Whitsuntide” (I really do sound ancient now don’t I?) so could be rewarded with glorious sunshine OR arctic winds…it was a lottery, but I really didn’t care how bad the weather was, as long as I was on the beach, or by the harbour, or standing on top of a cliff.
Take me off to the coast on a wild day, preferably ‘out of season’ - The best days are bright blue but windy. I like to wrap up warm in coats and scarves, and walk along a coast path with wind whipping my hair about. The South West Coast path in Dorset is a favourite, the Winspit bit, or spooky Portland , or ankle challenging yet beautiful Chesil Beach (and OK I quite like Sandbanks for a summer beach swim, and an ogle of hyper expensive houses). If I’m up in Lincolnshire, where my parents live, then I might take the Ridiculous Detour to Mablethorpe – which has an amazing sandy beach I never knew of until lately, or drive up to Hornsea where the waves crash over the side of the prom and the sound of water rolling pebbles is hypnotising, there I’ll gather stones and try to spot the giant windfarm which is just over the horizon. It’s important after all this to have a proper cup of tea and something fried, always.
The views are amazing and the walks are invigorating. But what I like best is the noise. The slow build of a wave, creeping along - if creeping is the right word for the speed they go at. Building waves look so still though, an illusion of calm. Then the crash as rock is hit and the wave is broken, and - the best bit - the foamy blur of spume as the wave retreats, making space for the next one.
That moment is the inspiration for a small series of vases I created over the spring, after I had been too long away from the sea. I tried to capture the bubbles as the water draws back, not the initial fountain of white foam - that might take some further experimentation - how do I make suspended foamy-ness from clay? - but I am up for it!
The results are two large and two small ceramic “Sea Spume” Vases
I created the vases by slab building and then attached A LOT of tiny bubbles. This somehow never became tedious, instead I found it calming, and the more I did it the more calming it became - was this due to the power of the craft or the power of my sea imaginings? I’m not sure.
Colouring these vases was equally absorbing, I didn’t want grey forbidding rocks, so I made the vase surface browns and greens - maybe this makes them appear more as wood, but if you’ve been to South Devon you’ll know the soil, beaches and rocks are as orange/brown as anything, so I’m happy with them.
I used Mayco washes rather than glazes for this part of the process - only six to choose from, and all of the earth, A drip of clear glaze here and there allows the copper wash to show its seaweedy green character just enough. The bubbles and froth are blue and white, created in four different shades of underglaze - I became so absorbed in this I finally had to have a word with my self to say ‘stop, now, or you could over do it’. I;m not sure bubbles and froth are ever this blue, but in my minds eye they are. This is not a figurative representation of a breaking wave (though being far from being completely abstract, I guess) but an attempt at putting my reactions into my chosen medium.
These are a reminder of glorious, blustery head clearing coastal days, long walks and that tired contentment I have at the end of a day by the sea.
…………………….Three favourite sea related things (of many):
A Novel: The Shipping News E. Annie Proulx.
A Poem: Sand Between the Toes by A.A. Milne
A bit of Science: recently Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry on the Turn of the Tide (Radio 4 & BBC Sounds)