Artwork for Melody Carter
hand thrown
'Splash'
Stoneware
Delft Blue Bowl
Details
I create for pleasure ,and relaxation. I make domestic wares but also pieces that inspire me from the surrounding landscape and events. My domestic work tends to be glazed in traditional colours and earth tones but I have also made pieces that celebrate and commemorate events and experiences where I indulge my illustrative and more artistic skills.
I am a nurse, teacher and academic and am convinced of the connection between feeling mentally well and hopeful and being creative. Something very good happens to my brain when I am working in the studio and there is substantial emerging evidence to support this theory
For me its about the possibilities that being creative presents. Through making I have the possibility of concentration, solitude and contemplation but also of sharing and exchanging with others. Like other forms of creative practice pottery is a medium of communication. The textures of clay in both raw and fired states contain something eternal and timeless and therefore evokes a response of one sort or another.
I believe that the quality of my work is directly connected to the amount of practice I am able to put in -nothing magical about it although when I open the kiln things can seem a bit 'out of this world'.
I am a potter and I make, fire and finish my pottery in my studio.
I enjoy both the production process of repetition and refinement of shape and form but also the construction of one of unique items for an individual. I make and sell from my studio shop and at local markets. I also take commissions for domestic wares and for memorial or commemoration.
I teach intensive throwing workshops for individuals or pairs
During the Covid-19 pandemic we were able to run online pottery workshops from the studio for groups of nurses, doctors, teachers and other key workers
I first learned how to throw in adult education classes at the Folk House in Bristol and then at Northcote Pottery in Melbourne, Australia. When I returned to England and setltled in Hereford I attended an evening class T Hereford College of Arts which encouraged me to enrol in the
MSc Contemporary Crafts Hereford College of Arts which I completed in 2019.
Conference Presentation: 2019 Illustrating Mental Health 10th Illustration Symposium, Grief: small acts of meaning 7th November 2019 The Art House, University of Worcester
Publication : Ward L and Carter M (2020) Learning how to SMILE. Improving physical and mental health through nurse education and creative practice Nurse Education in Practice 43 https://www-sciencedirect-com.apollo.worc.ac.uk/science/article/pii/S147...
I tend to visit exhibitions rather than hold my own although I did open my studio during H Art in 2017 and wasn't discouraged.
In 2019 my work was shown in the Hereford College of Arts MSc Contemporary Crafts Graduation show . In my final project I explored the concepts of materiality and mourning practices .
I sell via my Instagram page @edgarstreetpottery and at local markets
