Annual
General Meeting of DPG
September 2005 at Upwey Old School Village Hall
The group’s Annual General meeting will be held at 7pm on Thursday 22nd
September – with the usual agenda.
Please send apologies and any comments to
Bill Crumbleholme, also tell him if you want to car-share.
We are hoping to project a pottery related video during the evening.
Please come along and support the group’s activities.
Bill Crumbleholme has announced that he is retiring from office, to devote
more time to his family and other creative activities. A new set of officers
will have to be found, or the group may cease to function.
There will also be some discussion about the future activities of the
group, based on what people wish for and are willing to arrange.
HIGHCLIFFE CASTLE Pottery Exhibition
10 September to 14 October 2005
11am - 5pm (last entry 4.30pm) Cost Adults £2 Children Free
The Preview will be on Sunday 11 September between 3 & 5pm.
Posters and invitations are enclosed for this exhibition.
The gallery staff will do all stewarding but any volunteers from DPG
would be welcome!
If you have expressed a wish to display your work you should find the
paperwork enclosed.
If it is not enclosed or you have other questions please contact Fiona
Kelly of the East Dorset Potters Tel 01202 396788 or e-mail
feakelly@hotmail.com
Thanks to Fiona and also Debbie Clarke for the conceptual poster artwork.
Dorset Pottery Group Annual Exhibition
at Bridport Arts Centre 18th to 29th October 2005
The group’s Annual Exhibition will be run on the same lines as usual,
the paperwork is enclosed.
Please display the posters and hand out the invitations, if you want
more copies please order them from Bill Crumbleholme.
If you wish to display pottery then please register ASAP, if the increase
in numbers of potters rises again like last year we may be restricting
spaces.
Membership Fees.
The DPG annual membership fee of £6 is payable in November, there
will be a discussion about this at the AGM.
Many members have set up standing orders to make life easy. Some have
paid cheques. Thanks to you all.
Curses on those who have not paid regularly! The bailiffs will be out
looking for you at the AGM and at the Bridport Arts Centre exhibition.
Finances
Rumour has it that the group has a reasonable bank balance, sufficient
to fund minor activities. The aim is to make events self-financing,
but they occasionally make a small profit or need bailing out.
The Dorset Pottery Olympic Trials
Unless he can be stopped, Bill Crumbleholme is aiming to jump on the
Olympic bandwagon and stage a competitive pottery event, in aid of the
Upwey Old School Hall’s kiln replacement fund. Get in training now –
how tall can you throw/coil/build a kilo of clay? How wide? How quick?
How far! Suggestions are welcome for events to be included. Teams are
invited from far and near for a day of fun some time in 2006.
The Village Hall’s new premises licence even especially includes “mud
wrestling” under the licensable activities - together with 24 hour alcohol
retailing!
Experimental Bronze Age Potting
By Dorset’s very own Beaker Folkperson – Bill Crumbleholme.
Since taking up my researches into styles and methods of ancient pottery,
I have gone from the Roman and Iron Age to the Bronze Age. As part of
Artyfacts, the 2004 project in Dorset County Museum, I started on Beakers
and Urns. I am intrigued by a culture named after their drinking vessels!
The shapes and decorations are very inspirational and not too difficult
to tune into, using sources in museums and archaeological reports.
I have built wares by pinching and adding rings, making a beaker in
two sections and collared urns in three. These I have bonfired and clamp
fired with some success, most recently at English Heritage’s “Festival
of History” which was an immense reenactment gathering. Niche marketing
straight from the fire to passing archaeologists was very rewarding!
Although loosing half the pots to spalling and cracking was less fun,
not helped by the rain & wind on the first day.
Less authentic wares have been thrown and then distressed before being
decorated with comb and rope marks and fired with electricity for terracotta
beakers and raw fired soda stoneware. These “fusion pots” bring together
different culture’s methods and result in attractive functional wares,
with the soda glazing working very well.
For more details and images visit www.beakerfolk.co.uk.
Classified Small Ads.
The Upwey Potters still hoard some pottery glaze materials. Some are
free to a good home, some will cost a few quid. Earthenware glazes feature
strongly. Available at the AGM.
Websites
The Dorset Pottery Group features within the website set up by the Upwey
Potters, follow links from their webpages reached at
www.upweypotters.com
The West County Potters Association’s website is well
worth a look at www.westcountrypotters.co.uk
Forthcoming Attractions
Mike Dodd’s new pots are featured at the Alpha
House Gallery, Sherborne, from 10 Sept to 8 October.
The Devon Craft Guild’s refurbished Craft Centre at
Bovey Tracey is well worth a visit, both for the craft and the catering!
The next Dorset Art Weeks runs 27th May – 11th June
2006
Registration forms will be available soon with a deadline for return
of 7th October 2005. www.dorsetartsweeks.co.uk
Ceramic Art London 2006, the major new selling exhibition
in the ceramics calendar, will take place at the Royal College of Art
on March 3-5, 2006. Presented by The Craft Potters Association in association
with The Crafts Council, it features many wonderful potters manning
displays of their wares, together with presentations by famous speakers.
www.ceramics.org.uk
The Dorset Pottery Group could run a trip – anyone interested?
Thanks
To Bigfish
for selling me a very nice colour laser printer.
Apologies
For this newsletter containing too much of one person’s input, but I
was the only person whose arm I could twist! Good luck to the next editor!
Contact
Bill Crumbleholme is the current contact for the group
Tel 01305 812030 bill@upweypotters.com
