Kirsty Prior     

Walking through the local countryside of the Brecon Beacons and Black Mountains, and along the shoreline of Gower, Kirsty often finds the bones of dead, decaying animals. Through her tender, perceptive experiments with these bones, she explores the contrast of life and death, and the fascinating process of decay. As a dead sheep returns to its elements, Kirsty looks beyond its superficial goriness to note the beauty in looking at things closely and in detail. Her hare sculptures reflect her sadness at seeing road-kill, and suggest the idea of nature fighting back against humanity’s destruction of it. 

Dan Hutton

Dan’s beautiful, haunting porcelain vessels are inspired by the idea of the human soul. Emanating a diffuse, ethereal light as only porcelain can, these dignified sculptural forms are intended to be sited in places within Wales where people have died. One such place is Llansteffan castle. 

John Richie

John uses elements from disused buildings such as Carmarthen Infirmary and his local chapel, to create architectural sculptures that are beautiful and deeply moving. He combines casts of an intricately-carved ceiling rose with images of derelict or neglected buildings. In doing so, John powerfully questions the supposed housing shortage and how this contradicts with the vast amount of unused housing stock that is allowed to deteriorate until it is too dilapidated to be used. His work also laments the loss of traditional building skills.

Valerie Price-West

Valerie recently undertook the gruelling Celtic Challenge race, rowing throughout the night from Arklow, Ireland, back to Aberystwyth across the wild, pitch-black Irish Sea. Her sculptures capture the thrilling exhilaration of the waves, and the driving energy of racing as part of a team. Her work celebrates the underlying wilfulness of wild, natural things, and the sense of danger and unpredictability only just controlled.

‘Whether rowing, walking or riding my stallion, I observe my surroundings and feel such a part of it.             

Wales is beautiful and its extreme terrains are brilliantly 

challenging. I try to capture this in my sculptures which 

have been a real challenge to make’.

Its show time. Come and see the student work

Its assessment time at Coleg Sir Gar - Carmarthen and the BA2 and Part Time BA3 students have prepared the space for the BA3 shows in a couple of weeks. Its that mad and fun time of ripping the department apart and then building a gallery space. This year we are opening the space for friends and family to come in and view the work in progress for a  closing view Monday 5.30 - 7.00 14th May. The Royal Collage of art do a similar process of opening assessments out to the public to see the work a year before the graduation shows.

ICF is now on facebook, twitter etc so you might want to follow who is demonstrating at the 2013 festival! www.internationalceramicsfestival.org 

I was just looking at a cool random site called pinterest.com and spotted a maker from West Wales Justine who makes cool and delicate work.

http://justineallison.blogspot.co.uk

Nicola Palterman is a new regular member of the staff teaching jewellery on the BA course plus delivering short courses. We are thrilled to have Nicola on the team as she has fantastic craft skills. www.nicolapalterman.com/

Short Courses - Coleg Sir Gâr will be running short course in Jewellery and Ceramics at intervals during the spring and summer of 2012.

The two and five day jewellery courses based at the Job’s Well campus in Carmarthen are perfect for someone interested in gaining an insight into jewellery making. No previous experience is necessary and you will have the opportunity to learn fundamental techniques in jewellery making to create interesting silver jewellery pieces. The courses will be run by Nicola Palterman a tutor with over 20 years professional practice. All materials are included in the cost of the course.  Two day courses cost £150 and the five day course £350.

2 day course –- 7^th & 8th June

2 day course - 9^th  & 10th July

To enquire or book a place please phone the Jobs Well Carmarthen campus office on 
01554 748201 

Katie Owen a BA2 student last week entered into a Pewter competition with two works, one a jewellery piece and the second a center table piece. We all wish her well and hope she can bring home the bacon!

Kansas Visit - Recently Peter Bodenham the Course leader of the BA Ceramics & Jewellery course undertook a weeks teaching exchange in Kansas Uni - U.S. Coleg Sir Gar have an exchange programme that has run for the last fours years where students can spend up to one semester in either institution. The facilities and the welcome in Kansas Uni in Manhattan were amazing and would recommend a visit. www.k-state.edu/arts/

Lindy Martin - is currently a BA student doing very interesting work with found objects and materials. Here she is working with base materials Feldspar on native clay photographed on Feldspar and rock at Llansteffan near Carmarthen. Lindy is very interested in site specific work and the possible narrative qualities of objects.

“These works connect me to where I am in both time and place.The found objects have a past, they have been used and transformed by man then discarded for natural processes of decay to make their mark. In my work I attempt to echo these qualities and in doing so venerate them. Lifting them out of the detritus of beach litter and placing them in a white space allows them to sing their songs and tell their stories”

www.melaniebrownporcelain.com/

Mel Brown is an experienced and inspiring teacher on the course. Mel is one of the best throwing teachers around.

www.orielmyrddingallery.co.uk/

This is our local Gallery the students and staff visit. They have fantastic turning shows curated by Meg Anthony  show.

Marcus Beck and Simon Macro are two x Foundation students, local boys made good! They recently curated a great show at Oriel Myrddin gathering together Dutch design. Take a look at their site as they are a great example of 3-makers from West Wales. www.freshwest.co.uk/

.

Mick Morgan  - comes in ones a week and gives either throwing or hand building demonstrations. All the students love his energy and enthusiasm.  Mick in the top images is working with students doing a primitive firing. www.mickmorganpottery.com/

Again this year Lowri Davies kindly took time out of her schedule to talk and helped out our students with mould making and Decals. Lowri is such a success in Wales and beyond. Last year she was one of the Demonstrators at the Aberystwyth International ceramics Festival. Take a look at her site which is also bilingual. www.lowridavies.com

Cool Jewellery website -Lots of our staff and student look at this site, you might like to explore this extensive European jewellery site. www.klimt02.net

James & Tilla Waters recently came to the college to give a great throwing and decorating demonstration. You can see there work all over the UK and in several top quality publications. Their workshop is just outside Carmarthen and the department is really happy to have such professional potters just down the road and connected with the course. www.jamesandtillawaters.co.uk/

Anna Lewis came and gave an inspiring talk as part of the Wednesday visiting lecture programme at Coleg Sir Gar earlier in the year. The students and staff were delighted to see this x Foundation student doing great things. www.annalewisjewellery.co.uk

Peter Bodenham the course leader of the BA Ceramics & Jewellery course has been undertaking research into 3D printing, ceramics and metal with the aim of combining traditional craft skills with digital technology. With the Help of the college, Matt Long and Karl Sedgwick the digital illustration tutors at Coleg Sir Gar, Pete is working on attachments printed in stainless steel bonded to traditional thrown ceramic functional vessels.

It still amazes me that you can construct a digital file send it to a 3D printer, then you get this metal object through the post that has been printed in metal or many other materials. The possibilities for design and especially jewellery are infinite.