Description
‘Handbag Lady Vase
Quirky and original! Each piece unique
Collect from gallery £75
Including UK delivery £85
H 13.3 x W 10 x D 8.2 cm
Rosemarie graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 2012 with a BA Design (Ceramics), first class. Influenced by prehistoric and indigenous art, and in particular the historical and contemporary art of South America, her main interest is the depiction of animals, birds and humans as vessels.
“When I am making my ‘Lady vessels,’ I think of the Triple Goddess, (virgin, mother and crone) – women as all powerful defiant and in control. I wonder constantly what was in those ancient potters’ minds when they made those little ‘goddess figures’ seven thousand years ago. Were they fertility goddesses or an illustration of how women changed in pregnancy? Or more likely (to me) a token thrown into the river to ensure a safe pregnancy, just as they still throw little ceramic legs etc. into lake Titicaca to ensure a cure or good luck.
I like to make fish too, a symbol of the early Christians, or the coming of the age of Pisces. And I make sea urchins, a symbol of fertility and eternal youth; their pattern is based on the pentagon; the five elements and the five senses.
But the fish have a more frivolous aspect, the glug-glug vases of the Victorians who also made cow-creamers, Toby jugs, and Staffordshire dogs. All of which I like to make in my own way. Unlike the cute Staffordshire dogs, mine often have claws that clatter on wooden floors, teeth that might bite, and sometimes slobbering tongues for too many wet kisses. I always nearly always start with a thrown vessel, without a plan. Then I cut and add pieces of clay. I often laugh – so this is what you were meant to be! Then, depending on the clay used, and the final expected firing temperature, I add pattern and colour in the form of oxides. And then for the final firing I add glaze, while thinking, ‘Is this the blue bird of happiness, the red bird of compassion or the green phoenix of regeneration?’ and fire again.
Blue is the colour of happiness.”
