Kate McDowell



6/2010Casualty, 15"x9"x3",
 hand built porcelain, cone 6 glaze, 2/2009 


Outfoxed, 17“x11“x2 ½ “, hand built porcelain, cone 6 glaze, 6/2011


Klaas Kuiken. 500 word






Turn your roof into a bird sanctuary with ceramic roof tiles by Klaas Kuiken.                      
I come across this on a blog called this is Colossal and seen that he had his own website with other things he has created. The website was well organized and everything was easy to find. On the home page everything he has made is all together, products, news etc. the background is plain but I think it works well because there is a lot happening on the page anyway if there was background it would be to much and to me I simple wouldn’t want to look any further but the way it is presented makes me want to look at the amazing work of Kuiken.
The work has inspired me because I could take my specialty in ceramics and take it much further like Kuiken has. He thought of something and put the environment in to his work! I thought this was amazing I want to think of ways to take my ceramics work into the environment. I wouldn’t have even thought of doing this! I want to make bird houses out of clay and just put them outside, when put in the kiln the clay is practical resistant to any kind of weather it trough’s at it.
 When looking at the problem of bird populations shrinking in urban areas due to loss of habitat, Netherlands-based product designer Klaas Kuiken was struck with the idea of improving common bird home, residential roofs. In consultation with the Vogelbescherming, the Dutch bird association. Kuiken designed a ceramic birdhouse that can be put on roof tiles found throughout the country. The house contains a removable basket to aid in maintenance after mating season and is made with materials that can resist extreme cold in the winter. This was first designed in 2009 and the birdhouses had finally gone into production and 100 were available for sale and probably all sold now.


Birds often create nesting areas within the roofs of houses, and so taking this into consideration, the Dutch designer has taken a standard roof tile 
and constructed an archetypal house to be attached on top of it with a basket below by an opening in which they may find shelter. 
In this manner, kuiken has harnessed their behaviors to create a safe place where they would in any case normally nest, 
while providing them with good ventilation and protection from domestic creatures such as cats. This would only be in cold weather that this would work as it would be very hot for the birds in the summer
also birds like to nest together so you would have to have several bird houses on the roof for this to work.
The basket is composed of a wooden slate framed with a screen, which creates a comb-like barrier so birds cannot pass through. 
Placed directly under the roof tile, this component ensures that they are unable to reach the entire covering of a building, 
while also making it easy to clean after the breeding period is over.

    

GUY LARAMEE

Artist Gut Laramee carves books to create beautiful landscape sculptures. His work is currently on display at the expression museum in Saint-Hyacinthe, Canada through August 12.

His work is inspiring i love how he makes his work come to life and three dimensional. even up close it looks amazingly real. he has now become one of my favourite artists when i look at his work its just.. wow i am lost for words its truly amazing!1 





Gulliver

I created this in inspiration from an artist Guy Laramee. this is Gulliver  on his boat. like Laramee  i used relief  and calved him out of my book to create a three dimensional outcome.

i created this by using relief. i firstly calved lightly in to the board to leave a mark  of the image. I used black ink and  blotted paper for it to go on. when the paper was dry i then put it on the turn table and this was what it came out like. im impressed with this because print making inst one of my strong points.

This is my Gulliver i created in ceramics! i decided to use clay as i want to specialize in this subject.  overall i thought this turned out well all thats left to do is glaze him and to add string to tie him up.