Made 2006-7 Sold – private collection
Made to commemorate Concord, this piece is a requiem, a memorial to a great plane. I also made it with love to remember my Mother who flew to New York on the penultimate flight and didn’t return as planned, she was not well and the trip made her much worse, but she wanted to go and she was never the same again.
I started the vase in my studio in Sussex and finished it in Spain. I travelled with it between my legs in the car which was a crazy thing to do; the pot was still clay and damp and at this point with only the four Concords painted. All the small pots of coloured slips were stowed in a bag with my brushes; representing all the material and equipment I needed to finish the piece. My work continued on it when I arrived at what was to be my new Spanish workshop. In the months it took to wait for all my heavy plant and equipment to arrive I sat in a corner in an empty space and painted it to the end.
Coil built in red Staffordshire Earthenware clay and decorated with coloured slips. Slip trailing, painting and scraffito techniques were used in the decoration. It is the first piece to be made on this theme. Glazed with a transparent high gloss glaze to 1120°C oxidation firing.