“In the old myths weaving was Women’s speech, Women’s language, Women’s story” Carolyn Heilbrun
It was a pleasure to welcome Sally Bate, ceramic artist, originally from Yorkshire and now based in Greater Manchester. Sally recently completed an MA in contemporary ceramics where her final project was inspired by the objects and records from the Museum & Archive here at Sunny Bank Mills supported by oral histories of some of our former female workers.
Sally spoke passionately about the Archive and demonstrated some of the processes and techniques she has used to create contemporary ceramic objects that tell a story. She is interested in the objects or artefacts and how they communicate, connect and interact with individuals and groups. After her research into objects from the Mill, she interpreted them in Parian porcelain using many ceramic processes to add to and reduce the forms and surfaces before using print techniques to build layers and narrative to the sculptural objects.
We were also privileged to have the opportunity to see Sally demonstrate tests from her development processes and also demonstrate some simple techniques with objects from her MA, as well as showcasing some of her new work in development. At the end of the talk, attendees were able to get hands on themselves with some clay and water, have a go at making pinch pots and handle Sallys work. A real treat!
Demonstrations and opportunities to get hands on
As with all our Weaving Voices events, everyone was invited through to the Museum & Archive and were able to have a look at some of the objects which had inspired Sally’s practice, including our tailors goose iron, peg plans, pirns, dye cones and paper clips.
Parian porcelain forms
Many thanks to Sally for opening the doors into her creative world.
If you missed this event, but would like to attend either of the remaining ‘Weaving Voices’ events be sure to visit the Collection at Eventbrite here where you can book tickets. We will also be shortly announcing details of the closing exhibition. So if you would like to find out more about the Museum & Archives and its relevance to dyeing both historically and materially, get your tickets booked now!
We would like to thank National Lottery Heritage Fund for making this series of events possible.
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Museum & Archive