working with paperclay
with Sue Ribbans
Text supplied by Sue Ribbans
13
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Making mud pies was probably my first inspiration as I was a solitary child until I went to school. I didn’t feel particularly deprived but obviously had to become pretty creative to entertain myself which, in retrospect, I don’t feel was a bad thing.
My secondary school had a very strong and well regarded art department with an inspirational teacher. As well as the usual painting and drawing we had the opportunity to make puppets, printmaking and work with clay which I found particularly interesting.
With the necessary examination results achieved I headed with great enthusiasm for the art school in Canterbury. I was part of the last intake to do the National Diploma of Design which preceded the current degree course. Instead of a one year Foundation course there was a very satisfying two years dabbling in all the different creative activities that were on offer. We did the Intermediate exam and then had to specialise for the last two years.
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At this point I was very torn because my inclination was to study sculpture but being of a practical nature I decided to study graphic design instead. In those days graphic designers could make a living and trying to do so as a sculptor seemed to be a bit problematic.
Marriage, children and graphic design became my life. Over the years, however, I did do ceramics at evening classes. The work often became sculpture pieces.
One of these porcelain works - A Taoist Immortal Crossing the on a Cloud - was chosen as the best piece of ceramic in the V&A's Inspired by... competition in 2004 and was displayed in the V&A for three months. That was encouraging.
Fast forward a few years and I slide from the ceramics class to the life sculpture class in the next studio where we worked from a model. A lively stand-in teacher introduced the class to porcelain paper clay which seemed to offer great scope for experimentation and development.
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