We have just received these fantastic Pickle Plates by Edinburgh based ceramicist Chris Donnelly.

We have several colour ways in stock and all pieces are priced at £16 each.

How much do we love these sawdust fired ceramic pieces by the rather wonderful Vanessa Bullick! 

Each piece comes boxed and is priced at £41.40  

New delights to arrive in Concrete Wardrobe are these beautiful ceramics by Fife based Gavin Burnett. His slip cast porcelain pieces are individually carved and glazed internally with contemporary colours. We love the tea-cup, saucer and strainer combo. Inspired!

 Hand thrown and incised bowl with gold lustre.

We have had a fantastic response to Susan Kemps ceramics and looking at these images its not to see why, they are beautifully made with images that reference simplier and more elegant times with there mixes of rustic surfaces and floral prints.

These functional pieces will be in store for all of August 2013 and remember we can ship to anywhere in the world. 

All enquiries should be made through our e mail address concretewardrobe@hotmail.co.uk or through our face book page Concrete Wardrobe.

09.07.13

Our July Makers of the Month, Lara Scobie and Joanne Garner, have a beautiful display here at Concrete Wardrobe. The cool, clean colours of Lara's bone china ceramics feel and look amazing on a white or neutral surface. The perfect coaster for your summer gin and tonic. The delicate looking and very wearable jewellery by Joanne looks great with or without a tan. Come in and have a browse!

02.07.13

British Birds and Porcelain Vessels

This August, two makers come together at Concrete Wardrobe for a joint Maker of the Month Exhibition.

Kittie Jones is an Edinburgh based printmaker who specialises in creating vivid prints of British birds. Susan Kemp is an East Lothian based ceramicist working in porcelain to create functional pieces, hand painted in floral designs.

Jones’ inspiration comes from British nature. Her practice begins out in the field making drawings from life. These drawings are then transformed into prints, drawings and paintings. A large part of Jones’ work takes the form of screen prints and monotypes. Her exhibition forms part of the British Birds series she has been developing over the past three years. These prints are square format and small scale. The aim of the British Birds series is to celebrate and highlight the diversity of bird life in the UK.

Susan Kemp moved to Fife to start her ceramics business over four years ago. After experimenting with a range of clays, Kemp has settled on porcelain as her medium of choice. Having used transfer patterns in the past, she has recently moved into hand painted designs, inspired by the green-blue colours and floral patterns of early Islamic ceramics. Kemp’s range to debut at Concrete Wardrobe includes tall and squat linear forms, contrasting with floral designs and a mix of blue and green-blue hand painted decoration. She explains, “Whilst the pieces are functional the forms are pushed just beyond that. They refer to function without being limited by it.”

Alongside her prints, drawings and paintings, Kittie Jones is exhibiting a range of greetings cards and tea towels. Of her exhibition at Concrete Wardrobe she says, “my work will be shown amongst some fantastic examples of contemporary Scottish craft, and to be on sale in August with so many visitors to the city, is very exciting. Who knows where my work will end up?”

Kittie Jones and Susan Kemp will be on display at Concrete Wardrobe from 1^st to 31^st August 2013.

Concrete Wardrobe is open Monday to Saturday 11am to 7pm. (Sunday 12 - 5pm.)

Concrete Wardrobe 50a Broughton Street, Edinburgh EH1 3SA

ENDS

PR: Katherine Emtage. Co-Owners: James Donald & Fiona McIntosh. 

The Joys of Line and Form

This summer, the ceramics of Lara Scobie and the precious jewellery of Joanne Garner come together for Concrete Wardrobe’s July Makers of the Month exhibition.

Scobie’s work combines decoration with functionality, and includes a range of small vessels, tall jugs and bowls.

Garner uses precious metals and textiles to create striking mixed media jewellery. Inspired by the bold colours and repetitive patterns found in nature, she creates fluidity and freedom within her beautiful designs.

Scobie’s work is predominantly concerned with the dynamic interplay between form and pattern. This is explored through drawing, surface mark making and volume. Surface patterns and details observed in botanical life have enabled Scobie to explore her love of colour and abstract design. Her simple, considered forms are constructed from soft slabs of clay, with delicate rims and edges. The off-centre ellipses of the individual pieces echo the line drawings and ornamentation of the painted surfaces.

Garner’s use of textiles alongside precious metals infuses her jewellery with colour, and the contrast between soft and hard materials produces tactile pieces with an organic feel. The intricate shapes and linear forms created through the use of fine wire enables the jewellery to move fluidly with the wearer, generating a flow of movement and energy within each piece.

The making process plays an integral part in the development of Garner’s designs, and she works instinctively with tools and materials to create her work. “I enjoy the challenge of working with non-traditional jewellery materials, and find the different techniques allow more freedom within my designs.“

Scobie has exhibited widely and her work is on display in public collections internationally. She has also gained awards for her work, and has recently been selected  (alongside only one other Scottish maker) for the British Ceramics Biennial in Stoke.

Concrete Wardrobe brings together the work of two highly trained Scottish based makers, both intrigued by natural forms and their organic interplay, in very different mediums.

Lara Scobie and Joanne Garner’s work will be on display at Concrete Wardrobe from 1^st to 31^st July 2013.

Concrete Wardrobe is open Monday to Saturday 11am to 7pm. (Sunday 12 - 5pm.)

Concrete Wardrobe 50a Broughton Street, Edinburgh EH1 3SA

ENDS

PR: Katherine Emtage. Co-Owners: James Donald & Fiona McIntosh. 

Always with its finger on the pulse, Concrete Wardrobe manages to fit both the functional and the beautiful within its four walls. The ceramics of Craft & Design magazine 2012 Gold Award winner Patricia Shone fit into the latter category. Her Isle of Skye raku fired vessels echo the island's beauty and mystery, and explore the textural possibilities of the clay itself. Their 'other-worldliness' is emphasised by the minimal palette. £115 each.

To give you a sneak preview of the work of one of our Maker of the Month exhibitors this year, we have taken delivery of some of ceramicist Lara Scobie's new work. Fresh spring green, tourquoise and petrol blue glazes on clean white porcelain with delicate line drawn detailing. It all makes a welcome holiday for the eyes, and the burst of colour promises new beginnings, which seem impossible mid January. Right on time, me thinks. 
Lara Scobie will be one of our Makers of the Month in July 2013.

Edinburgh ceramicist Myer Halliday has his work on show at Concrete Wardrobe this month as August's Maker of the Month. His striking monochrome display with flashes of colour is a visual feast in the Concrete Wardrobe window. He has also been interviewed by STV Local about his work. You can read his article here:-
http://local.stv.tv/edinburgh/going-out/articles/113057-clay-creations-exhibited-at-concrete-wardrobe/

News Release: Immediate release

June 2012

Bold Patterns, Delightful Forms

This August Myer Halliday transforms the Concrete Wardrobe exhibition space into a world of bold ceramic vessels, bowls and platters.

Halliday’s work explores the relationship between drawn and brushed line and the ceramic form. Lines are drawn in parallel or laid over each other, often in a mechanistic manner. These repeated patterns are greater than the sum of the individual lines, as meanings become associated with the pattern as a whole rather than the individual marks, like with a fingerprint, or cross-section of a tree trunk. The ceramic forms provide a context for the patterns, and set the limits within which they are expressed. Halliday’s brushed pieces are created in a more dynamic, less measured way, and establish a contrast with the line decorated pieces.

Seeing this process as a metaphor for our own lives Halliday explains, “I see a parallel between the process of pattern making and the way our own stories and biographies are created as accumulations of our interactions, routines and repetitions, expressed within our own unique contexts.”

Using white stoneware forms that are often unglazed, Halliday’s lines are drawn using stains in pencil form. The brushed pieces use the same clay body but are decorated using commercial slips and glazed with a high fired, transparent gloss glaze.

James Donald, Co-Owner of Concrete Wardrobe enthused, “Halliday’s work is both striking and original. There is a depth and detail to his patterning that comes alive on close inspection. Thanks to the Maker of the Month exhibition program we can display a large selection of Halliday’s work at one time, and fully appreciate Halliday's beautiful aesthetic.”

Halliday’s work will be on display at Concrete Wardrobe from 1^st to 31st August 2012.

Concrete Wardrobe is open Monday to Saturday 10am to 6pm. Sunday 12 to 4pm.

Concrete Wardrobe 50a Broughton Street, Edinburgh EH1 3SA

ENDS

PR: Katherine Emtage. Co-Owners: James Donald and Fiona McIntosh