nantgarw coal mine

'the nantgarw scheme was designed to exploit important reserves for coking coal on the south crop of the South Wales coalfield.. this part of the coalfield has been the scene of many dissapointments and failures and the grave of the reputation of more than one mining engineer '................

there had been many dissapointments and failures in the making of nantgarw china also many years before

...

Nantgarw vilage declined with the building of the A470 motorway in 1969 which destroyed the traditional village. The A470 is a major long distance connective spine road in Wales running from Cardiff on the south coast to Llandudno on the north coast . The A470 runs alongside Nantgarw china works museum and possibly many of the china shards were discovered when the motorway was built..

I have just had a great few days in Cardiff at Glamorgan university making plates with Ceramic artist Matt Thompson. It has been really interesting for me to understand the process and whats involved. I am amazed at the time and skill involved and of the potential failure / success in the making of ceramic work
.
a mass produced plate cast to create a mould to make some hand made plates

not exactly a bed of roses

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO4wcNVbYOQ

bottom image maybe not the right dress for the period but you get the picture

nantgarw pottery was a small one -- no more than 20 folk were employed .. at least half of those were children

Millward described Billingsley as 'a thin man of middle height , fair with grey hair, but had no beard: was a pleasant speaking man but very hot tempered. He kept a horse whip to thrash the boys and girls if they neglected work' Billingsley and Walker at Nantgarw

'Social reformers attempted as early as 1802 to obtain legislative restrictions against the worst features of the child-labor system, but little was done even to enforce existing laws limiting work hours and establishing a minimum age for employment. Conditions as bad as those imposed on pauper children rapidly developed in enterprises employing nonpauper children. Often with the approval of political, social, and religious leaders, children were permitted to labor in hazardous occupations such as mining. The resultant social evils included illiteracy, further impoverishment of poor families, and a multitude of diseased and crippled children.

Popular agitation for reform steadily increased. The first significant British legislation was enacted in 1878, when the minimum age of employees was raised to 10 years and employers were required to restrict employment of children between the ages of 10 and 14 to alternate days or consecutive half days. In addition to making every Saturday a half holiday, this legislation also limited the workday of children between 14 and 18 years of age to 12 hours, with an intermission of 2 hours for meals and rest.'

“It is totally unacceptable that in every continent of the world child labour

still exists. For many children this means growing up in hazardous environments away from families, and missing out on an education. Their lives are a daily ritual of repetitive labour. For millions, childhood is over by the age of five.”

Anna Feuchtwang, Chief Executive of EveryChild

june 2009

9 out of ten plates didnt make it

i am off to Cardiff next week to attempt to make 9 plates in the ceramics area of University of Glamorgan. I am looking forward to the process and seeing what happens in the making ............................ successes and failures.

roses and coal dust

nantgarw ....


a small mining village which owes its fame to the soft paste porcelain which was made there for a short period

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nantgarw_Colliery

local coal plentiful and cheap

it is far less expensive to carry clay to coal than the coal to the clay for the weight of the coal consumed in firing is greatly in excess to that of the raw materials which go into the pottery or china

coat dust suspended in air is explosive.. the worst accidents in history have been caused by coal dust exposions

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpipxgB6vfw&hl=un

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8N5ufBvJxA&NR=1

William Billingsley .. AKA Beely the man behind the china


rose painter at Derby china

perfectionist

debt creator

secret recipe keeper

perfector of a perfect porcelain body

father of two girls who both died tragically

At Derby china Billingsleys roses were painted from roses he collected rather than following the standard patterns ... so i have been doing a bit of rose photography myself and may create my own blousy roses.

in addition to the blousy plate the 'wonky bits',' shards', 'wasters' are of interest also ..

Mr L Dilwyn in a letter afirmed that he visited Nantgarw in Sept 1814 , he found there a great number of broken and imperfect articles

'upon witnessing the firing of a kiln at Nantgarw I found reason for considering that the body used was nearly allied to glass to bear the necessary heat .... i observed that nine tenths of the articles were either shivered or more or less injured in shape in the firing'

90 % wastage

90% + 10%

9 out of 10

...from a small village in wales to the china cabinets of the aristocracy.....................

'there can be little doubt that the greatest proportion of the most perfectly finished Nantgarw porcelain was decorated away from the pottery by contemporary London enamelers.'

leading dealers were willing to take as much as they could of the perfect WHITE Nantgarw porcelain for elaborate decoration. Little decoration was attempted at the pottery. London dealers preferred to purchase porcelain in the white

http://webapps.rhondda-cynon-taff.gov.uk/heritagetrail/Blue_Plaque/ncw.html

William Billingsley:

porcelain genius who never made his fortune http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Billingsley_(artist)

'for 20 years William Billingsley had devoted a large proportion of his time , energy and enthusiasm to the perfecting of a perfect porcelain body which would equal in fine quality and translucency the famous soft porcelain of Sevres.'...

artistic skill and taste , his white hot enthusiasm for his creative trade, his love of beauty, of perfection for itself, his power of absorption of all that was most perfect and beautiful around him , set him a plane apart .....Frank Hurlbutt old Derby porcelain

'Debt seems to have dogged his footsteps but it was for no evil purpose . His ideals were too high.. As his patient wife said of him ' he was never satisfied with what he did,he wanted to do something better ' The nantgarw works

Of Nantgarw works ..

Being in Wales it had to struggle with its own incapacity to meet the commercial but inartistic wants of the British people generally. It therefore sank, overpowered by the very weight of its own perfections

Billingsley was known as the rose painter

artists object . Museum of Wales

‘Artist – Object’ co-organised by Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum Wales, the University of Glamorgan and Brecknock Museum, Powys. Catherine Bertola, Michael Cousin and Deirdre Nelson have responded to an object from the applied arts collection and have explored the dynamic between a large national museum and a small rural museum.

I have responded to some pieces in the collection of Nantgarw pottery and am drawn to this blousy plate ..

Preparations for the fish exchange @ Pittenweem arts festival are well under way with fish being knitted all over east Fife in preparation for the 'fish auction' 9th August .



http://www.artmag.co.uk/gallerypreviews/pittenweem-arts-festival.php

http://www.nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk/news/mediaroom/news_release/09_06_11_art_project.asp


commission up at last and we had a great opening with ballroom dancers and buns ! As dancing was a theme through the work dancers were hired for the opening and danced for patients in the wards and then in the corridor beside the work .

Today i have been installing my work at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary with the help of Jane MacArthur of Ginko Projects and Ian of QD plastics who made some fantastic perspex boxes to house the work . The feed back from patients and staff so far has been great which is fantastic after all the time spent reserarching , designing and embroidering ..

details .

photo : shannon tofts