Tiffany Scull
Since being a small girl Tiffany has always loved to draw and was encouraged to develop this talent through her childhood. Time was spent with her father Colin Scull a working sculptor at his studio where she was in awe of the beautiful things he could make with his hands. Tiffany has always loved nature and growing up in central London with no garden had an enormous impact on her life and also her art. She used her imagination to escape the grey city and to draw the plants, animals and worlds she longed to see.
Discovering clay was a great revelation sparking off emotions of excitement and wonder as a whole new world of creative possibilities opened up. This affiliation was instant and her love affair and life long relationship with clay began.
Tiffany finds drawing not just on sheets of paper but also onto clay extremely thrilling and this cycle is how she loves to work from paper, to pot, to kiln. She sees parallels in the changing seasons, and the cycle of life with an order and a time scale which she instinctively follows. This cannot be rushed and the profound personal connection that she gets from spending so much time with each piece is extremely strong, each one seeming to take on a life of its own.
The excitement that she gets from seeing her unique and beautiful drawings come to life never fades, feeling the intricate designs are only fully complete once they are applied to ceramic forms. Tiffany sees each one as a living and evolving piece of pottery and art, a captured moment in time which has a story to tell with roots not only in the past, but also very much in the future. These decorative forms are seen as timeless and collectable invoking feelings of wonder and enjoyment.
Tiffany’s most recent pieces have increased in size and this has allowed her to explore the decorative possibilities in even more detail. Her work has an almost magical quality with the combination of the vibrant use of colour and her exquisite craftsmanship of Sgraffito. Her decoration is ever changing and progressing and she has numerous sketch books waiting to come to life.
Inspirations
Tiffany’s inspirations are drawn from the natural world around her and artists such as Gustav Kilmt and Alberto Giacometti. The Arts and Crafts movement and Art Nouveau will always be inspirational, as well as the works of such potters as Elizabeth Fritsch and Mary Wondrausch.
The Making Process
The beautiful pieces which Tiffany produces are created totally by hand with no transfers or stencils used in the exciting process of bringing each creation to life. This makes each one completely unique and creates a rhythm of working which is truly satisfying to her soul. As she works on each design more details are added with only the main themes of the pieces being designed before hand. For Tiffany her art and her clay work are the two halves of herself, with one not being able to exist without the other. The very first spark of an idea in her imagination is then captured onto paper, time is spent visualising the decoration and form before she starts to work with clay. This allows for new ideas to take shape and often whilst working on a final drawing a new idea is born. Tiffany enjoys all aspects of her making process equally and feels this keeps her vibrant and moving forward always thinking towards the next stage.
Technical Information
The intricate decoration which covers each form is meticulously cut away freehand using the technique of Sgraffito and this is built up over time, taking many days and hours of work until she feels it’s finally complete. Once the coloured slips have been applied the cutting away and drawing onto her work can only be done when the clay is at the perfect leather hard stage of the drying process. Tiffany works with a white, smooth, stoneware clay and all of her forms are thrown on the wheel.
All pieces have both a bisque and then a glost firing of 1180 degrees centigrade in an electric kiln.
Sgraffito
This unique word translated from Italian means ‘to scratch away’ and has been used by many ancient cultures to decorate buildings, paintings and pottery. It was first seen to be use used in china during the 11th and 12th century AD and appeared in Europe during the 16th century as relief decoration on buildings. Potters and artisans through time have used and explored the possibilities of this beautiful process and Tiffany feels she is producing some truly unique pieces of decorative work using and embracing this technique.
