A Lovely Chat With Carla Murdoch
To celebrate the solstice, we have teamed up with the amazingly talented Carla Murdoch who has created some beautiful plant labels for the garden. They are inspired by the solstice and are stamped with some of the flowers we grow in the cutting garden. You can buy Carla’s plant labels for your own flower patch and support us at the same time. All of the proceeds go towards us running our gardening for mental health groups and keeping our community garden for women open and running each week. We will have for sale at all our events over the weekend or email us if you’d like to bag yourself some!
They come stamped with 7 different summer flowers, or you can buy a blank one. The great thing about these labels is that you can write on them with pencil and then when you’re ready for a new label you can just wash it off with a damp sponge. Genius! We love them and they look some lovely placed in the soil next to your lovely plants - like a beautiful, tiny sunrise.
As well as being an outstanding potter, Carla is also one of the nicest people you could want to meet. I asked her a few questions about her creative process and what inspires her work.
What led you into working with ceramics?
It was a happy accident getting into ceramics, It all happened at college where I had planned on studying graphics. After following the course taster sessions on lots of different creative topics, ceramics was the one that won my heart.
I filled my 2 years at college with 3 years at the university of Sunderland, where I studied glass and ceramics. Once leaving university I had a break from making, and finally got back into Ceramics in 2016 when I began teaching pottery and sculpture at Lichfield college. In 2018 I decided to go full time self employed and joined the Yorkshire Art Space Ceramics programme, here I learnt about business, built up a community and now I am fully set up at home with a garden studio.
“Lots of natural materials can be collected to use in my work.”
How has your style developed over time?
This is a toughie to answer, as a child I loved looking at archaeology and antiques and home and interior magazines. It is embedded in me, however to get to a point of being able to achieve a certain shape or form lots of practice is required. For me I am still quite early on with my throwing, so although my shapes have improved I don't think my style has changed too much.
What inspires you the most? Is there anything in the natural world that influences your work?
I really enjoy feeding people, and I like to create work around what I may need to use in the kitchen or in the garden.
I make forage bowls for going out and picking fruits or vegetables. Along with linking my work to food and the garden, lots of natural materials can be forged/collected to use in my work, if I find clay when we are out walking I will take some home with me and process it and I also use wood ash from the fire to make glaze.
Do you find being creative helps your mental health?
Yes, being creative does help my mental health.
However running your own business is hard work and can be stressful, so its a fine balancing act of being creative but also knowing I need to keep a roof over my head.