Gina’s Design Education began whilst studying for a B.A. in 3D design at the West of England College of Art Bristol. She specialized in Ceramics and taught for many years at Hammersmith and West London F.E. College which had excellent pottery facilities.
Museum and heritage organizations have been influential in broadening her design and material interests. The specific historical and design antecedents in Pewter have been of particular interest. Pewter plates traditionally carried “wriggle work” imagery, which reflected ceremonial or news-worthy images contemporaneous to their time.
Reviving this tradition, but exploring word and image association has motivated much recent work, whilst celebrating the qualitative characteristics of her chosen material. Gina has been known to comment on the irony that her throwing skills derived from hours spent on her potter’s wheel, have been displaced by the same posture devoted to polishing pewter!
Entry description
Cast Pewter Plate, 30cm diameter, with incised linear illustration of dance steps, heel motifs and musical notation, with a “touch mark” traditionally used to identify individual makers.
The Roaring ’20s is the referenced inspiration captured in the image presented on my plate.
This post-1stWar generation were understandably optimistic and this expressed itself in jubilant dance, fashion and music. The decade also encapsulated darker times of economic depression.
My design attempts to synthesize this dichotomy is by imaging somber dance steps synonymous with dance marathons or “walkathons “of this time, in the up-beat guise of style and formal dress. The highly polished, undulating surface of the pewter is animated by moving reflections and is emblematic of the lyrical mood of the ’20s jazz age whilst the illustrated graphic of legs in movement is referencing social constraint.
