Topic: Cracked earth effect bowl with hard to read signature - ID = Will Shakspeare

[catshome]

I feel the need to atone for the dull dessert dish, so I thought I would share one of my current absolute favourite pieces.  It is very hard to capture in a photo as it changes all the time.  It's sitting here next to me on the settee in all its gorgeousness, and I tried to capture how it looks in one of the pictures below.

20.5cm diameter x 4.5cm high.  Very heavy.....thick at the centre and decreasing out to the rim.  Very shallow bowl so pretty useless for anything other than looking at it!

All the "cracks" are clear glass.  Each "mosaic" has a blue backing.  Everything changes when held up to daylight.  I will post a lot of pictures of this one, to try and give you some idea of what I see.

I thought the signature was "Shots" or "Shats", and I expect you can imagine what google made of those options.  I am now thinking it's something like "Shoks" or "Shakes".  Have powdered its bottom, but it didn't make much difference.


I really want to know how it has been made.  I thought maybe fused glass of some sort - it looks like the edge of torn paper around the mosaics....especially from the back under magnification.  It is very hard to stop looking at it!

[catshome]

More shots - 2nd and 3rd shots are the back and front against the daylight

[catshome]

Signature below - the bottom one is just taken on the settee.....kind of how it looks to me on a day-to-day basis

[Greg.]

It reads 'Shaks' which is how Will Shakspeare signs his work. Lovely piece. 

[catshome]

Greg.....I honestly thought you were having a laugh......"it's how Will Shakespeare signs his work" ....... 😹

But I see you've already nailed it......I've had a quick look at his website and haven't yet found anything like it.  I wonder if he would mind if I contacted him to ask how it was made?

[Greg.]

 
I'm sure he will be happy to help, it's an interesting piece.

I had a quick look through his website too and couldn't see it.

Just to add the playwright has an extra 'e' in his name

[catshome]

Have had a proper look now and he has some beautiful pieces.  I usually find that when I have a piece identified, and then start looking at their other work, I realise I have a very low level example.  This time was definitely different.......I wouldn't swap mine for any of the others......but I would happily add some of them to mine!

[Greg.]

Sounds like it found the right home

[chopin-liszt]

I'm very shocked and surprised too.
I immediately thought it was Dartington Studio. 
But the "Shaks" has got a lot bigger, clearer and more readable than I am used to!
I'm used to peering and searching for a tiny scratch that looks made with a pin.

[catshome]

That's macro photography.....it's really only a couple of mm high.  It looks like one of those signatures you'd know if you'd seen it before.  So funny that two of us were posting his work at the same time!