WhiteWare

little helper

2012-01-31T16:16:00.000+11:00

Col just really wanted to be in it.

getting a handle on handles

2012-01-20T14:32:00.001+11:00

Thought it was time to get my head around handles. They've been my nemsis for a long time - and now I kinda like them... they're all perky and they make carrying cups of tea so much easier!

... and bowls and small plates

2011-12-30T18:46:00.003+11:00

Lovely to be back at the wheel throwing again after the Christmas break. More experiments

And Col came out to see what the fuss was about.

He's a tough critic...

Recycled clay into cups

2011-12-29T19:42:00.002+11:00

The recycled clay has been turned into some cups (and with 2 buckets of clay recycled I've got a lot of throwing ahead of me!!)

Have also been experimenting with some new types of decoration. The dark body lends itself to a little light relief.

Recycling time

2011-12-28T11:47:00.005+11:00

Lots of clay to recycle after all that throwing leading up to Christmas. And a new collection of loose, Japanese inspired bowls and plates is on the way.

Salvage and Selvedge

2011-12-13T22:37:00.003+11:00

Andria at Salvage and Selvedge has some of my little vases in her store. They look pretty cute with daisies in them.

Pop into their store on Johnston Street for some lovely handmade christmas gifts

Hot Whippet

2011-12-13T22:33:00.000+11:00

Collin was a little hot at Rose Street Market on Saturday, but still managed to strike a pose.

Firing Time

2011-12-08T17:24:00.001+11:00

I've been throwing a bit the last couple of days. Here's the kiln filled for a bisque. Fire tonight, out tomorrow, glaze, back in the kiln Friday afternoon and then off to market Saturday!

Christmas really keeps me on my toes

Everything bowls

2011-12-07T09:56:00.001+11:00

New everything bowls out of the kiln yesterday, looking all summery in the morning light

Rose Street

2011-12-04T21:04:00.001+11:00

Lots of new pots fresh from the kiln

Christmas Markets

2011-11-29T18:26:00.001+11:00

Have been having great fun experimenting with some new glazes.

Also lots of markets this month!

I'll be at Rose Street Market every Saturday in December.

I'm also at the Sisters Market at Brunswick townhall, evening of Friday 16th December and Saturday 17th.

And I'm very excited to have be included in the Northcote Pottery/Small Pieces booth at the Pottery Expo, Federation Square on Sunday 4th December.

Quiet day at Rose Street

2011-10-23T10:58:00.000+11:00

Yesterday was a bit quiet at the market, not really outdoor weather. But Collin and I got to have a good cuddle.

Thanks for the pic Hannah.

A new glaze

2011-10-17T21:02:00.006+11:00

Finally making some progress in the glaze department!

Simple, quiet, subtle

Craft Hatch

2011-08-20T15:51:00.004+10:00

Here's my stall at Craft Hatch.

With great photos by Kim Brockett from Craft Victoria.

Thanks to everyone who popped in for a visit and to my stall neighbour Sharon of ethelruby, beautiful textiles!

Craft Hatch

2011-08-07T11:34:00.003+10:00

If you're in the city this coming Saturday, drop in to Craft Hatch, the Craft Victoria Market at 1000 Pound Bend (361 Little Lonsdale Street).

More info here

I was pretty excited to see my pots in their e-newsletter!

New Pots

2011-06-27T18:26:00.008+10:00

Hopefully by the end of July I should have a website and shop up and running. Here's a first attempt at some product shots.

Now i just have to think of a name for the pottery studio!

Glaze

2011-06-21T14:23:00.000+10:00

Connie at northcote pottery introduced me to this lovely stoneware glaze recipe

Potash Feldspar - 36
Silica - 33
Whiting - 16
Kaolin - 10
Frit 4194 - 5

It gives a lovely soft clear at high temp and a satiny opaque when lower

A day at the market

2011-02-09T13:52:00.013+11:00

Sunday was my first market stall at the Rose Street Market.

It was a wet and windy affair, particularly for the beginning of Feb, but a very enjoyable day none the less.

Thanks to everyone who braved the weather and took home a little bit of porcelain

I'll be having another market stall at Rose Street on Sunday Feb 27th.

More pots, different clays and maybe some new glazes and decoration as well!

Here are some lovely photos taken by Tim Allan. You can see more of his work here

new pots

2010-10-14T18:09:00.003+11:00

I'm back at the wheel after a very successful Saturday at the Sisters Market.

Thank you to everyone that came along (and to all those who went home with one of my cups!)

It was a lovely day, and great to meet so many wonderful people.

Market next weekend

2010-09-27T13:32:00.002+10:00

If you're in Brunswick next weekend come along to the market!

Northcote Pottery

2010-09-07T09:58:00.004+10:00

I've been doing a class on Thursdays. Well it's not really a class as such as there's no structure, it's more an open studio evening.

They're having a little show with some of my work in it.

Here's one of my more earthy and unsual pieces done during the evenings

I'm having a stall at the Sisters Market!

2010-09-01T20:16:00.003+10:00

On October 9th and December 18th I'm having a market stall of my cups at the Sisters Market, Brunswick Townhall.

And my pots are shown in their stallholder listing!

I'm very excited (and a just little nervous!).

Slip

2010-08-04T14:41:00.006+10:00

I've been messing around with some slip.

This is using some recycled clay for the pot (thrown off the hump!). It has quite a bit of terracotta in it. I find the orange a little much, so I was trying to create a layered feel by brushing on white slip whilst it was still on the wheel.

Then I added some black slip to the top after they'd dried a little.

The slip recipe...
Calcium Borate - 30
Postach Feldspar - 30
Ball Clay - 25
Silica - 15

For the white I've just added some porcelain slip I had from throwing, to thicken it up and give it some density. For the Black, I've added a good portion of Ebony underglaze powder.

Then I'll give them a clear glaze. Not sure whether to take this clay up to Stoneware or just to Earthenware... could be risky given the amount of terracotta

spring

2010-07-30T17:20:00.002+10:00

The blossoms are just starting to come out. Snuffled a branch on the ride back from the kiln

Spring is on its way...

awhile between drinks

2010-07-29T14:22:00.008+10:00

It's been awhile between drinks but finally i'm back at the wheel and making some progress

I've been throwing off the hump this week - and it's been a revelation. It's fast, flowing and gives a more natural feel to the pots.

And I've been mucking around with some black slip as well, to provide a contrast to the white.

We'll have to see how they work out. These pictures are of raw pots so they'll change quite a bit once they're fired and glazed. Hopefully the black will stand out more and the white will ping. Fingers crossed, but you never know with clay. It has a life of its own!

And the background to the shots... the underpainting for Jems next painting. It's been on the packing and sending table for a few weeks now!!

Throwing

2010-01-17T19:26:00.006+11:00

I've been thinking about the simliarity between throwing and Aikido.

Both take time, lots of time, concentration and a great deal of effort.

They both require years of gentle refinement.

They both require care and sensitivity.

And whilst there's a great deal of repetition, there's always something new in the repetition, something unique and slightly unexpected

They are both frustrating, tiring and leave your body with odd aches.

But they both have moments of beauty, just occasionally, just moments, that keep you coming back for more... little breaths of something other worldly

Back to pots

2010-01-16T22:26:00.003+11:00

I've been getting back into throwing recently. Just took a bunch off to be fired so glazing next weekend hopefully.

Been talking to jem about decoration and glazing...

The discussion was around decoration being like make up - there's nothing worse than over done makeup, makeup should be about highlighting the form, bringing out the features just ever so slightly - decoration on pots is the same.

Then there's also the car duco analogy. Cars are so shiny that you can't actually see the forms and it's all lost in lots of shine.

So finding a way to bring out the form of the pot and minmise the shine...

If only I didn't have to glaze them at all....

Bonsai

2010-01-16T22:21:00.004+11:00

I'm baby sitting a couple of dad's bonsai

His are the two on the end - a beautiful morten bay fig which is very old, and a much younger pine grown from seed mum and dad collected at lone pine!

Just have to keep them healthy until they get back from the beach....

Succulent

2009-08-23T14:20:00.005+10:00

Collected some succulents out walking today and popped them into pots. The pots don't have holes in the bottom, so will have to be careful not to over water. But succulents don't like too much water anyway.

They've found a home on the window sill at home

Along with my cup of tea. It's defnitely an inside cup of tea day, with that cold wind.

Small Pieces

2009-08-18T22:10:00.003+10:00

Last weekend I dropped off a small selection of my cups at Small Pieces, a retail venture from the folks at Northcote Pottery.

Available are the white as well as the speckled cups for $20 each. Perfect for a cuppa!

Perils of International Shipping

2009-08-18T21:58:00.004+10:00

A friend in the US, who does a bit of painting, asked me to make a set of small bowls for mixing paints etc. I've recently done a set of cups for his family (with stamps with the initials of each of the family members) and had complete success sending things by mail.

So with the little bowls complete I sent them off, bubble wrapped and stacked in a couple of packing tubes.

Whilst the cups travelled well, it seems the small bowls did not share the same robustness.

Sadly some bit the dust on the way over, arriving in various sized shards, a little like an archelogical dig.

Here are the casualities...

Happily some survived

But despite my little bowls now being on the other side of the planet... I've been put off international shipping for awhile... until I've found a failure proof method of packing!

Collin

2009-06-21T21:48:00.002+10:00

Not a lot of action in the studio this weekend. Too many other things on - but hopefully next weekend.

With colds and chicken pox for the past few weeks, I'm just enjoying being out and about.

Here's Collin looking pensive...

Recycling Clay

2009-06-12T17:25:00.006+10:00

Since i'm on a roll today I thought I might talk briefly about recycling clay.

When throwing there tends to be a lot of clay that ends up in your wheel trough, trimmings, failed pots etc. It collects up at the end of the day and you can't really throw it away as it will clog the plumbing and generally make a nasty mess.

So it collects. And after awhile you begin to collect quite a lot of it.

Big pottery's have a pugg mill. This is a machine you feed the reclaimed clay into and it pushes through a big tube and forces all the air out. I'm not working with those sort of quantities so I've had to come up with another solution.

I collect up all my reclaimed clay and leave it in a bucket in my work trough. I'm a little bit spoiled as this is an unusually large trough we picked up at a wreckers, and it is perfect for this job! The buckets of clay are topped up with water to help the clay break down.

What you are looking for is a nice, thick slurry and to help this along you have to get your hands in there occasionally and break the big bits up.

Once the clay is in a slurry then you simply dish it out onto your slab and leave over night. If the weather is fine and you have a lot of clay to reclaim then it goes into pillowcases and is left outside for a couple of days.

This way your waste clay isn't wasted but quickly finds a new home as a new pot.

Reclaimed clay also has lots of little imperfections from bits of terracotta or other clay you might work with ending up in the mix. This gives it a lot more warmth and character.

Unusual...

2009-06-12T17:15:00.003+10:00

I was looking through the rest of the pictures and came across a couple like this.

I've got no idea how these happened or what the camera did - but I like it.

It's kinda arty, but you still get all the information about the pot... now how to make the camera do it again......

White on White

2009-06-12T16:58:00.007+10:00

I thought it was about time to take some "proper" photos.

The ones with the black background were okay, but i was wondering what they would look like on white, so here are the results.

Here's a pot by itself. It looks a little lonely, and i'm wondering whether there's too much white space. But I like that you can see the dance of the rim.

A couple of pairs of pots

And a little bowl. Jem uses these for painting medium. They have a stable bottom to stop them from falling over. I made him one recently with a little lid, to try and reduce the amount of volatiles and headaches.

I had envisaged the white background being super white with no shadows, but that didn't really happen. However I really quite like the grey's of the shadows. I guess it's just going to take some perfecting.

Black and White

2009-05-02T22:19:00.008+10:00

I'm toying with setting up an Etsy shop and so have been taking some photos of my cups. My plans came undone when I got to the bit about shipping details. Pots are heavy, so working out shipping is a killer. Will have to make a trip to the post office and do some investigating.

But in the meantime, here's a cuddle mug, for mugs that like a cuddle.

bottoms

2009-04-17T18:08:00.004+10:00

Whilst the form of the cup is important, so's the bottom.

You'll notice potters tend to pick up pots and look at their bottoms.

A bottom tells you a lot. It tells you about how a potter handles clay and can give you an insight into their character.

Once upon a time my bottoms were very controlled. I turned feet on all my pots. They were very neat and precise.

But I've relaxed a lot since then and discovered that a loose, straight from the wheel bottom can be just as effective.

You can see in the picture the marks from the cutting wire. Once the pot is leather dry I then also "roll" the bottom of the pot on the bench to smooth down the sides from where it's been trimed and to soften the form, tucking it under.

Then it gets it's stamp, so you know it's one of mine!

Cuppa

2009-04-15T20:32:00.005+10:00

Nothing beats a cup of budhas tears jasmine tea first thing in the morning.

Subtle, fragrant and warm.

Busy Easter

2009-04-13T22:04:00.004+10:00

It was a busy weekend, lots of throwing!

I've finally settled on a style that I'm happy with which is a relief. Although no two pots are ever the same.

Here are the cups and the small bowls. It'll be off to the kilns again this weekend and then some serious glazing.

Autumn

2009-04-13T15:21:00.003+10:00

Well it's clearly autumn. The Boston Ivy (or is it Virginia Creeper) is putting on a great display of colour. Rusty reds, turning to yellows.

And Colin is soaking up the last rays of sunshine before winter comes along. Enjoying his little patch in the garden.

He's one happy dog!

little pots

2009-04-13T10:18:00.005+10:00

I dropped my cups and gorgeous wooden display box off at St Lukes. It's my first foray into selling my cups. They asked if I could also make some small bowls for artists (after all, they are an art shop rather than a homewares shop).

So based on something similar that I'd made for Jem, I've made a small run of these little bowls. Perfect for holding medium whilst painting (and made to Jem's exacting specifications - flat bottom so they don't tip, not too big, and of course - simple!!)

here's an example (unfired and unglazed)

Decoration

2009-04-12T10:52:00.006+10:00

Decoration is one of those things i've struggled with for quite some time. It's a difficult thing to get right, but it's fundamental to the success of your pots!!

Originally I thought colour might be the answer, whack a bit of a colour on, and it's decorated. For me this didn't work. Aesthetically I like things to be simple. Colour just made everything look busy and ugly. And it was difficult to see how the colour actually related to the pot. It always seemed like a very poor after thought.

The problem was that throwing, for me, is about the form, so I had to find something that complements the form rather than detracts from it.

For some time I've been using a small japanese stamp to "sign" the bottom of my pots.

It's simple and effective, and it got me to thinking, what about stamps...

So dad whipped up these wooden stamps for me and our I got out one of my lino cutting tools to give them a bit of a pattern. This worked.

Now I've evolved the idea a little more and made a collection of clay stamps (fired) that are considerably smaller, but still have a nice level of detail.

These give me a nice range of interesting indentations that I can use to give a little bit of interest, but without overwhelming the aesthetic of the pot. After all throwing is all about the form, making forms that are nice to hold and easy to use.

pot cemetery

2009-03-12T22:55:00.003+11:00

Not all pots make it but I just can't bring myself to throw out the seconds. These pots have found a home in the garden, collecting the water that drips off the bonsai shelf. Beats being thrown away!

A Big Day of Throwing

2009-03-09T08:20:00.004+11:00

Some throwing days can be a disaster and while others just work. I think it comes down to the mindset you have when you start out. Being calm and focussed. You need to have a kind of internal quietness, and if you don't have it, then it's like the clay just wants to jump around. It reminds me of what they say about dogs - they can smell fear - clay can smell when you're relaxed!!

Here's my wheel. It's an old Venco from a school that's decided to no longer teach pottery. Few places teach pottery now.

When I studied ceramics at art school 15 years ago pottery wasn't encouraged as the department tried to position itself as an art, not a craft. Now the department has gone completely!

If it keeps going like this, people wont know what it feels like to hold and use a cup or bowl that's made by hand rather than machine ...

Firing

2009-02-19T16:44:00.005+11:00

I've got a few cups and bowls waiting to be fired. Hopefully this weekend I will be able to get down to the kilns and get them bisqued.
I've recently loosened up my throwing style. Loving the big loose throwing marks. They fit so well to your hand.
These are the cups waiting patiently to be fired ...

Beginings

2009-02-19T12:07:00.002+11:00

A hand made cup is different to any other type of cup you might have in your life. It changes the experience of drinking fundamentally!
A hand made cup fits to your hand, it wants to be craddled gently, embraced
A hand made cup encourages sipping and reflection, it's a little patch of quiet on a busy, noisy day

I make cups because I love them - and I like to share that with others. This blog is about that love affair