June e-news
Here are my Bali reflections and what an absolute blast! I’ve just spent the most wonderful two weeks as an attendee at a ceramic workshop in Bali. I went with four of my students/friends surrounded by the beauty of the Balinese people and culture. T
The Gaya Ceramic Centre is a well run/well equipped ceramic art space. Our tutor, Ohio based ceramicist, Stuart Gair, was a generous and knowledgeable teacher. With 11 of the 14 attendees being Australian, this gentle Mid West American got a crash course in Aussie vernacular and brutal sense of humour. He was up to the task!
The workshop delved into throwing and altering forms specifically for a soda firing and preparing and packing the kiln. Each piece’s placement needed to be considered to get an effect and what effect it would have on surrounding pieces. The flame in reduction licked around the forms causing a flash of colour from that path. It is a fascinating process and I can’t wait to start on my own soda kiln this winter.
Above is a collage of my inspiring time in Ubud. While you view these, imagine the constant sound of Vespas driving by; the smell of incense; and the warm, humid air around your body.
This professional development opportunity and ceramic adventure to Bali was subsidised by a RADF grant.
The Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF) is a partnership between the Queensland Government and Scenic Rim Regional Council to support local arts and culture in Regional Queensland.
Now I’m back in the studio full to the brim with ideas and new methods to explore. The challenge is to creatively incorporate the new techniques into my own work. These works-in-progress (below) have been fun to make and I plan to keep them for a future soda firing. For those interested in the technical side, the jug on the right was a thrown cylinder with no base, it was pushed into an oval shape and two eye-shaped pieces cut out and rejoined to form those inward curves. The base was textured and added and the body of the form was then shaved back to create a lighter body and that dynamic scraped surface.
I have started designing the soda kiln and buying parts ready for the build. I can’t wait to start experimenting with my colleague and friend, Larissa Warren. Once we’ve ironed out any bugs, I will be able to offer some soda firing workshops, more info to come!
Exhibition News
It has been a while since my last solo exhibition so I am pleased to share that my next will be 6-27 November this year at the Makers Gallery in Brisbane. This will be a Steampunk affair with a twist, I’m having a lot of fun designing how this body of work will be presented. It will include new directions for my Steampunk ceramics exploring the effects of soda firing.
