The Journal of Australian Ceramics Vol 50 No 3 November 2011

THE JOURNAL OF 

alian ceramics 

50/3 November 2011 $16

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Contents 

Volume 50/3 

November 2011 

S16 

Cover 

Honor Freeman 

Scrapings + Gratings, 20 11 

hand bUilt porcelain 

aluminium grater, h.l6cm 

The Narrative Knot 

Mln~ An Galle'Y 

December 2011 

Photo: Sandy Edwards 

The Journal of Australian Ceramics 

Dates of PublicatJon 

1 April. 17 Juty, 20 November 

Publisher 

The Australian Ceramics Association 

PO Box 274 Waverley NSW 2024 

T: 1300 720124 

F: 02 9369 3742 

mail@australianceramJ(5.com 

www.austrahanceramics.com 

ABN 14 001 535 502 

ISSN 1449-27SX 

Editor 

Vicki Grima 

Marketing and Promotions 

Carol Fraaek 

Design 

Astrid Wehling 

www.astridwehling.com.au 

Subscriptions Manager 

Ashley McHutchlSOn 

Proofreader, content 

Suzanne Dean 

Australia Wide Reports 

Please see reports 

for contact details 

ACT: Jane Crick 

NSW: Sue Stewart 

OLD Cairns: Lone White 

OlD South East: lyn Rogers 

OLD Townsville: Sharon Jewell 

SA: Kirsten Coelho 

lAS: John Watson 

VIC; Glenn England 

WA: Pauline Mann 

Printed by 

NeYv'Style Printing Co Pty ltd 

4 1 Manchester St, Mile End SA 

5031 certified to ASlNZS ISO 

14001:2004 Environmental 

Management Systems. Printed on 

Impress Satin (FSC) stock U5tng 

100% vegetable-based 

process inks. 

2 EDITORIAL 

3 CONTRIBUTORS 

4 NOW + THEN 

5 DIRECTORY 

6 AWARDS + GALLERY 

TRIBUTES 

10 Mollie Douglas by Karen Weiss 

14 Joy Warren by Guy Warren 

FOCUS: CERAMICS + NARRATIVE 

16 Is it Tomorrow, Today Vivonne Thwaites digs the dirt on Gus Clutterbuck 

20 The Narrative of Place Altair Roelants discusses a collaborative journey 

with Belinda Fox and Neville French 

26 Tale of a Pot 

30 Draw Your Own Conclusion Stephen Bowers shares his techniques and 

thoughts on drawing 

34 Surreal Compositions Danny Lacy looks at the w ork of Rob McHaffie 

37 A Potter's Tale Damon Moon seleds his favourite ceramics books 

42 Material - does it really matter? A report by Janet DeBoos 

44 Assumption: Anton Reijnders Siobhan Wall reports on an exhibition 

46 Vale Talley Valley Anney Ray Cavill and Lucille Nobleza on a kiln 's 

passing 

48 Love, loss, Masculinity and the Absurdity of the Human Condition 

A brief overview of the personal narratives of Todd Fuller by Megan Fizell 

49 The Narrative Knot: stories in ceramics 

PROMOTION 

65 Hyperclay: Contemporary Ceramics An overview by Danielle Robson 

REGULARS 

69 WORKSHOP: Watiku Workshop. Minyma Wiya! (Men's Workshop. 

No Women!) Jody Lee discusses the inaugural men's workshop at 

Ernabella Arts 

72 VIEW 1: White Gums and Ramoxes Damon Moon reviews ceramics by 

Merric and Arthur Boyd from the Bundanon Trust Colledion 

76 VIEW 2: Two Communities - the Language of Clay Cathy Franzi 

reports on an exhibition by Indigenous artists at Strathnairn 

78 PROCESS + MEANING: One Journey Stephanie ~ut r idge Field discusses 

work and clay with Kim Schoenberger 

82 INSIDE MY STUDIO: In Conversation with Ian Clare 

86 EDUCATION: Big Hands little Hands Nicole Lister reports on her 

residency at Gladstone Public School 

90 COMMUNITY: Education Without Boundaries Elizabeth Rowe reports 

on 50 years at the Workshop Art Centre 

94 EVENT: Australian Ceramics Triennale 2012: Subversive Clay 

Sophia Phillips discusses the theme of the upcoming Triennale 

98 WEDGE: "Plinth" Phillip - please don't take me to the tip! 

Comment by Gary Healey 

99 POTIERS MARKS 

100 ARCHIVE: Pottery in Australia, Vol 1, No 1; Editorial by Wanda Garnsey 

101 WEll READ: The Art of Woodfire: A Contemporary Ceramics Pradice, 

by Robert Sanderson 

103 AUSTRALIA WIDE 

r\' RECYCLED 

Paper 

.. S( FSC' C0149 16 

..J.",J 

TH E JOURNAL Of AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS NOVEMBER 2011 1

Ed itor: Vicki Gri ma 

Somchai Charoen. (ath O'Gorman. 

Vicki Grima, Josie Cavallaro and 

Aedan Harris at the opening of 

Offerings. Kerrie Lowe Gallery, 

October 2011 . 

In preparing The Narrative 

Knot catalogue, which starts 

on page 49 of this issue, I 

assembled a visual image 

of how this exhibition may 

look when it comes together under Gerry Wedd's curatorship. But, as stimulating as images can be, 

seeing work in front of us, and being able to touch it, is very different to what we see on a page in 

a magazine. That sense of balance, fragility and construction is best experienced when we can see 

the work in front of us: see the scale; touch it; walk around it; look into it. I hope you will be able to 

make it to Sydney sometime over the summer months to see this and our other celebratory exhibition, 

PROmotion, at Manly Art Gallery and Museum (MAGM). Curator Dee Taylor-Graham has chosen nine 

emerging artists who have featured in the Journal in the last ten years, and together with work from 

the MAGM collection she will weave a story of the 50 years of publication of the magazine first called 

Pottery in Australia and now known as JAC - The Journal of Australian Ceramics. It promises to be 

a big "double bunger" of exhibitions at Manly in December 2011 and January 2012 . 

Exciting times are ahead in 2012 for the Journal and the Association as we celebrate 50 years of 

continuous publication of the magazine. On Sunday 22 January 2012 (the closing of the two exhibitions 

at Manly), we will kick off our anniversary year by awarding the first of the Trudie Alfred Bequest 

Ceramic Scholarships. Thirty-four ceramics students from around Australia are in the running for five 

$4000 scholarships. A hot afternoon in Manly is forecast! 

The statement below appeared in Vol 1, No 1 of Pottery in Australia as part of Wanda Garnsey's 

editorial: 

Acknowledging the stimulus of Bernard Leach's personality by publishing this edition 

following his visit to Sydney, we would yet stress the fact that the potters themselves are the 

mainstay of this and any future production. We depend on the support of our subscribers 

and the stimulus of our contributors. With this encouragement the journal may expand in 

scope and perform a genuine service to potters. 

Tell me ... have we succeeded and where to for the next 50 years? You are invited to contribute your 

comment as a loyal subscriber, contributor andlor reader, to the next issue. See page 100 for details. 

I look forward to publishing your brickbats and bouquets in the next issue, Vol 51 , No 1, 

our 50th Anniversary special edition. 

~. 

2 THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS NOVEMBER 2011

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Exhibitions 

Members of TACA have the opportunity to submit 

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Manly Art Gallery & Museum. 

The Australian Ceramics Association, originally 

the Potters SOCiety of Australia, was established in 

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ceramics sector by promoting and showcasing the 

work of artists, potters. educators and ceramics 

groups, through its print and web publications. 

It acts as an advocate for ceramics education to 

ensure acce81 and high professional standards, and 

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Journal 

The Journal of Australian Ceramics is a 128 page, full 

colour, contemporary ceramics journal. Published 3 times 

per year (April, July and November), it contains artist profiles, 

commentary and critical essays, exhibition and book reviews, 

information on tertiary ceramic education, workshop reports, 

technical advice, suppliers, new products, exhibition and 

gallery listings. 

It is an essential resource for practising ceramicists, 

curators, educators, students and all those interested in 

Australian ceramics. 

• see back of this page for more information 


Since 2002 the Australian Ceramics Directory (ACD) has 

been an important initiative of The Australian Ceramics 

Association and provides an international and national 

reference of Australian ceramic artists for interior designers, 

galleries, collectors, art administrators, curators, students 

and international visitors, 

The ACD allows ceramicists, craftspeople, galleries and 

organisations to have a professional presence and wider 

exposure online. New CMS technology makes it possible 

for participants to self-manage their entry, updating 

information and images whenever necessary. The ability 

to link to other websites is also available. Entry is free to 

members of TACA, with non-members charged a small fee. 

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Prices are current as at 1 April 2011, and are subject 

to change without notice.

Contributors 

Danny Lacy 

Danny Lacy is Curator at Shepparton Art 

Museum. Current curatorial projects in 

development include an iteration of Tom 

Nicholson and Raafat Ishak's Proposition for 

a Banner March and Black Cube Hot Air 

Balloon project, and a major Sam Jinks solo 

exhibition to be presented at Shepparton Art 

Museum in 2012. 

www.sheppartonartmuseum.com.au 

See pages 34-36 

Nicole lister 

Nicole Lister trained as a visual arts teacher 

and later as a ceramicist. Most recently she 

has utilised her experience as a professional 

artist and teacher to complete a residency 

at her local primary school. Throughout 

her career, Nicole has advocated for quality 

ceramics education at all levels. She hopes 

she has inspired the youngsters. 

E: ceramics@nicolelister,com.au 

www.nicolelister.com.au 

See pages 86- 89 

Lucille Nobleza 

The joy of storytelling through photography 

and a lifetime knowledge of ceramics is 

taking Lucille Nobleza around the world 

capturing and exhibiting images of artists 

and their process. These energetic works 

have just completed a tour of Holland, 

Poland Italy and China. 

E: lucille.nobleza@gmail.com 


Stephanie Outridge Field 

There is nothing I like better than clay, 

unless it is food and clay in combination! 

I like looking at other people's work. I like 

using clay to make tangible, possibilities 

you can only dream Ofl I like touching clay, 

writing about it, and talking about it with all 

and sundry. 

E: outridgefield@iinet,net.au 

M: 0417 886 185 


THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS NOVEMBER 2011 3

Now + Then 

Congratulations to Cathy Keys from 

Queensland. Cathy has been successful in 

receiving an Arts Queensland Development 

and Presentation Grant to develop a website to 

exhibit her handbuilt ceramics. 

Correction: Issue 5012, page 8: Gary Healey's 

work. The details of his work Untitled featured 

on page 8 of our last edition (50/2) were 

incorrect. The height should have been: tallest, 

39cm (not 19cm) with peach bloom glaze. 

Big Hands, Little Hands: A Macleay Valley 

school, which received extra funding to conduct 

an Artist-in-Residence program, is displaying the 

fruits of its labour. Go to this link to watch the 

video of the project on NBN TV: http://tinyurl. 

comJIisternbntv. Read about Nicole Lister's 

residency at Gladstone Public School on pages 

86- 89. 

Hints section for advice on how to successfully 

submit the online application. Entries close on 

1 February 2012. With $55,000 in prize money, 

the SMFACA cements its place as the premier 

Australian/International acquisitive ceramic art 

award. Three artists will be shortlisted in each 

category: Australian, International and Emerging 

Australian. One recipient artist will be chosen 

from the shortlisted artists in each category and 

receive a significant stipend to produce a body 

of work for exhibition on the understanding 

that the gallery will select part of the work for 

its collection. There will be six months between 

the announcement of award recipients and the 

delivery of works to the galler 

The Potters Bed and Breakfast Program is 

a service providing opportunities for potters to 

visit other potters while travelling. It promotes 

interaction among potters and fosters personal 

connections between potters from all over 

the world. Over 600 potters have joined from 

twenty different countries; details: http:// 

robertcomptonpottery.comlB&B.Discription.htm 

Vale: Mary (Mollie) Douglas, potter 

Died 27 June 2011 in Sydney, aged 91 

Vale: Joy Warren, potter 

Died 19 July 2011 in Sydney, aged 90 

Vale: Heaton Pittendreigh, potter 

Died 25 August 2011, aged 63 

Entries for the 2012 Sidney Myer Fund 

Australian Ceramic Award (SMFACA) open on 

2 November 2011. Entries can only be subm itted 

via the online entry form. Read the Helpful 

Vale: Len Castle, potter 

Died September 2011 in New Zealand 

aged 86 


Australian Ceram ics Directory 


Add Entry 

Cathy Franzj 

Watson ACT 2602 

E' cat hy.iranzi@anu.edu.au 

The diversity of shapes, textures and form in Australian 

plants and the history of botanical illustration provide a 

rich source of material for my work. I have developed 

a linocut style of carving the soft clay surface based 

on printmaking technique and design. Currently I am 

investigating the use of Australian plants in ceramic 

decoration as a reflection of the cultural and scientific 

perceptions and understanding of the environment. 

Teaching is a valuable part of my practice. I am currently 

undertaking higher degree research at ANU . 

Aedan Harris 

Berry NSW 2535 

E- aedanharris@hotmail.com 

I have always had a fascination with nature and the 

extraordinary capabilities of animal and plant life. The 

design and the inventiveness of the evolutionary process 

provide constant stimulation for my artwork. I have been 

a ceramic artist for about 14 years, working in both 

sculpture and functional forms. I am a part-time teacher 

In Ceramics & Design at Gymea TAFE, Hornsby TAFE 

and Nepean TAFE. I have lived and worked in Japan and 

France exploring their ceramic traditions, lifestyle, culture 

and approach to artistic expression . 

M irta Ouro 

Melbourne VIC 3106 

E: mirtaouro@gmail.com 

My work developed out of discovering, interacting and 

playing with common found objects such as rocks, 

mud and ordinary household goods. I often experiment 

with cereals, paper coffee filters, kitchen wipes, gauze 

and other materials I encounter in my daily activities. 

I use various methods of building - wheelthrowing, 

handbuilding, moulds and slipeasting. I particularly like 

working with porcelain and terra sigillata and firing with 

saggars. I work from a small studio in my backyard, 

finding inspiration in nature and surroundings. 

http://australianceramics . com/homeli ndex. phpl Aust -Ceramics-Directory I 

THE IOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS NOVEMBER 2011 5

Tributes 

Vale Mollie Douglas 1920-2011 

Hornsby TAFE Ceramics Department 

September 2011 

Hidden behind rows of students' lockers 

are two pottery wheels. One is a kick wheel 

with treadles akin to those found on an old 

harmonium. The other is an electric wheel 

constructed from a car axle and a lawn mower 

motor, built for Moll ie Douglas by Mollie's 

marine engineer father during wartime. 

Mollie Douglas; photo: Margaret Tuckson 

Pottery In A ustralia, Vol 10, No 2, Spring 1971 

East Sydney Technical College 

February 1939, seven months before the 

British Empire declares war. Eighteen year 

old Moll ie is living in the quiet rural suburb 

of Turramurra with her family. Her mother is 

unwell; she can't go outside the front gate 

without becoming distressed. Her father has 

taken early retirement so he can look after her, 

but the family doesn't talk about her mother's 

illness or understand it. It is on ly many years 

later that Mollie realises that her mot her suffered 

from agoraphobia. 

East Sydney Technical College (ESTC) is a 

pleasurable, exciting place to be. With her 

drawing skills, Mollie enrolls in the Diploma course in Design and Crafts but by the end of her second 

year she knows - pottery is what she wants to do. Her pottery teachers are Neville Bunning and then 

Miss Irene Landale Beetson, who trained in England . They use only white earthenware, lead glazes 

imported from England, and fire in a temperamental kiln built during the First World War. Then the 

students are taken to see Mr Cooper's private collection of Chinese porcelains - for Mollie, a revelation. 

"I had never seen stoneware ... the muted glazes of the stoneware rea lly appealed to me . 

earthenware was rather harsh and ... shiny." Phyllis Shi ll ito, her head teacher, hands this shy, talented 

student Bernard Leach's recent publication A Potter's Book to read. Mollie finds it a heady mixture of 

idealism and technology, taking as inspiration the beauty of the Chinese pottery she so admired. "I was 

sold, once I read that." 

The War permeates everything, with austerity measures that make many pleasures unpatriotic. "You 

almost felt you shou ldn't be an art student, it just seemed wrong. It [being an art student] was an 

unproductive thing for the war." 

Mollie finishes her Diploma in 1942, awarded Honours and t he meda l. The fol lowing year, invited to 

teach art at Abbotsleigh, her old school, Moll ie says, " I'd love it." In 1944, she is invited back by Phyllis 

Shi ll ito to teach pottery part-time at ESTC. 

10 THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMI CS NOVEMBER 2011

Tributes 

End of the War 1945 

Demobbed servicemen and servicewomen are offered scholarships through the Commonwealth 

Reconstruction Training Scheme. Many are interested in learning crafts, among them pottery. Mollie 

stops teaching at Abbotsleigh, preferring to teach adults, and in 1946 increases her teaching hours at 

ESTC and establishes a new pottery course at St George Technical College. 

Mollie saves her money carefully. With one hundred and sixty pounds, she sets up her own studio, 

a small brick garage built in the garden, with her two pottery wheels, tools (many improvised and 

handmade), and a new electric kiln. She produces a small quantity of finely made earthenware domestic 

ware, selling it through Margaret Jaye in her Rowe Street shop in the city, who takes all she can make. 

Her striped flower pots with saucer at 7/6 (75 cents) each, sell for 15 sh illings ($1.50). " I always make 

things that can be used." 

In 1948, Mollie has her first group exhibition with Miss Beetson and another student, Lillian Tulloch, 

at the David Jones Art Gallery. Her boldly decorated pieces attract attention, including a casserole which 

a newspaper critic says, "shines" . In 1949, Margaret Tuckson, who knew Mollie from Abbotsleigh, 

becomes one of her part-time students at East Sydney Tech., later describing Mollie as a "marvellous 

teacher, straight off" . 

In 1950, Miss Beetson retires and Peter Rushforth is appointed as full-time Head Teacher of Ceramics. 

The department expands with more students, space and equipment. Peter and Mollie work together, 

sharing an enthusiasm for Bernard Leach's vision and Oriental stoneware. 'We got on very well. It 

was nice working w ith someone the same age." They are fellow experimenters and explorers, taking 

the students with them as they discover the possibilities of Australian clays and materials and the 

subtle beauties of stoneware. They were, as Margaret Tuckson says, "a brilliant combination. Peter 

was freedom and ideas and wilder, and Mollie very exact ... and patient." Together they construct a 

curriculum for the Ceramics Department at a time when individual teachers at TAFEs taught whatever 

they wanted to. 

In 1953, one evening after hours Mollie and Vera Andrews successfully push the old gas kiln to 

1250°C to carry out the first stoneware firing at East Sydney Tech . "Peter wasn't sold on stoneware at 

this stage, but he said go ahead anyway." Two years later, Mollie acquires her own stoneware electric 

kiln and begins to make stoneware, something she has dreamed of for a long time. After reducing in 

saggars and repeatedly destroying the elements over several years, she eventually acquires an LPG kiln. 

From 1954, Mollie takes up teaching full-time at ESTC. 

Meanwhile, Peter Rushforth proposes forming a potters' society. Finally, in 1956, Peter, Mollie, Ivan 

McMeekin and Ivan Eng lund form the Potters' Society of NSW, w ith a determination to make the 

public more aware of contemporary pottery, to help students, and "to help in any way possible the 

future of ceramics" . Within a few years it becomes the Potters' Society of Australia, with connections in 

Melbourne, Brisbane and Western Australia. 

Their first exhibition is held in 1958 at the Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, with work by the original four 

members and Margaret Tuckson, Marea Gazzard, Gwyn Johns (later Hanssen Pigott), Les Blakebrough 

and Wanda Garnsey. Although Mollie is to participate in many group shows, her single one man show is 

in 1962 at the Macquarie Galleries, where a critic writes, her" beautiful pots ... gave me great joy" . 

In this same year, Wanda Garnsey launches Pottery in Australia (now The Journal of Australian 

Ceramics) to which Mollie actively contributes for many years. 


Tributes 

Mollie Douglas, Teapot 

dolomite glaze, h.6"(IS2cm) 

Pottery in Australia 

Vol 6, No 1 May 1967 

Two years later, as President of the PSA, she acts as Australian delegate to the First World Congress of 

Craftsmen in New York where she helps plan the formation of the World Crafts Council. While overseas 

in London, she sees Lucie Ries' work, which she greatly admires, influencing her own design direction. 

In 1968, Mollie takes the position of Head Teacher of Art at St George Technical College, the first 

TAFE Head Teacher of Art who is not a painter. 

In 1976, she accepts the post of Acting Head of the School of Art and Design at ESTC, and all TAFE 

colleges, becoming Head in 1977 until she retires in 1979. Affected by arthritis, her output, which has 

always been small, diminishes further. Her swansong is receiving the Australia Council $25,000 Emeritus 

Award for senior artists. 

I have a recording I made of an interview with Mollie in 2003. At 83, her voice is bright, clear, incisive. 

The voice of a teacher who, in spite of her retirement, has never lost her love of teaching or her love of 

ceramics, and is still keenly interested in the most recent work being exhibited. 

It seems appropria te that in the 150th year of TAFE, we should celebrate the life and ach ievements of 

Mollie Douglas who spent 40 years contributing to TAFE as student, teacher and Head of Department. 

Vale Mollie Douglas. 

Many Thanks to Trisha Dean and Ray Stevenson, Ceramics Department Hornsby TAFE, 

Margaret Tuckman, Vicki Grima and Grace Cochrane. 

12 THE JOURNAL Of AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS NOVEMBER 2011

Tributes 

1 Mollie's box of oxides and imported stains 

from Wengers, Stoke-on-Trent 

2 Wheels bu i ~ by Mollie Douglas' father in 1946 

out of wood and spare car parts 

3 Mollie', marl< 

4 A tiny phial of orange stain 

5 Variety of tools made by Mollie and her father from 

bakelite, aluminium, bamboo, wood and perspex 

All of the above items are part of Mollie Douglas' 

collection held at Hornsby TA FE in Sydney; 

photos: Ray Stevenson 

References 

Douglas, Mothe AudIo mtervtew with K. Weiss 2003 

Douglas, M

Tri butes 

Joy Warren; photo: courtesy family 

Vale Joy Warren 1921-2011 

Dr Joy Warren was a teacher, a potter and an example to all that it is never too late to upgrade your 

education. Because her parents had brought her to Australia after high school, Warren had always 

regretted not having the opportunity to have a university education. 

In her 50s she redressed that. In 1980, she graduated w ith an honours degree at the University 

of Sydney. This led to her lecturing in art history and theory for 17 years at the (ollege of Fine Arts, 

University of NSW, and at the Sydney (ollege of the Arts. 

In her 70s, she took a PhD at the University of Wollongong with a thesis tracing the sources of much 

art imagery through time and across continents. She had always felt that terms such as " minor art" , 

" applied art" and "decorative art" had tended to marginalise art works and preclude their study from 

serious art historica l discourse, and the thesis challenged that misconception. 


Tri butes 

Joyce Carney was born on the small island of Wa lney, off the west coast of the Lake District, in the 

county of Cumbria, England . 

The family had been pressed by a close relative for many years to come to Australia but her parents 

resisted until their two children were at school-leaving age. 

The Carneys finally arrived in Sydney when Joy was 17, just a few weeks before the outbreak of war. 

She soon had a job as secretary to the advertising manager of a firm selling family medicines and, with 

an ability to write well and an inquiring mind, graduated through various positions until she became 

assistant advertising manager for the big city department store Farmers . In 1950 she married an artist. 

Guy Warren, and they went by ship to Naples and then to London. 

Her advertising experience got her a position as a senior copywriter at the leading agency S. H. 

Bensons, where she worked on women's accounts - among them the launch of Omo and the Guinness 

account. 

She was told that Guinness was perceived as being a drink for charladies, not sophisticated young 

women, and was asked to change that. She said that she had never drunk Guinness so her boss took 

her around the corner to the nearest pub. The first stout she drank, she hated. The second one she 

rather liked. The third one she liked very much. Her campaign, based on the idea that you might find it 

strange at first but stay with it. was a great success. 

Warren began evening classes at Camberwell School of Art and launched a lifelong passion for the 

crahs, ceramics in particular. 

Aher the family returned to Sydney in 1959, Warren enrolled for further ceramic studies at East 

Sydney Tech (now the National Art School) and she quickly became deeply involved in the crafts 

movement in Australia. 

She was awarded a Crafts Board grant to research the history of Australian ceramics, and was the 

founding editor and producer of the new journal Craft Australia, one of the founding members of 

the Crahs Association of Australia and the Crafts Association of NSW, and a founding member of the 

Ceramic Study Group of NSW. 

For the Crafts Association of Australia. she produced the book Crafts of Australia, designed 

by Douglas Annand and John Reid, and published in English, Pitjantjatjara and Japanese. It was 

launched nationwide through craft associations in 1974 for the 10th anniversary of the first Australian 

craft association. before it accompanied the Australian crafts exhibition to Toronto. 

At the same time, Warren was carrying out research into low-fired porcellaneous clays. 

Warren had many exhibitions of her work and is represented in the National Gallery of Australia in 

Canberra, the National Gallery of Victoria, and in numerous private collections. 

Joyce Warren is survived by Guy and their children, Joanna and Paul. 

Guy Warren 

THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS NOVEMBER 2011 

IS

Focus: Cera mics + Narrative 

IS iT TOMORROW, TODAY? 

Vivonne Thwaites digs the dirt on Gus Clutterbuck 

The 1400 kilometre drive out from Adelaide to the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands 

of Northwest South Australia is rough, isolated and lonely. It is a road that Gus Clutterbuck has travelled 

many times for his work as an artist in various indigenous communities, most recently at Amata. His old 

Toyota diesel ute is stocked with supplies, fuel and spare tyres, just in case. 

I had the opportunity to make the journey w ith Gus recently. You think you know the landscapes of 

Australia but until you go out to this country and stand in it you don't really see it. The impact of the 

colour is so overwhelming that it affects your outlook generally; you realise you are in a special place. 

There are moments where you simply stop by the road am idst the astonishing orange, green, yellow 

of the landscape. At other times a storm may seem to chase you across the flat landscape as you head 

towards Coober Pedy, the last major stop before you hit the dirt road . 

Gus knows the country and many of the indigenous families at Amata and Ernabella. He initially 

worked at Ernabella Arts, then moved with his family to Amata Community for a twelve-month stretch, 

teaching part time at Amata School while looki ng after his two children. Gus's wife Kris worked at 

Amata Clinic as the Women's Health Nurse. Their personal journey of reconciliation has sprung from 

a desire to be immersed in another culture and learn firsthand through looking, listening and working 

with people. 

Gus is regu larly involved in artist residencies at communities. His most recent project in Amata was 

working with the 'watis' (young men) to redevelop the school entrance with a long sculptural wall 

Gus Clutterbuck, Plastic Geology, 2011 , slipcast, midlire clay, monoprinted; h.30cm, w.13Ocm, d.20cm 

Photo: Granl Hancock

Focus: Ceram ics + Narrative 

decorated with handmade terracotta tiles. The art produced is one thing, but for Gus it's accompanied 

by a process of talking, listening and establishing relationships with the people, both indigenous and 

non-indigenous. 

Communities may be rubbish-strewn and dogs roam about, but it is the spectacular country that 

you remember and the people. There is a gradual realisation that here is something outside your city 

experience and it takes your breath away. It is only by going out to remote communities that you can 

get some sense of how, where and what indigenous people refer to when they say 'country'. 

Gus has been busy reflecting on his experiences and bringing this through in his art practice. At 

the heart of his work is that moment of culture shock when encountering the remote indigenous 

community. The untidy streets and roaming dogs don't match our vision of neat middle class Australia. 

Due to t he majority of white Australian's lack of experience of indigenous communities, the first 

impression, the surface veneer, may seem to equate with visions of third world poverty we experience 

vicariously through media grabs on TV 

Gus is interested in this surface. He sees it as a psychological space where both cultures (Anangu 

and Piranpa) collide leaving an obvious residue of dysfunction: rubbish, car wrecks, roaming dogs, 

unemployment and abandoned schemes. Below this veneer lies a rich and vibrant indigenous culture, 

often unseen, misunderstood, and not respected in mainstream Australia. 

Gus's sculptures are based on observations of this continuing cultural collision and they aim to be free 

of value judgements; they simply discuss the experience of being there at this point in time. In order to 

explore this, Gus samples the surface through his collection of 'suitable' rubbish. He may draw on scrap 

paper or make moulds from discarded things such as crushed flour t ins, plastic bottles and old mufflers. 

He re-makes these seemingly worthless objects in ceramic and paints his experiences onto the surfaces. 

The resulting objects and installations are studies of dysfunction. ironically cast in porcelain.

Focus: Ceramics + Narrative 

Gus Clutterbuck, Kamula Tjuta (flour-tin series), 

2011 slipcast, monoprinted porcelain, carved figures. ink 

decoration; h.4Ocm, w33cm, d.2cm 

Gus Clutterbuck, Pana Dish 1, 2011 , Cool lee 

monoprinted, handbuilt, glazed; h.30em, w.26cm, d.3em 

Photos: Grant Hancock 

Gus's sculptural ideas could be presented through many mediums, but his use of slipcasting, an 

industrial ceramic production technique, is a conscious choice which he says allows a greater freedom 

to manipulate and alter materials. The resulting 'broken aesthetic' comments wryly on the " purity of 

the vessel", but celebrates ordinary objects, things that are disintegrating into the landscapes, in a state 

of transition, gradually rusting away and becoming part of the country. For exhibitions he will at times 

combine the actual finds w ith his ceramic objects made from the casts of the detritus. For Gus it is 

about finding the objects, the location of the finds, and the lives that inhabit those places. 

As Brooke Collins-Gearing sa id recently in M/c Journal, Vol 13 No 4,2010 in relation to Warwick 

Thornton's film Samson and Delilah: "Waste is a subjective notion. Items that some discard and 

perceive as valueless can be of importance to others, and then it also becomes a waste not to 

acknowledge or use that item. Rather than only focusing on the concept of 'waste' as items or materials 

that are abandoned, I wish to consider the value in what is wasted .. Notions of value and waste are 

tied to cultural hierarchies, and it is through questioning how a dominant culture determines value that 

processes of transformation and mediation take place. "1 

Gus's aim in casting from the thrown away detritus is to talk to a wider audience about the found, 

the cast off, the remainders of lives that are ongoing in Australia's outback for our indigenous people. 

He reflects on things that once had a function and a purpose but that have now lost their function, 

and uses these crushed objects as a metaphor reflecting on problems and dysfunction in indigenous 

communit ies. 

He attempts to 'stop the gap' by framing within the artwork his own, and his family's, personal 

experiences of living in the APY Lands and getting to know Anangu people. He illustrates the simple 

things that can bring us together: bush tucker trips and eating together, footy matches and our children 

all playing together. For Gus these connections with people will never be forgotten. 

Vivonne Thwaites is a freelance. Adelaide-based curator, She established artroom5 to show 

new and emerging artists; www.artroom5.com.au. 

1 Brooke Collins-Gearing. 'Reclaiming the Wasteland : Samson and Delilah and the Historical Perception and Constructkm of Indigenous Know1edges 

in Australian Cmema', Mle Journal. Vol 13 No 4, 2010. See also http://journatmedia+culture.org .aulindex.phplmcjournaVartidelviewArtide1252 



1 Gus Clutterbuck. Muffler Vases , 2011 

slipcast, mldfire day, monoprinted. altered, glazed 

each h.46cm, w.26cm, d.7cm 

2 Gus Clutterbuck, Broken Landscape 7 

installation, 201" Cool Ice, monopnnted, altered and 

glazed; installation, h.40cm, w.13Ocm, d.2Scm 

3 Gus Clutterbuck. Mosaic Landscape 1 

installation. 201 1. Cool lee. monoprinted, altered 

h.4Ocm, w.13Ocm, d.2Scm 




Belinda Fox and Neville French, Umnonari Vessels; porcelain, wheelthrown. altered, inlaid, incised limestone and 

feldspathic glazes; photo: Pixart 

The Narrative of Place 

Altair Roelants discusses a collaborative journey 

with Belinda Fox and Neville French 

Victoria based artist Belinda Fox and ceramicist Neville French's recent joint body of work exhibited in 

Slip , 4-18 June 2011 1 at Sydney's Arthouse Gallery, marked the end of a fruitful collaborative journey 

that was initiated by Fox's chance foray into ceramics in Skopelos, Greece - the natural beauty and 

marine w ild life of the area giving the artists much of the inspiration for the show. The successful 

exhibition, that included couplings of evocative paintings and luminous porcelain vessels, captured the 

fragility of life and the marine environment within an interrelated painted and ceramic aesthetic Slip 

also marked the strong unity Fox and French had achieved and demonstrated the power that such crossdisciplined 

dialogues can have in expressing those narratives inherent in place, colour, glaze and form. 

Artist Belinda Fox is well known for her haunting mixed-media paintings and prints that combine 

wonderful moments of intimacy with flowing washes, to imagine man's charged relationship with 

the environment. This first time ceramics project was inspired by Fox's print-making residency at the 

Skopelos Art Foundation in June 2010 2 , during which time she also had the opportunity to learn from 

a well respected local traditional potter3. Working in clay had come naturally to Fox and this experience 

compelled her to explore ceramics potential for expressing the rich ecological fabric of the area and her 

broader environmental concerns. Similarly as an artist who often incorporates experimental components 

within her practice and creates stories "in multiple parts"', fUSing 2d and 3d elements appealed to 

Fox and she believed that this multi-disciplined approach would really bring the essence of Greece 

to life. After returning to Australia, Fox initiated an on-line search for a ceramicist whose aesthetic 

would complement her ideas, which brought her to ceramicist Neville French. Well respected for his 


Focus : Ceramics + Narrative 

rich expressive approach to glazes and graceful forms, French takes his inspiration from rural Victoria 

to "distill an essence of place, evoke quietude and transcendence" .5 It is not surprising then, that Fox 

was drawn to "the natural, beautiful and elegant forms"6 of his ceramics and felt there was an affinity 

between their two aesthetics. After an email of introduction, the two artists first met in August 2010 

to discuss the joint project that would take them on a journey of investigation and learning over the 

following months.7 

Drawing on Fox's images of Greece - particularly white sea urchins (or 'hairy flowers' as they translate 

in Greek), jelly f ish, the ocean and the physical delicacy of that environment - the duo commenced 

work in September 2010 beginning with the collaborative porcela in vessels B As French explains, "The 

development of the ceramic techniques and method we used was very systematic and started with a 

clear aim to express a feeling of fragility. "9 French began by creating test tiles and experimenting with 

blends created from four clay slips of white, brown, blue and black that he felt would be suitable as 

under glazes and "would have an affinity with Belinda's printmaking skills and techniques" .!O After 

demonstrating a range of ceramic techniques to Fox!!, he then supplied the artist with clay tiles and 

buckets of the slips to experiment with independently in her Melbourne studio. Fox found this process 

both exciting and challenging due to shifts in colour post firing and obtaining preciSion in the malleable 

clay. As she discusses she had to " let go" of her own artistic impulses in order to engage and 'build 

confidence' in what is more of an 'organic process' !2. The emotive surface designs Fox developed 

incorporated incising, sgrafitto and inlay, and brushed, poured and splashed slip effects, such as solvents 

and salts sprayed and splashed onto wet slips to create brilliant marine effects that depict the mood, 

movement, textures and wildlife of the sea and which would later be echoed in the imagery and colours 

of the paintings. These test tiles were then returned to French for bisque and glaze firing. 

Belinda Fox and Neville French, Limnonari Vessel 3, porcelain, wheelthrown, altered, inlaid, incised limestone and 

feldspathic glazes; h.3Ocm, w.24cm; photo: Pixart


Above: Belinda Fox and Neville French, Limnonari Vessels. porcelain, wheel formed. altered, inlaid incised limestone 

and feld,pathic glaze,. 

Below: Belinda Fox incising a Limnonari Vessel 

Photos: courtesy artists

Focus: Cerami cs + Narrative 

While Fox developed the surface designs, French worked on the base glazes in his studio in 

Buninyong, creating ten in total that would strengthen the thematic thread by mimicking the reflective 

qualities and hues of the sea. These included a fluid glossy glaze with suspended bubbles in the surface, 

a translucent papery matt glaze, a crystalline semi matt glaze and a felspathic crazed glaze 13 in pale 

blues, greens and ambers. French then tria led variations of these glazes over Fox's designs on the test 

tiles. As he explains, he applied "thick and thin applications, layered, juxtaposed, brushed, sprayed and 

poured to discover the ways to effectively integrate the drawing and washes with the glazed surface" I. 

and to play with the effects of light and transparency. This process was new for French whose own 

porcelain forms are normally free of motifs, and enabled him to apply glaze in a more" painterly 

way" and to "shift the behavior of the glazed surface" IS French's expertise and understanding of the 

expressive and imaginative capacity of glazes positioned them as integral elements of both the vessels 

and overall body of work. The glazes evoke contemplation and forge a connection by reflecting natural 

light, which extends the narrative reach of the vessels to the paintings, the surrounding space and the 

viewer, drawing these elements back into the 

porcelain form - very much like the flow of the 

tide. 

For the forms of the vessels themselves, French 

developed a set of eight large test pots in the 

shape of jellyfish that would mirror Fox's imagery. 

French then bubble wrapped these un-fired 

samples and drove them to Fox in Melbourne 

where the two artists considered the designs and 

applied the most successful onto the test vessels. 

This stage required them both to work in their 

area of expertise but intuitively and in new ways - 

Fox was drawing directly onto a large, curved clay 

object and the designs had to meld the exterior 

with the interior of the vessel. French had to apply 

glazes that would merge Fox's designs with the 

porcelain form and achieve the desired aesthetic 

outcome after firing. As Fox explains, it was 

both "terrifying and liberating doing something 

you didn't know" by "starting from something 

Progress on Limnonari Vessel 7; photo: courtesy artists beautiful. .. responding to its shape and form" 16 

French then produced the final vessels l7 , before 

returning them to Fox. During the finishing stages, Fox suggested Facebook as a practical way for 

them to upload images and comments from their respective studios and it became a vital tool for the 

remainder of the process, particularly when discussing final glaze choices. Fox also kept a notebook 

about the collaboration, including records of the slip blends, colour pa int samples and sketches. The 

porcelain vessels were finished by French in April, during which time Fox worked on the paintings in 

response to particular ceramic pieces; these were completed in May. 

The resulting exhibition, Slip (20 11 ), included thirteen mixed media paintings on board and fourteen 

thrown and altered porcelain vessels. Tying in the beginning of this journey, three of the painted works'S 

came from Fox's residency in Greece and were pivotal pieces within the show. The exhibition layout also 

illustrated the wonderful fusion between these two artist's practices, as the vessels and paintings were 

displayed as pairs. These groupings were selected during the making process by Fox'9 to express the 

direct relationship between the 2d and 3d forms - the most explicit being three small vessels positioned 


Focus: Ceram ics + Narrative 

Belinda Fox in studio; Neville French in studio; photos: courtesy artists 

beneath the painting Tide (201 1). As Fox explains, "I made the painting so it felt like a torrent of water 

and energy was falling into the vessels below." 20 Similarly, Fox positioned the works within the space to 

create a "narrative journey through the exhibition"21 itself. Such an approach was particularly successful 

in Slip as one instantly had a sense of the place and story Fox and French were describing - as the 

ocean flowed from the walls to the vessels in energetic but delicate waves, and the occasional lone 

figure in the paintings reminded us, the audience, of our position within this cycle. Even more striking 

was the feeling one got of the seamless nature of this collaboration and harmony demonstrated in 

the work - both elements could have been created by one artist, and the pride in this partnership is 

expressed in their joint signature, 'ff'. When asked about this experience, both artists speak of thorough 

enjoyment and pay tribute to the other's expertise, expressing what they gained from the collaboration 

and how it influenced their own practice. As French states, "The final results were a great fusion of our 

skills and, I believe, more than either of us could have achieved individually. "22 

So successful was the collaboration, Fox and French have another exhibition coming up at Canberra's 

Beaver Gallery Give & Take, 22 March - 10 April 201223, which will again incorporate ceramics but this 

time with works on paper and print-making. In this sense, Slip becomes a space of narration not only 

about place, but also about the journey these two artists have been on and will continue on. 

Altair Roelants is a freelance arts writer based in Sydney, 


View of the exhibition, Slip, Arthouse Gallery, Sydney, June 2011; photo: courtesy gallery 

Full exh.brtion title Belmda Fox Sftp. 4-18 June 2011; www.arthousegallerycom.au 

Belmda fox was invited by master printer Basil Hall to create prints along W1th teo other artISts. 

The Greek. poner was Baslly Rodlo who creates the traditional black ceramIC ware of Greece at the studio opened by his 

great grandfather In 1900 

Quote taken {(om Belinda Fox August 2011 

Ouote taken from Neville French's website W'MV.nevlllefrench.com 

6 Ouote taken from interview with Belinda Fox in August 2011 

This was a first lime collaboratlOO for French. and \Ntllie Fox had worked coUaborauvely before this was the first titTle 

she had done so with a ceramICist. 

8 The porcelain vessels came to mfOim Fox's paintings. 

9 Quote taken from a text supplied by Neville French August 2011 


11 These included inlay, inCISing, sgraffito and screen pnntlng 

12 Discussed dUring an IntervIeW with Belinda Fox August 2011 



15 Quote tak.en from a text supplied by NevIlle French August 201 I 

16 Quote taken from mterviewwFth Selinda Fox August 2011 

17 The vessels ranged In heIght from 10 to 40 em 

18 These are Your Journey May Be Long (2010). Full of Adventures (2010), With Much ro Learn (2010) 

19 Fox consulted with French during the exhibition pldnntng and layout 

20 Quote taken from Behnda Fox September 2011 

21 Ouote taleen from intervIew WIth Belinda Fox Augu st 2011 

22 Quote taken from NevIlle French August 2011 

23 For more Information about the artists and their exhibition at Beaver Gallery, please visit www.belmdafox.com.3u 

and www.nevillefrench.com 



Tale of a pot 

lrianna Kanellopoulou 

In Your Eyes 

Kevin Grealy 

The Patina of Ages series 

Photo: courtesy artist 

~~'" 

~~.,.> 

. ,.hJ~~tIJJ> 

*' /I1Uvr),w 

ff~w{6

Fleur Shell 

Heidi Hill and Fleur Schell are 

shown here drawing the story 

board, for characters made of 

porcelain, for a book Fleur is 

working on. 

"Heidi and I share many hours 

drawing. At the lovely age of six, 

Heidi is in that wonderful window 

of creative expression where her 

drawings exist in a world without 

gravity and where everyone has 

X-ray vision. The lines between 

what's real and what is imagined 

are blurred. Without inhibition she 

draws herself floating amongst 

the most detailed, colourful and 

animated animals, plants and 

inanimate objects. The way Heidi 

sees the world is a great source 

of inspiration for the book I am 

working on." 

Pru Morrison's email to the Australian Ceramics Discussion list, 12 September 2011: 

I've been using underglaze (ug) pencil lately to draw on porcelain surfaces and have found 

the ug pencil remains stable if you draw on the surface after bisque and then high-fire to fuse 

the pencil to the surface before clear glazing and firing again. I've achieved good coverage 

with shading and blacks by building the layers up between firings which is a technique from 

china painting except the layers are built up before the final glaze firing. Ug pencil also works 

well on terra sigi/lata surfaces 

if the surface is not buffed 

up. Drawing is a great way 

to record and communicate 

information quickly. its costs 

are low and it's completely 

portable and discrete if need 

be, and it's a language tool 

without the hassles of words. 

Pru Morrison 

Ode in Five Stanzas, 2011 

Photo: artist 



Sony Manning 

Below: Transparent Ligh t; photo: Terence Bogue


/. 'kr f~ ~ 

A'NW< - '5 5&'j.UJ. 

Janet Selby 

Angophoras, 2008; photo: Greg Piper 

Janet Selby on drawing: 

Drawing is essential for me to get the feel of 

the subject. It is better than taking photos, as I 

can edit as I go and exaggerate the characteristics 

as I see them. Later on, I review the sketch 

and work on it some more. After these initial 

sketches, I make a small clay model to find out 

more about its character in the round. I call this a 

3D sketch. My father was a drawer. and we drew 

together for many years. For a more detailed 

description of my approach to sketching go to 

www.janetselby.com.au. 

Paul Gennings 

Rivet No 2 


Slightly anamorphic Images are sketched on curved surfaces. A plastic drycleaning bag avoids smudging whilst I support my 

arm and hand on the work. Freehand line detaIls are painted over undercoat slip using a fine hake·style brush. Working notes 

are made in pencil alongside the design to indicate colours; photo: Grant Hancock. 

Draw Your Own Conclusion 

Stephen Bowers shares his techniques and thoughts on drawing 

"So, are these deca ls?" a bystander asked me at an exhibition many years ago. I had to confess, 

"Actually no, the images on the pots were hand painted." Somehow I sank in estimation. Hand painting 

suggested the genteel hobby of china painting, folk pottery or the industrialised, endlessly repeated 

'hand-painted' units of commercial output. Back then it was the stoneware age, an era dominated by 

the narrow aesthetics of the wheel thrower, the glaze dipper and the high firer. 

Painted patterns and images on pots, especially representational images, were seen by some as 

superficial; they interrupted form, obscured the vigour of throwing marks and detracted from the truth 

of materials and the beauty of firing. We have come a long way from the limited days of the smudged 

gesture with an oxide-saturated brush; yet despite the allure, the placing of detailed images on pottery 

remains somehow problematical. 

The increase in image technology in painting and printing on clay (witness the influence of Grayson 

Perry and Paul Scott's excellent handbook on the subject, Ceramics and Print) along with a broader 

exchange of ideas, interests and techniques in the area, have expanded horizons and reclaimed for 

ceramics much of its heritage as a pictorial vehicle. 

30 THE IOURNAl OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS NOVEMBER 2011


These days the variety of clay bodies, reliable 

stains and colours, transparent glazes and 

versatile kilns, makes decoration on pots readily 

accessible. We also seem more relaxed and 

receptive when it comes to visual images on 

ceramics and what we expect of them. Painting 

on pots is appreciated as a strand within the 

broader history of visual imagery. However, it 

remains a specialised area with challenges for 

anyone wanting to paint images on their pots. 

Following are some studio tips on tools and 

techniques that can be used when painting on 

pottery. 

Firstly, it helps to be interested in images and 

drawing and painting. If capturing what you 

see or expressing yourself in drawn or painted 

sketches, doodles or studies is something you like 

to do, then you are off to a good start. 

It also helps if you have sources to work from. 

If you have a passion for pattern for example, 

then look at what has been done in this area, not 

just on pots, but on fabrics, text iles, wallpapers, 

furniture, metal, etc. Start a scrap book and build 

your own collection of source materials: books, 

magazines, images and samples. 

For the type of decoration I do, white clay 

is best, though terracotta can be slipped 

with compatible white clay to form a base 

for decorating. Surfaces should be clean and 

smooth. Wet finishing with a fine sponge or 

rib gives a good base to work on. If you use 

a scourer to fettle dry work smooth, wear a 

respirator to avoid inhaling dust, work outside 

and wash or hose down your work area . Once 

bisqued, wash pots to make sure the surfaces are 

clean before decorating. 

Body stain, glaze stain or underglaze stain 

can be wet sieve-mixed with some fine slip of 

the same body as the piece. Colours should be 

well mixed with water into a smooth flowing 

consistency, which can be further thinned 

with water for easier application. A little bit 

(approx. one teaspoon to SOOml) of whatever 

glaze is being used can be added to enhance 

the slip's ability to fuse to the pot. Brushing in 

Second stage sketching of image: further details are 

added to an already airbrushed, stencilled and painted 

background. 

Light sketching lines, using a fine HB penCil, indicate the 

direction in which elements of the overall design wilt flow. 

A combination of daylight and powered lamps are used to 

avoid shadows on the work. 




Opposite page: Tools shown on top of hand rest, which provides support when working at angles and is made from a block of 

wood covered with lambswool; photo: Grant Hancock 

different directions lays down even basecoats, which can then be worked over in fine line detail. I use a 

transparent earthenware glaze and decorate both under and on top of the glaze. 

I use flat Japanese slip brushes and Hake-style round brushes, a mix of both goat and squ irrel ha ir. For 

fine work I use round squirrel and fine-tipped Kolinsky brushes. I rarely work out designs beforehand. 

I sketch directly on to pots (usually bisqued) and may use stencils of masking tape, paper or shellac to 

isolate areas as I build up layers of decoration, preparing the background first, or working in reverse, 

where the background (if using enamels or gold lustre) might be done last. 

Currently, I mostly use MFQ clay and bisque all decoration to 1025°C before I glaze to about 1165°C. 

Decoration takes place across several distinct steps, i.e. stencil, sponging, rag-rolling, spraying/airbrush, 

followed by brush work. 

I dip large plates and spray bottle forms. Once dry, I fettle the glaze to minimise pinholes and blisters. 

Being left-handed, I work from right to left across the surface to avoid smudging work during 

painting. When doing fine line work I may add a fixative (like edible gum) to colours. Various fixatives 

are available from art suppliers, but hair spray also works. To avoid touching painted areas directly whilst 

working, I lay down soft dry-cleaning plastic bags. Background layers of decoration are less likely to rub 

or smudge if colours are prepared properly and painting is done with care. 

Designs can be drawn with a range of pencils, from soft 6B on damp and leather hard clay, to fine HB 

on bisque ware (I use cheap retractable pencils). Keep pencil outlines spare as too much graphite on the 

surface acts as a res ist to slips and colours. Mistakes on bisque can be erased with a soft rubber. Pencil 

burns out during the bisque. To transfer an image on to a pot, try tracing over it with tracing paper 

or oven baking paper, cut it out and trace round it onto the pot (or just draw it freehand). To repeat 

an image, I make a cut out stencil of stiff cartridge then coat it with good varnish to add strength and 

waterproofing, which helps if you're sponging on decoration. 

To transfer an image, trace heavily over your selected image on a piece of lunch wrap or baking 

paper in a soft 6B pencil, then turn the tracing over and hold the traced lines where you want the 

image and rub firmly over the lines. The soft 6B line work will transfer faintly to the pot giving you a 

fast start on your image. 

Draw as much as possible. Start by learning styles and techniques. Do not be afraid to repeat and 

copy; learning any hand skill requires understanding and confidence which can be gained through 

study, and drawing on the curved surface of a pot will teach you about anamorphic1 images. You will 

soon feel that drawing is a key skill within your practice when you make drawing with pencil and brush 

an integrated part of your everyday studio routine. 

1 Anamorphosis is a distorted projectIOn or perspective requiring the viewer to use s.pedal deviCes or occupy a SpecIfIC 

vantage point 10 reconstitute the image 

Stephen Bowers is a Field Researcher with the Australasian Institute of Backyard Studies. 

His ceramic work was shown at Robin Gibson Gallery, 27B Liverpool Street Sydney, 

15 October - 9 November 2011, and will be shown at BMG Gallery, 33 North Street, Adelaide, 

24 February - 17 March 2012. 



Surreal Compositions 

Danny Lacy looks into the narrative work of Rob McHaffie 

Rob McHaffie is a painter. He paints objects and fragments of images combined from source material 

he collects and creates: magazine pictures, photos, plants, fabric. He makes objects and composes 

model assemblages, absurd miniature still lives which are photographed and incorporated into his 

paintings. Collaged together, all these fragments from McHaffie's immediate surrounds form surreal and 

playful narratives. 

As part of the process of juxtaposing different materials and subject matter, McHaffie often uses clay 

to create little scrunched up faces and figurines, playful sculpted characters. These objects inhabit the 

landscape of many of McHaffie's paintings, and act as central protagonists within the narratives of his 

work. The texture of hand-sculpted clay is skilfully rendered by McHaffie's soft and delicate treatment of 

paint. Smoothly replicating the intricate play between light and shadow and the waving forms created 

by the fold, the paintings have a surreal look to them. 

I often look at McHaffie's paintings that feature his sculpted characters and feel a sense of dislocation 

and ambiguity. To me they represent portraits of loneliness or internal struggle, which is heightened by 

the materiality and malleability of clay, crumbled paper or ruffled fabric. In some of McHaffie's earlier 

works, the disembodied figures seem quite uncomfortable in their ripples and folds and are filled w ith 

a brooding sense of melancholy. Did you get me one? is a good example of this, a sombre character 

holding a take away coffee appears shrivelled and forlorn. McHaffie represents the way we sometimes 

feel underneath the toughened exterior we project 

outwards to the world. 

The translation across different mediums is a 

fascinating part of McHaffie's practice. His drawings, 

paintings and ceramics all exist within a similar 

framework. The act of translation starts with an object; 

in McHaffie's case this can be a collage or a ceramic 

sculpture. The translation from ceramic sculpture to 

painted object tends to free the ceramic object from 

any privileged position as being a unique original, and 

re-animates it as part of a wider narrative construct. 

Perhaps we all want to feel part of a larger whole and 

McHaffie's paintings embed and flatten various objects 

together to create a unified constructed world. This 

can be seen where Untitled, a porcelain head, makes 

an appearance in the painting I should tidy, the real 

estate guy is coming at 3. 

Rob McHaffie, Did you get me one 7, 2006 

oil on linen, h.62cm. w.52cm; private collection 

Courtesy Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney 

34 THE IOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS NOVEMBER 2011


All work by Rob McHaffie 

1 I should tidy. the real estate guy is coming at 3, 2009, oil on linen, h.46cm, w.S6cm; private collection 

2 Untitled, 200B, porcelain, h.9cm 

3 Nick Cave, 200B, porcelain, h.1Bcm 

4 Untitled (sick of not being me) and Untitled (follow your nose), 2009, porcelain, h. 14cm & h.12cm 

Photos: courtesy artist and Da rren Knight Gallery, Sydney 

Recently there has been a noticeable shift in McHaffie's practice with a renewed sense of optimism 

appearing in his work. Paintings such as Semi-supine and I should tidy, the real estate guy is 

coming at 3, present images of relaxed confident characters embedded within richly coloured 

landscapes. Abstracted faces have solidified into classic sculpted heads and bodies are seen as whole 

rather than just parts. In Semi-supine, the central sculpted character lies on his back blissfully relaxing 

in a sunny desert vista fea turing cacti, an old building covered with PEACE text and angels, a cat. and a 

rocky outcrop in the background. 

Also, of late, the ceramic component to McHaffie's art practice has become a larger focus, rather than 

existing as the original object in the process of a painting practice. The translation of the ceramic object 

between object and painting is interesting in delivering a conversation across the different mediums. 

The ceramic work, while still quite often being incorporated into the paintings, exists as a sculpture 

in its own right Recent stand-alone ceramic works include the iconic Australian singer Nick Cave, 

3 • ----------"- 


Focus: Ceram ics + Na rrative 

two heads Untitled (sick o f not being 

me), Untitled (follow your nose) and 

a series of smaller ceramic objects that 

were exhibited together as a grouping of 

figures, candlestick holders and heads in 

a group show in a Brunswick warehouse 

organised by Darren Knight Gallery in 

2009. 

While it's not uncommon for 

contemporary artists to work seamlessly 

across various mediums, there are currently 

a number of dynamic younger artists like 

Brendan Huntley, Renee So and Katherine 

Rob McHaffie, Sem i~s up in e. 2009, oil on linen. h.84cm w.l00cm Huang who incorporate ceramics as 

Courtesy artist and Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney 

an integral part of their art pradices. 

MCHaffie would consider these artists his 

peers; artists who have developed the 

ability to successfully translate and develop t heir art pradices across mediums while pushing the limits 

of their creativity at the same time. 

Danny Lacy is Curator at the Shepparton Art Museum. 

Rob McHaffie is a Melbourne-based artist who graduated from the Victorian College of 

the Arts in 2002 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drawing. McHaffie has held residencies at 

Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces in Fitzroy in 2005, an Australia Council Skills and Arts 

Development Grant-funded studio at the Cite Internationale des Artis in Paris in 2007 and has 

most recently completed an Asialink Visual Arts residency in Malaysia in 2011 . McHaffie is 

represented by Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney. 

Rob McHaffie, installation view, 2009; photo: Viki Petherbridge; Darren Knight Gallery. East Melbourne 



TH€ fom~ 

The Story of Palissy the Potter title page 

A Potter's Tale 

Damon Moon selects a few of his favourite books about ceramics 

Everybody has a story to tell and potters are no exception. Before the days of tweets and blogs, telling 

that story to a wider audience meant going into print. In most cases this meant writing an article for a 

ceramics magazine, but some potters managed to go one better than this and have a book published. 

These books mostly concentrated on aspects of materials or technique, but occasionally a potter would 

write about ceramics in a wider context and in the process they would tell a story. 

This essay is about a few of these books. Most of them are relatively unknown, little gems in what 

must be considered one of the more obscure branches of publishing. I haven't chosen them for their 

inherent literary merit or even for the wealth of information they convey. More than anything else I like 

the sense of honesty these books have - they are very true to themselves, which is not a bad thing. 

So, without further ado, and in no particular order, here is my selection. 



The Story of Palissy the Potter 

T. Nelson & Sons, Paternoster Row, Edinburgh and New York 1876 

This is one of the oldest books lawn. Originally given as a ' Prize for Reading' to an Alice Lade in 

1877, it was bought by my father in the early sixties, and his name is inscribed on the first facing page 

under the original dedication. It is a beautiful little book and includes two colour-plates. The first is titled 

Pa/issy's Final Experiment and shows the potter sitting at a table mixing ingredients while his wife 

stands behind him holding their baby, while all around them on the floor are smashed pots. Reading the 

book it is apparent that it shows Palissy using fragments of pots to conduct glaze-tests, which just goes 

to show that some things never change. 

The second picture shows Palissy placing a pot in a kiln, which really looks more like a fancy bread 

oven with its neat cast iron door and polite little fire burning in the hearth underneath. Th is is Palissy 

hard at work trying to fire the aforementioned glaze-tests so he can discover the secret of what is 

referred to as 'a white enamel', which we would call a white glaze. This part of the story is perhaps the 

only thing that is now remembered about the whole tale, where Palissy is forced to burn the palings 

from his fences and then even the household furniture, all the time trying to gain sufficient heat to melt 

the glazes. 

The story is set against the fierce religious persecutions of the Protestant Huguenots by Catholics in 

16th century France, and, unfortunately, Palissy's life ends badly, locked in the Bastille by evil Papists. 

It is meant to be a tale of triumph over adversity, but - at least from a contemporary standpoint - the 

messages are very mixed. Starving one's kid dies and burning the furniture in order to get a good glaze) 

This book might appear to be an eccentric period-piece, but one of the curious facets of the text is 

the way it has parallels in some far more contemporary tales concerning the triumph of the will in a 

world of ceramic adversity. 

Potbank by Mervyn Jones 

Seeker & Warburg, London 1961 

Potbank: A social enquiry into Life in the Potteries was the first in a series of texts published as 

part of the 'Brita in Alive' series in 1961 . It's author, Mervyn Jones, was not a potter, but the picture he 

paints of life in the once-great ceramic centre of Stoke-an-Trent rings very true. 

The six towns that make up the city of Stoke-an-Trent (Longton, Hanley, Fenton, Burslem, Tunstall and 

Stoke) known collectively as 'the Potteries', are represented here in all their sooty splendour. In fact, if 

this book were a film it would be in black and white, with factory girls riding home from work on old 

Raleigh bicycles down cobbled streets lined with identical terrace houses. The language is chock full of 

colloquialisms, hence the term 'potbank' for a factory that makes pottery, or 'paste' for the clay slip for 

casting porcelain. 

It is a world as far away as can be imagined from contemporary ceramics with its art schools, grants 

and galleries, while still working with the same basic materials, except that they did it so much better, or 

at least much more skilfully. 



And the writing is charming and very English - here is an example: 

Tower Square, in Tunstall, is to my mind the prettiest ... This is a peaceful, open square, 

with a sniff of fresh air and a lingering memory of a country market town. It is ridged in the 

middle, so that the houses seem to lean outwards. Mostly they are small, unassertive shops, 

selling things like jigsaw puzzles, goldfish food, and the libraries of defunct clergymen. 

For all the faddishness of lin de Zen. we shou ldn't forget that the vast bulk of Australian ceramic 

history lies in England, or that the wealth, skill, scale and success of the manufactories of Stoke-on-Trent 

are a singular moment in manufacturing history. 

This book certainly doesn't paint a romantic picture of life in the factories, and I doubt if many of 

the Mashiko-bound potters in 1961 would have altered their destinations to the English Midlands after 

reading it. Nonetheless, it gives one a taste of an industry that, in its heyday, supported thousands of 

workers and, together with the mills, steel and shipbuilding, made Britain great. Now, just let me check 

if that souvenir cup from Kate and Wills' wedding was 'Made in China' ... 

May by May Davis 

Self published May Davis, New Zealand 1990 

ISBN 0-473-01000-3 

After reading this autobiography by May Davis, one wonders that she had the energy to write 

anything down at all, given the almost ridiculous extremes of discomfort she endured at various times 

and places to, together with her husband Harry Davis, make pots that people might sometimes have 

wanted but, in reality, nobody actually needed. 

Bright, artistic and beautiful, born into a privileged household (her grandfather was the founder of 

the Manchester Guardian, later to become The Guardian newspaper), one is left with the overriding 

impression that May Davis might have had a far easier life if she had just .. well, if she had just not met 

Harry Davis. 

Then again, one wouldn't want to convey the impression that May Davis was a shrinking violet, 

blindly following 'her man' as he travelled around the world on yet more arduous ceramic adventures. 

Indeed, as is obvious from the text, May was a little bit 'out there' herself, wholeheartedly identifying 

with various causes, sometimes to the detriment of both her personal life and health. This, combined 

with her husband's proclivity for taking on large challenges of a ceramic kind, make Harry and May 

Davis an interesting case-study in both how to conquer difficulties and yet at the same time make 

the easy difficult and to render success, if not a failure, then at least hard to savour by virtue of sheer 

bloody-minded ness. 

Of all the biographies included in this essay, May is probably the most 'tell all', in that it eschews 

almost all detail about the making of pots while including a great deal of detail about the life of the 

author. To be honest, there is a bit 'too much information' for me; the details of May's first orgasm, 

clutching Harry's knee as she sat beside him, fully-clothed and still decidedly in possession of her 

virginity, is interesting as far as it goes, but there is also surely something a little vain about recounting 

such an episode; as one reads further, it becomes apparent that the text is characterised by such 

observations. 

THE IOURNAl OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS NOVEMBER 2011 39


Don't get me wrong. This is a very gutsy woman we are talking about and she did not let herself 

be constrained by either societal expectations, or indeed by any regards for her own comfort. One 

also realises that it was all too easy for the male partner, in what was undoubtedly an equal working 

partnership, to become widely recognised while the woman was considered a kind of willing helper. In 

fact, reading this text it is clear that May Davis was deeply involved in all aspects of both making and 

selling the work. What she didn't do was embark on the numerous lecture and workshop tours that 

Harry Davis undertook, tours which served to raise his profile in the international ceramic arena while 

May Davis attended to business and family at home. 

Both the Davis's were up for a challenge, but going to live in extremely adverse conditions in Peru 

in the early nineteen-seventies seems to have been one adventure too many, at least for Harry Davis, 

who returned from this adventure with his health seriously compromised. This was the last in a series of 

South American adventures that must have sorely tested their endurance even when young and fit, let 

alone when they were approaching late middle-age. 

As May Davis herself asks, the question remains as to whether this kind of interventionist project (one 

could add Ivan McMeekin in the Northern Territory, Michael Cardew in Africa) actually achieves very 

much, or merely perpetuates a kind of benign cultural condescension . At least in the case of Western 

potters visiting Japan the shoe was, for once, on the other foot, but that is a discussion for another day. 

And, having mentioned Michael Cardew, perhaps it is appropriate that the next text to be discussed is 

by the original pioneer potter himself. 

A Pioneer Potter - An Autobiography 

Oxford University Press, 1989 

ISBN 0-19-282641 -7 

The greatest disappointment to be had from reading Michael Cardew's A Pioneer Potter - An 

Autobiography comes when one realises that it is indeed only half an autobiography, as it ends in 

1948 with Cardew returning to England from the pottery he established at Vume in West Africa. 

According to the book's postscript. written by his son Seth Cardew, notes written by Michael Cardew 

before he died in 1983 indicated his intention to write about his later career: the return to Africa, then 

back to England in 1965 at the age of sixty-four, and lastly his prominence as an international ceramics 

celebrity, touring and giving workshops throughout the United States, Canada, Australia and New 

Zealand. Alas, it was not to be, so we only have this attenuated account of his own life, by his own 

hand. 

Cardew's most famous book, of course, is his 1960 Pioneer Pottery, a compendium of materials 

and techniques for making pottery - or, more precisely, stoneware pottery - in places where neither 

the tradition nor maybe even the need for such wares existed. As such, his entire production in Africa 

involved the augmenting of an effective indigenous tradition of low-fired wares with a curious amalgam 

of Anglo Oriental stoneware that itself was influenced by English slipwares and local African patterns, if 

not forms. It was a curious enterprise, and one which kept Cardew occupied for much of his life. 

However, the pottery that Cardew made at the beginning of his career came from a tradition much 

closer to home. As a young man he had fallen in love with English slipwares, and this fascination even 

intruded into his study while a Classics student at Oxford. And in a curious way this says it all - on 

one hand we have a well-educated young man, studying 'the Greats' at a prestigious university and 



Page from 

The Story of Pa!issy the Potter 

playing classical music in his spare 

time. On the other, we have a driven 

individual who has fallen in love with 

a remnant, almost extinct, tradition of 

rural ceramics and who is intent on 

reviving that tradition, despite the fact 

that it has been utterly supplanted 

by industrial wares and can in fact 

probably only really survive as a token 

or facsimile within the fragile and 

precious world of the gallery and 

collector. 

In fact, Cardew's chapter in A 

Pioneer Potter titled 'Who Makes 

These Wonderful Things?' describes 

in some detail the moment when he 

found that he could, as a relatively 

young man, enter in to the world 

already inhabited by Leach and Staite 

Murray, when his pots, included in a 

group showing of the newly formed 

National Society of Painters, Sculptors, 

Engravers and Potters, met with great 

financial and critical success. Of course Cardew ran a mile, and the wonderful thing about this book is 

that he is so transparent in recounting the details of these and other moments of success and failure, 

indecision and passion in a voice which is neither too distant, or too self-involved. 

Other aspects of his life and career, including his prolonged absences from wife and family, are 

explained in a way which throws further light on his attraction to Africa. The personal conflicts 

thus hinted at might also account for his famously difficult nature, but instead of May Davis' rather 

confronting admissions, Cardew just gives us enough information to figure it out for ourselves. 

A Pioneer Potter is not a charming read, but it is clear-headed, erudite and one just wishes the old 

devil had lived long enough to finish it. 

Damon Moon 

Willunga 2011 

http://damonmoon.com 


Fo cus : Ceramics + Na rrative 

Material- does it really 

matter? 

A report by Janet De Boos on the Material Matters conference at ANU 

Anton Reijnders talking with Christina Bryer about her work in the School of Art foyer Gallery 

In a world where there is an increasing reliance on mediated experience, there is a case for materiality; 

but what does it mean, particularly with respect to ceramics? Material Matters, an event (or more 

accurately, a series of events) in Canberra that took place over four weeks in August this year, sought 

to examine this question as well as provide a forum for speakers who told stories of their relationship 

to their material. The anchor event was a large exhibition of works drawn from the teaching collection 

of Ceramics Workshop, ANU School of Art. Because of the large and varied nature of the collection 

(works from visiting artists, alumni, faculty and current students) it was grouped into seven themes, 

each examining a different aspect of the potential of clay as a medium. The works exhibited represented 

a poetic connection between material and idea - but not always poetics of conventional beauty. They 

utilised the material qualities of clay to many different ends, and talked of place, alchemy and process. 

Each work told a story, some a clearly articulated narrative, some only implied - the kind of stories 

which take us to quiet places, where our own imagination is the storyteller. 

In addition to this major exhibition, there were several associated exhibitions at ANU School of 

Art, showing work from the four international visitors - keynote speaker Anton Reijnders and Netty 

van den Heuvel (from the Netherlands), 2010 NCECA Residency winner from the US Ray Chen, and 

Christina Bryer from South Africa. Satellite exhibitions were held at the Watson Art Centre, Strathnairn 

Homestead Gallery, and Beaver Galleries. 



In addition to the exhibitions there was clay-based activity everywhere - community woodfiring at 

Strathnairn (with tutorials by master woodfirers Ian Jones and Moraig McKenna), master classes and 

workshops conducted by the visiting artists, and a symposium over the penultimate weekend of the 

event. Papers presented ranged from technical research on local materials (Craig Edwards) through to 

the way in which clay can be used to address environmental concerns (Shannon Garson and Cathy 

Franzi) and the singular qualities that specific materials bring to finished work (Kaye Pemberton). 

And although no one definitive answer was provided to the question of the importance of materiality 

by the papers delivered, it seemed that the value resided in the resistance of the material itself to 

completely transit the porous boundaries of contemporary art practice: that there was an insistent, 

almost stubborn, need to be identifiably clay (either the 'raw' in Claude Levi Strauss' anthropological 

demarcation) or ceramics (the 'cooked'), with ali the historical and human values that implies. The 

presenters seemed to imply that even when the intent is trompe I'ceil, it is the heft, the density, the feel 

of the work, the origin of the material, that is part of its meaning ... the fact that it is what it is, and 

not just what it looks like it is, is part of the story of material mattering. 

In responding to clay, ceramic artists enter into an engagement that is both seduction and frustration. 

The siren indeed has her own voice - but it is a demanding one. Anyone who has ever falien in love 

with the medium wili testify to that. Perhaps this almost obsessive love is because of the considerable 

technical demands of the medium - if the artist does not fully understand the 'stuff' (the material), 

the vocabulary is meagre, the grammar is poor and what love sonnets were ever written with a limited 

vocabulary? 

" ... to show how empirical categories - ... such as the raw and the cooked, ... the moistened 

and the burned ... can (nonetheless) be used as conceptual tools with which to elaborate 

abstract ideas and combine them in the form of propositions." 

Claude Levi Strauss: The Raw and the Cooked, Vol 1, Mythologies 1964 (Eng translation 1969, 

Weightman) 

The full length version of t his article, with profiles on the four international visiting artists, 

can be viewed online: www.australianceramics.com. 

Ray Chen demonstrating as part of his 

Material Expression presentation 

Netty van den Heuvel's exploratory workshop, Dialogue in 3 Dimensions 



Anton Reijnders 

Stack 2 1,2010 

fired clay, terra sigillata folding 

chair (altered) 

h.7Scm 


Editor's note: 

Anton Reinjnders was one 

of tour international visiting 

artists at the Material Matters 

Symposium in August 2011 . 

See pages 42 and 

43 of this issue. and 

online at 

www.australianceramics.com. 

for a more indepth report on 

his activities whilst he was 

in Australia. 

Assumption: Anton Reijnders 

Siobhan Wall reports on an exhibition at Galerie de Witte Voet in Amsterdam 

It is three years since Anton Reijnders (b.1955) had an exhibition in the Galerie de W itte Voet (White 

Foot Gallery), and he has had a fruitful time producing and showing work in China as well as exhibiting in 

Ghent and Haarlem. This current exhibition continues his fascination with questions of meaning and how 

we make sense of what is around us. The title Assumption concerns a theme he has been intrigued by 

for a long time: "how human beings deal with reality ". Reijnders is aware of how we constantly attribute 

meanings to things - even though inanimate objects don't care what we think of them. 

His focus is on almost monochrome, organic stoneware elements, either unglazed or with a terra 

sigillata surface. His carefully composed collections of found objects and his own ceramic pieces give 

the impression that they have always existed; yet, according to the artist, they "could collapse at any 

moment" . " My work is very much about giving attention and concentration", he says, "especially in 

our times." He hopes to counter-balance what he perceives as a general hurriedness, producing quiet, 


Focus: Cerami cs + Narrative 

reflective pieces which" are difficult to grasp intellectually". By combining contrasting materials with 

found objects, he helps us notice the made objects and vice-versa. For example, in Stack he places two 

ceramic spheres he has formed himself on a chair suspended high up on the wall. These perfect globes, 

with their exquisite surface patina reminiscent of pale cream ostrich eggs, invite us to observe a state of 

equilibrium, the incongruous encounter of things that seem to belong together but which also comment 

on each other's apparent incompatibility. They are temporarily suspended in time and space and have a 

'self-aware', puzzling quality, as if they are telling a Zen Koan - something that can 't quite be grasped. 

It's often possible to discern a subtle humour in his work and Reijnders is very aware that clay is not 

a 'heroic medium'. He celebrates its paradoxical qualities; ceramics are found in the domain of the 

domestic as well as being precious objects in museums; they are vulnerable but can also last forever, as 

seen in the curious finds discovered in archaeological digs. Reijnders draws on his extensive knowledge 

of the rich and varied history of the medium but is never didactic Instead, he says, "the whole 

thing is about giving attention" . In his sculpture Nomen Nescio 142, an upturned ceramic branch 

has the attributes of a leg placed upside down in a bucket This intriguing piece is the result of the 

artist's working process; the serendipitous concatenation of events that involves profound, considered 

observation. Through his careful discerning, Anton Reijnders invites us to also notice things, when 

they appear together - so we can perceive their affinities and differences - as well as how we might 

imagine them apart. Although his work is not concerned with organised religion, the title of the show, 

Assumption, is associated with the Virgin Mary being received into heaven. But Anton Reijnders says, 

" I'm intrigued by what you'd describe as the 

source of religion but not religion as such." 

It might be more appropriate to define his 

approach as leading us towards a state of 

'not knowing', and this is a place worth 

going. Where else in the world can you 

encounter a large ceramic finger balanced 

on top of a solid, black cloud, resting on a 

Daoist-inspired branch-like form? 

@ Siobhan Wall 2011 

Assumption was held April/May 201 1. 

www.antonreijnders.nl 

www.galeriedewittevoet.nl 

Siobhan Wall is an artist, writer, lecturer 

and curator living in Amsterdam. Her 

photo books Quiet Amsterdam and Quiet 

London are just a few of the many 

projects she is working on. She will be 

speaking at the conference on female 

sexuality at the Institute of Education in 

early December 2011. 

Anton Reijnders, Nomen nescio 142, 2010 

fired clay, ,heet, bucket, wood, h.5Ocm 



Fo cus: Ceramics + Narrative 

Vale Talley Valley Anney 

Ray Cavill on the passing of a kiln 

Tara Valley Anney was first fired in 2005. 

The arch, extended flue and chimney were 

constructed from insulating bricks to test theories 

on minimising visible emissions in heavily reduced 

wood kilns. 

As we developed knowledge of the kiln and 

its zones, the proportion of successful pots 

increased but the kiln 's biggest success was the 

development and maintenance of the community 

of people involved in the firings. 

In early 2011, the property on which the kiln 

stood was sold and the kiln had to be removed 

(it's now a flat-pack anagama). After one last 

firing, the kiln deconstruction took place in May 

June. A huge thank you to all involved - many 

people contributed in a myriad of ways during 

the construction, maintenance, firings and 

deconstruction of this kiln. A special thanks to 

Jo Armytage (kiln co-conspirator), along with 

Jeff and Katherine and their family for sharing 

their property so generously. 

Photos: Lucille Nobleza 


Focus: Ceramics + Narrative


Love, Loss, Masculinity and 

the Absurdity of the Human 

Condition 

A brief overview of the personal narratives ofTodd Fuller by Megan Fizell 

Todd Fuller, Seek and Hide, 2011, flocked terracotta, pigment 

acrylic on timber, astra turf, h.52cm, w.53cm, d.3&m 

Photo: courtesy Brenda May Gallery 

Through the dripping brushstrokes 

upon the canvas, the film Barry in the 

Wings by Todd Fuller, maps out the 

story of a tutu-wearing, pot-bellied, 

bald man who trips and falls upon 

the stage during his big performance. 

This poignant moment was realised 

by Fuller in a ceramic sculpture of 

the same name. The white earthenware 

figure, painted with ink reminiscent 

of the dripping pigment used in the 

film, sits on the floor with bent knees 

and downcast eyes. The sculpture 

exemplifies the narrative layering of 

Fuller's oeuvre spanning drawing, 

animation and sculpture. 

The storylines in Fuller's recent 

solo exhibition, Tense, at Brenda 

May Gallery, Sydney, originated 

predominantly from his experiences as an artist in residence at Australia's Starrier/Onslow Studio at the 

Cite Internationale Des Arts, Paris, a travelling scholarship awarded by the National Art School. The 

Tin Man narrative features Parisian streetscapes and two lonely characters that encapsulated Fuller's 

sense of isolation in a foreign country. The narrative layering is found in Fuller's sculptural work with 

the inclusion of a film playing on an iPod secreted into the belly of several of the figures. The carefully 

woven stories, brimming with love, loss, anxiety and isolation, are clearly translated into his emotive 

sculptural works, complete with rough edges and bearing the marks of the artist's hand and heart - 

once seen, they are not easy to forget. 

Go to www.australianceramics.com to see more on Fullers' recent exhibition. including links 

to his videos. 

www.brendamaygallery.com.au 

Megan Fizell is a Sydney-based art historian. freelance journalist and manager of Brenda May 

Gallery. She is the voice of the art and food blog Feasting on Art (www.feastingonart.com). an 

innovative translation of painting to plate - recipes inspired by art. 

48 THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS NOVEMBER 20n

A Manly Art Gallery & Museum exhibition 

in partnership with 


2 December 2011 - 22 January 2012 

Curated by Gerry Wedd 

THE 

NARRATIVE KNOT 

stories in ceramics 

Artists: Julie Bartholomew Mollie Bosworth Deborah Burdett Barbara Campbell-Allen Kris Coad 

Steve Davies Terry Davies Trisha Dean Lynda Draper Helen Earl Fiona Fell Ashley Fiona Honor Freeman 

Shannon Garson Amanda Hale Christopher Headley Mary-Iou Hogarth Jan Howlin Marianne Huhn 

Liz Low Janet Mansfield Pru Morrison Mirta Ouro Robyn Phelan Amanda Shelsher Dee Taylor-Graham

TH r NARRATIVE KNOT storm;1I crramics 

Gerry Wedd in his Port Elliot studio 

"You know where they say in Genesis that man was made from clay' Now they're saying that clay, genetically, 

contains all the information of every life form. It's all in the clay. You hit it with a hammer, a light comes from it 

They've done expelllll€nts with Egyptian pottery made on a wheel thousands of years ago. They play the plates 

backwards and receive a recording, a very primitive recording of what took place in the room." 

Innocent When You Dream: Tom Waits: The Collected Interviews; edited by Mac Montandon, 2006

TH t NARRATIVr KNOT ,/f)TW m

T i l [ NARRATlvr KNOT ,(ories ill cmmllcs 

Some objects are made to act as metaphorical triggers, ciphers that are a starting point for contemplation, 

daydreaming and storytelling, such as Robyn Phelan's 'interactive' cloud game. Kris Coad's pieces, although mining 

a similar terrain, are instilled with a touch of duende (a touch of spirit), the nature of the material bringing a sense 

of transience, even loss. Loss is also embedded in Ashley Fiona's family of squeezed forms made as a therapeutic 

contemplative record of the passing of time since the loss of her mother. Passing time and events is also the concern 

of Deborah Burdett, whose strung discs form a biographical coded narrative of her life whilst amusingly referencing a 

Paul Smith colourway. 

The earliest ceramic artefact was a figu ri ne. Theories abound, but we're not really sure of its purpose or meaning. 

What would a future anthropologist have to say about Steve Davies'menacing rabbits? Fiona Fell, Amanda Shelsher 

and Steve Davies work in the realm of metaphor and symbology, almost magic realism where anything is possible. 

Amanda's work, although autobiographical, is metaphorical and dreamlike: myth made physical. Fiona Fell has always 

told stories, producing 'murky reminders of our own faults: For this show she has extended and challenged her 

vocabulary by working in collaboration with sculptor Lyndall Adams. 

Many people only want to hear true stories and, as we know, they are often stranger than fiction (and more tragic). 

Terry Davies mines his own heritage, making memorials to Cornish and Welsh presence in Australia. Recent tragedies 

are also a part of the stories here. In the manner of the Grecian urns, Marianne Huhn memorialises the tragedy of the 

refugee boat disaster off Christmas Island in 2010 in images on the sides of her vessels. In a series of black scattered 

shards of burnt breakfast cereal and unidentifiable detritus, Mirta Ouro poignantly memorialises the Victorian bushfires. 

Memorialising is also the terrain of Julie Bartholomew who is dealing with endangered nowers and the fraught 

relationship between collecting, studying and preserving. 

Every pot has its story. There is the material story, the making story and the story of use: the ChiPS, the cracks, the 

lime-worn patina of usage. There are a number of themes being addressed in this exhibition - notions of materiality, 

family histories, personal mythologies, the environment, time and ceremony. The stories all overlap at some point. 

Author Peter Goldsworthy writes that stories are part of our common human nature: all cultures tell the same stories. 

We have some kind of innate narrative mechanism that IS hard-wired into our brains always trying to link things into 

stories, to connect things, make sense of them by stringing them into narratives. 

Perhaps the thing that drives us to make objects from clay is a result of this impulse to tell stories. 

Gerry Wedd l curator

TH ~ 

NARRATIVr KNOT stories //I (i'l)/1I11C> 

Julie Bartholomew 

This new series examines endangered Australian 

flowers. Each species is contained within a vessel 

that references scientific apparatus and carries 

a narrative about the nower's life path and its 

endangered status. 

Julie Bartholomew, Endangered Flowers I (detail), 2011 , porcelain, slipcast, hand built, decals, glaze, diam.l Oem 

photo: Julie Bartholomew 

Mollie Bosworth, Scattered Possibilities, 2011, porcelain, multi-fired, laser print transfers, slips, engobes, washes, 

dry glazes, installation, h.7cm, w.8Ocm, d.6Ocm; photo: Mollie Bosworth 

Mollie Bosworth 

Seeds are repOSitories 

of immense energy and 

potential. Deceptively 

simple forms, based upon 

the seed of E/aeocarpus 

bancroftii (Kuranda 

Quandong), conceal 

extraordinary na rratives of 

great complexity and the 

measured development over 

millennia. They are sized to 

fit in the hand.

TH[ NARRATIVE KNOT rtormmrmllflics 

Deborah Burdett 

Shorr Ufe is from my Chronos 

series of biographical and 

autobiographical works. 

It chronicles my friend's 

life in five decades, and is 

colour coded to depict his 

childhood to the present, 

including his children, jobs, 

domiciles and loves. 

Deborah Burdett, Short Ufe, 2011, stained porcelain, black/saggar-fired; photo: Stephen Varady 

Barbara Campbell-Allen, Orange White Construct, 2011, stoneware paperclay, slips, natural ash glaze 

h.24cm, w.26cm, d.14cm; photo: Alex Kershaw 

Barbara Campbell-Allen 

Through my processes of 

making and woodfiring, 

the form and surfaces of 

my constructs exist as 

metaphors of stories of 

creation and destI'uction. 

They read as archaeological 

artefacts, embodying the 

compressed energy of the 

elemental forces of nature.

THE NARRATIV[ KNOT ,/uri," 1rI !'alllm,., 

Kris (oad 

I am interested in the spiritual and daily ritual 

of different cultures; the wayan object, symbol, 

mark or shadow and its placement can trigger an 

emotional response, I make contemplative pieces 

that have a stillness and silence in an increasingly 

complex world, 

Kris (oad, Journey series, 2011 , bone china, porcelain, chamotte clay boxes, cast, hand-formed 

h.5Ocm, w.15Ocm, d.15Ocm; photo: artist 

Steve Davies, Alone Gorden Psychopath - pink rabbit with 9 cocks, handbuilt, porcelain clay, glaze, underglaze stains, 

oxides, ceramic decals, mUltiple firings, h.48cm, w.22cm, d.15cm; photo: Linda Cunningham 

Terry Davies, Minehead I, 2011, handbuilt, polished porcelain, black pigment. gold lustre, h5Ocm, w.37cm, d.22cm 

Photo: Amanda Shaw 

Steve Davies 

Encoded with layers of data - words, numbers, images 

and equations - these objects present a visual metaphor 

for our desire to find meaning within the complex of 

contemporary culture, suggesting a figurative power 

which embodies thoughts and emotions that may have 

their origins in childhood, but are not childish. 

Terry Davies 

After resea rching the history of the Victorian goldfields 

around Ballarat, engaging with local people and viewing 

their photographic memorabilia, a figure emerged in my 

mind's eye that embodied people and place - a reg ional 

man ...

TH [ NARRATIVE KNOT storie; ill em/min 

Trisha Dean 

Over time I have reflected upon the evocative 

nature of simple clay objects. Working with 

clay is my first and most enduring love. It is my 

'making' and 'unmaking' - tactile, responsive, 

direct, elemental - the act of touching, 

shaping and forming, with my own hands . 

• 

" 

Trisha Dean, This is My Story (detail), 2011, Cool Ice porcelain; photo: artist 

lynda Draper, Home Alta! (detail), 2010, handbuilt porcelain, multiple glaze firings, various dimensions; photo: artist 

l ynda Draper 

My work has grown 

from an interest in the 

metaphysical aspects of 

the domestic souvenir, 

evolving in reply to 

the evocative nature 

of a group of souvenirs 

collected from my 

childhood home prior to 

its sale and demolition.

Tllr NARRATIVE KNOI ,iUI;";II(t'nllIlW 

Helen Earl 

v 

r 

! I \ 

Safe Harbour seeks to 

conflate the ordinary, 

everyday domestic 

realm with broader 

narratives of human 

interaction within the 

natural environment. 

My intention is to 

enlarge the idea of 

domestic threshold 

and draw the viewer 

into contemplation of 

issues of environmental 

concern. 

Helen Eart, Safe Harbour, installation, 2011, porcelain, found driftwood, h.175cm, w.152cm, d.7.5cm; photo: artist 

Fiona Fell and Lyndall Adams, One Night Stock, 2010, porcelain paperclay, glaze, digital print on acrylic, timber, 

h.l BOcm, w.17Ocm, d.65cm; photo: artist 

Ashley Fiona, Four thousand two hundred and ten (detail), 2011 , porcelain, hand built, various dimensions; photo: artist 

Fiona Fell and Lyndall Adams 

I attempt to capture a particular poetiC moment; often 

not pleasurable but an uncomfortable strangeness that 

forms a voice of its own and has an urgency to be told. 

In this installation a narrative of emotional sustainability 

unfolds between figures, contrasting materials and 

surfaces. 

Ashley Fiona 

Four thousand two hundred and ren attempts to bridge 

the gap between memories and time, referring to the 

number of days between my mother's passing and the 

opening of The NarroNve Knot. Spices, integrated into the 

work, activate olfactory senses making my memories 

bona fide and true to life.

TH [ NARRAT IVE KNOT SIOTies '" emlfllin 

Honor Freeman 

A friend recently learnt the 

sandwiches he consumed 

from his lunchbox as a small 

boy were made from the 

crumb-soiled scrapings of 

margarine from the side of 

the container. I enjoy the 

parallels between adions 

and gestures used when 

engaging wi th objects 

and those used during the 

process of making. 

Honor Freeman, Scrapings and Gratings, 2011 , handbuilt porcelain, found object, h.l6Cm, w.3Ocm, d.26Cm 

Photo: Sandy Edwards 

Shannon Garson, The Wa/lum & My Nana, 8 pieces, 2011 , porcelain, thrown, altered, glaze, underglaze 

terra sigillata, h.2Ocm, w.4Ocm, d.2Scm; photo: artist 

Shannon Garson 

It is almost like there are two maps: the map I have drawn (the artwork) with its content, panern and language; and a 

previous one in the audience's head, a more personal map involving their history of eating, drinking, loving, hating, and 

feeling tired, elated, sexy, sad or contented.

TH E NARRATIVr KNOT "/ol·i,, //I rrmmie, 

Amanda Hale 

My ceramic paintings attempt 10 

capture an ever-changing sky ,n 

an ever-changing and contested 

landscape. They are sketches, set in 

stone, of fleeting moments designed 

10 be arranged and re-arranged to 

create a landscape of vessels. 

Amanda Hale, Narrative Lnndscape (detail), 2011, slabbuilt, coloured slips, copper oxide, cone 6, h.5Ocm, w.17Ocm 

d.3Ocm; photo: Innocenza Toritto 

Christopher Headley, 5010 Tango, 2011, moulded, slip-cast, joined white earthenwa re, customised ceramic decals 

gold lustre, h.5Ocm, wAOcm, d.3Ocm; photo: artist 

Christopher Headley 

I grew up in a small English 

village in Yorkshire. By the 

19505, the airOeld was 

long since redundant and 

abandoned and had become a 

giant adventure playground for 

the kids in the Village. All we 

had to do was slip through the 

hole in the hedge, jump across 

the beck and hop across the 

back lane.

TH[ NARRA II V~ KNOT ,toTies in ummll1 

Mary-Iou Hogarth 

I like my pieces to tell the small 

stories. I imagine them echoing 

through the generations . 

"Here is something to remembe( 

Mary-Iou Hogarth, Uncle Teddy's Triptych, 2011, slab-built, earthenware, underglazes; centre, Uncle Teddy 

h.35cm w.l6cm, d.15cm; photo: Regi Penn 

Jan Howlin, Tools of Engagement (detail), 2011, handmade, press-moulded, colour-stained clay, glaze, glue metal 

fittings; mug, h.13cm, w.11 cm, d.9.5cm; photo: Anthony Browell 

Marianne Huhn, Vulnerable Vessels (detail), 2011, Limoges porcelain, incised, black stain, coloured under glaze 

redudion fired, h.l4cm, w.7cm; photo: Christopher Sanders 

Jan Howlin 

Tools of Engagement is a colieGlon of domestic objects 

created in a range of camouflage patterns to reflect 

household interiors. Based on ideas about the fantasy of 

domestic bliss and its corollary, the 'happy families' fa,ade. 

Choose your weapons; prepare for action! 

Marianne Huhn 

The inspiration for this work began in December 

20 I 0 - the refugee boat disaster near Christmas 

Island. I realised that these stories of migration 

were not new to Australia. I drew the cliffs of 

Ch ri stmas Island into the visual narrative as a 

metaphor for the barriers, the walls, we ourselves 

put up.

H r NARRATIVr KNO I .,torin III "''''111(' 

Liz low 

In natute, we may look at a single 

pebble with its own unique 

history. Here we see strands 

of pebbles, each begillning 

separately and bearing its 

own narrative. They twine and 

consolidate to form a storyline 

culminating in a cairn - the 

narrative knot. 

Liz Low, A Pebble Tale (detail), 2011, thrown and shaped stoneware and porcelain, h.3Ocm, w.16Ocm, d.6Ocm 

Photo: Andrew Bareham 

Janet Mansfield, Rock Box, 2010, woodfired, anagama kiln, h.ll em, w.l6cm, d.15cm; photo: Greg Daly 

Janet Mansfield 

I do not seek a literal translation but I want to tell the story of the land, the poems 

of the trees, the scribbles left by the insects I see beneath the bark when I stoke 

my kiln with the wood that has fallen on the land.

TH [ NARRATIVE KNOT slories /11 cerarnics 

Pru Morrison 

Ode on a Grecian Urn is a poem 

written by English Romantic poet 

John Keats in 1819. Divided into five 

stanzas of ten lines each, the ode 

contains a narrator's discourse on a 

series of designs on a Grecian urn. 

Pru Morrison, Ode in Five Stanz05, 2011, porcelain, terra sigillata, glaze, slipcast, hand built, h.35cm, w.48cm, d.1 Oem 

Photo: artist 

Mirta Ouro, Remaining Vestiges (detail), 2011, porcelain, sawdust-fired, h.76.5cm, w.6Icm, d.3cm 

Photo: Andrew Barcham 

Mirta Ouro 

Remaining Vestiges represents 

the devastation caused by 

bushfires burning through forest 

and towns leaving decimated 

townships, displaced people 

and destroyed nature. To create 

my work I use porcelain shards, 

squiggles and shapes obtained 

by dipping cereals in porcelain .

T il [ NARRATIVE KNOT JI(lrm 11/ (",,"nW 

Robyn Phelan 

There is a natural inclination to make 

connections In all we see and feel. 

Presented with groups of objects devoid 

of decoration, the mind begins to conjure 

meanings (rom the relationship between 

one form and the next. 

Robyn Phelan, Cloud Dreaming Game, 2011 (detail), stoneware clay and glaze, hand-coiled, pinched 

h.5Ocm, w.l6Ocm, d.1Scm (various); photo: Christopher Sanders 

Amanda Shelsher, Nesting, 2011, earthenware, slips, stains, wax, handbuilt, h.39cm, w.35cm, d.44cm; photo: Bill Shaylor 

Dee Taylor-Graham, Spin a Yarn: Shirl polishes the silver in preparation for a special afrernoon rea, 2011, performance, 

found objects, porcelain, h.2m, w.2m, d.l m; photo: Esther Shilling 

Amanda Shelsher 

Nesring is autobiographical - she is a reflection of my 

thoughts about my life w ith my young children, and our 

love of nature and our local flora and fau na in Western 

Austral ia. 

Dee Taylor-Graham 

Everyone's favourite tea lady, Shirl is back in the 

g allery. This tirne she's brought out the good 

tea set and a comfy sofa and would love you to 

join her for a tete-a-tete. Come and spin a yarn 

with Shirl, over a nice hot cup of tea.

THE 



2 December 2011 - 22 January 2012 

A Manly Art Gallery & Museum exhibition presented in partnership 

with The Australian Ceramics Association 

Opening Night 

Friday 2 December 2011, 6 - 8pm 

by H.G. Nelson 

Artists' and Curators' floor talk 

Sunday 4 December, 3pm 

with Gerry Wedd and Dee Taylor-Graham 

Artists' floor talk 

Sunday 11 December, 3pm 

with Vicki Grima 

The Austra lian Ceramics Association 

NSW artsnsw 

Manly Art Gallery & Museum 

West Esplanade Reserve, Manly NSW 2095 

Australia 

T: +61299761420 

E: artgallery@manly.nsw.gov.au 

www.manly.nsw.gov.au/ attractions/art-gallery-museum/ 

Tuesday - Sunday, 1 Oam - 5pm 

Free Entry

Promotion 

HYPERCLAY 

CONTEMPORARY CERAMICS 

An overview by Danielle Robson 

HYPERCLAY: Contemporary Ceramics presents work by eight Australian artists that ignite the 

imagination with the potential of this time-honoured material, exploring new modes of practice in the 

21st century. The word 'hyper' is often used as a prefix to suggest amplification, intensification and 

expansion, implying a heightened version of the word it precedes. To this end, the artists in HYPERCLAY 

are expanding definitions of ceramics beyond the traditional archetypes of utility and function. 

Roderick Bamford 

The Sequestrator: To-be (Jug) 

2011, porcela;n 

Photo: Jamie Williams 

Featuring work by Walter Auer, Roderick Bamford, Stephen Bird, Jacqueline Clayton, Andrea Hylands, 

Addison Marshall, Pip McManus and Paul Wood, HYPERCLAY profiles emerging makers alongside more 

established practitioners. New technologies, the process of making and the re-purposing of materials to 

create new forms are the delicate threads that bind the works together. 

Happily drifting across classification, Roderick Bamford has been described as an artist, designer, 

studio potter and craftsperson. Here he explores the process of additive fabrication, creating a series 

of ceramic sculptures using a modified rapid prototyping printer. Bamford sourced the parts for his 3D 

printer online, gradually building a machine that could print with clay, incorporating both analogue and 

digital techniques. 

Meanwhile, Stephen Bird presents two works that also play at the intersection of the digital and the 

handmade. Wanting to reveal the sequence of events that takes place when transforming raw clay into 

a finished sculpture, Bird created the stop-frame clay animation What are you laughing at? The work 

is a re-telling of the Creation Story through the lens of the post-industrial world. 

Similarly, I Just Don't Believe in Ceramics elevates surface decoration from static and permanent to 

evolving virtual design. 

THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRAliAN CERAMICS NOVEMBER 2011 65

Promotion 

HYPERCLAY: 

Contemporary Ceramics 

is showing at 

Object Gallery until 

8 January 2012. 

It will then tour 

nationally until 2014. 

1 Pip McManus. Watershed 2. 2011 

video, 22 minutes; photo: Jamie Williams 

2 Walter Auer. The Anarchist. 2011 

clay (terra sigillata); photo: Jamie Williams 

3 Stephen Bird, I Just Don't Believe in 

Ceramics, 2011 . digital WMV file, ceramic 

plates; photo: Jamie Williams 

4 HYPERCLAY: Contemporary 

Ceramics at Object Gallery. 2011 


5 Andrea Hylands, New Warriors 2011 

porcelain and found object 

Photo: Andrew Bareham, Screaming Pix.el 

Whilst Bird's work renders the craft of making as performance, New Warriors by Andrea Hylands captures 

the performance of material itself. Her fragile forms are the product of bone china slip poured into a mould 

and then removed at varying durations. This process is a balance between the spontaneity of movement and 

material and the precision of the artist's hand. 

Conversely, ceramicist Walter Auer performs the role of the anti-maker in HYPERCLAY. He is interested in 

transformation and the preservation of objects through a mummifying process that he has been experimenting 

with for nearly ten years. Auer soaks discarded soft toys in terra sigillata for weeks - even months 

- before submitting them to a gruelling firing process that carbonises the exterior and 

retains remnants of the original object in the ashen shell casing. 

Like Auer, Pip McManus is interested in transformation. 

Combining clay, sand, water and video, McManus has 

created a 22-minute video work entitled Watershed 2 

that engages with ideas of permanence, impermanence 

and organic forms. McManus dissolves the boundaries

1 Addison Marshali, Satellite Series, 2010-11 , clay, glaze 

cotton thread. ToothpICks. wooden and bamboo skewers 


2 Jacqueline Clayton, Rilke and the Autoclave (detail) 

2011, face powder, modified porcelain, laboratory glass 


3 Paul Wood, Guardians of a Goddess, 2011, refired 

ceramics. glass; photo: Jamie Williams 

between creative disciplines with the ancient medium of clay effortlessly in conversation with the 

contemporary medium of video. 

Paul Wood scours op shops, thrift stores and neighbourhood gardening centres for pre-loved ceramic 

objects that he then re-fires, melts and slumps to create dramatic new sculptures. For Guardians 

of a Goddess Wood has crafted an ode to the ornamental water features that proudly sat in the 

neighbourhood gardens of his childhood. 

Fusing ceramics, tapestry and micro-engineering, Addison Marshall creates works that explore form, 

colour and tension. Toothpicks, fluorescent cotton thread and skewers are meticulously hand woven 

through punctured clay discs. The final pieces echo relationships and intimacy, with the clay literally 

leaning on the found materials for stability and support. 

Face powder is formulated w ith the key ingredients that make up a classic earthenware body. In Rilke 

and the Autoclave, Jacqueline Clayton has moulded porcelain and face powder into flowers, conjuring 

associations with female practice and socially mandated artifice. Displayed in scientific glassware on an 

antique steriliser unit, Rilke and the Autoclave alludes to classification, order and renewal. 

The exhibition itself explores new ways of integrating digital content into the gallery space . A 

collection of 35 short videos accompany the work in HYPERCLAY, including interviews with the artists, 

curators, academics, collectors, galierists and students. They offer varied perspectives on the works, a 

holistic viewing experience, and deeper engagement with the artwork and artists themselves. 

Danielle Robson is Producer: Programs and Research at Object: Australian Centre for 

Craft and Design. 


~ /81 __ /. ==-/

Workshop 

Dickie Minyintiri and Simon Reece at Ernabella (Dickie won the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award in August) 

Photo: Julian Green 

Watiku Workshop. 

Minyma Wiya! 

(Men's Workshop. No Women!) 

Jody Lee discusses the inaugural men's workshop at Ernabella Arts 

In April 2010, Honor Freeman and Luke Mount ran a ceramic workshop at Ernabella Arts. The studio 

was filled with women coil building. For the first time, Pepai Carroll sat down to experiment with clay. 

He made two small pots before returning to the men's painting room, declaring, "Pampa tjuta, minyma 

tjuta, kungka tjuta; noise tjuta (Lots of women of all ages, lots of noise). " 

A seed was planted though, as the simple sgraffito landscapes marked on those pots drew attention. 

After discussions with Ngunytjima Carroll and Hudson Alison (the two male art workers with ceramic 

training), the idea of a men-only ceramic workshop took shape. Anangu men and women working in 

art centres across the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APy) Lands paint in separate studios, from 

cultural tradition. Having a wati (men's) workshop was a first for Ernabella, as until then the ceramic 

studio had very much been a female domain. 

Potential participants talked about what they wanted. Culturally, it was important that men conduct 

the workshop. Different techniques and materials suitable for the types of forms they wanted to make 

were discussed. Simon Reece was invited to conduct a slab-building workshop, and was asked to find 


Workshop 

another potter who would be prepared to live 

and work with him for a few weeks in a remote 

community. Being able to adapt to the APY Lands 

was a major consideration. The conditions can 

be confronting for a first-time visitor with factors 

such as isolation, extreme weather, language 

barriers, cultural differences and different 

priorities meaning that the best laid plans never 

go to plan. Of course, the randomness of this 

only excites potters looking for a challenge. 

Kirk Winter came on board and a successful 

funding application was put to the Australia 

Council's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts 

Board for a Skills and Arts Development grant. 

For the inaugural 2011 wati workshop there 

were eleven main participants: Ngunytjima 

Carroll, Hudson Alison, Pepai Carroll, Gordon 

Ingkatj i, Andy Tjilari, Dickie Minyintiri, Paul 

Andy, Derek Thompson, Kevin Morris, Anslem 

Morris and Ja rred Jangala Robertson. Apart from 

Ngunytjima and Hudson, none had previous 

ceramic experience, providing Simon and Kirk 

with some definite challenges. It was a dynamic 

and busy few weeks. Big work was being made 

and keeping the women away from the ceramic 

studio was a constant struggle. 

Again, Pepai sat down to work with clay. 

"I was trying different things, just learning. I 

watched others then tried myself, saying, 'Oh 

that's how it is'. The two young men were good 

teachers, showing us how to do it." 1 

1 Jarred Jangala Robertson 

2 Derek Thompson 

3 Pepai Carroll 

Photos: Julian Green 

Simon and Kirk also learned a great deal, 

amazed at the adaptability of the men moving 

eaSily from painting to ceramics. Simon describes 

the men "making marks with such skill and 

dexterity in sgraffito technique" as something he 

will never forget; "creating their Tjukurpa (stories) 

with graceful carving that seemed to spring from 

an innate and natural inspiration" . 

The resulting work was exhibited at Raft 

Artspace in Alice Springs, August 201 1. Gordon 

Ingkatji and Pepai Carroll attended the opening. 

Pepai spoke, expressing in his language the men's 

70 THE JOURNAL Of AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS NOVEMBER 2011

enjoyment of working in the studio for the first 

time together, and recalling the singing and 

story-telling that took place amongst the old 

men - Andy, Dickie and Gordon. 

1 Pepai Carroll in conversation with Dr Diana James from the 

Austrahan National University, translated from Pltjantjatjara by 

Dr James. 

lody lee wrote and edited the article in 

consultation with Ernabella Arts Chair Pepai 

Carroll and co-ordinators of the project, 

Julian Green and ceramicist Simon Reece. 

www.ernabellaarts.com.au 

1 Paul Andy with pre-fired work 

2 Kevin Morris working 

3 Detail of stoneware sgraffito work. in progress 

by Gordon Ingkatji 

4 Three unbisqued terracotta works: foreground 

Dickie Minyintiri; background, two works by Pepai Carroll 


View 

Arthur Boyd, Bride over Pond with Dog, c. 1965, white earthenware tile, hand ~formed, white engobe, painted in yellow, 

black, brown, green underglaze colours, incised, dear glaze, h.34.2cm, w.44.5cm; photo: courtesy Bundanon 

White Gums and Ramoxes 

Damon Moon reviews ceram ics by Merrie and Arthur Boyd 

from the Bundanon Trust Collection 

My only quibble with this exhibition, expertly curated by Grace Cochrane, is that it is somewhat 

misnamed as it includes just as many paintings, drawings and prints as it does ceramics, all tracing the 

lineage of an artistic language from William Merrie Boyd to his son, Arthur Merrie Boyd. 

And a fascinating language it is, chock full of colloquialisms and allusions, in equal measure childlike 

and poignant as private languages tend to be. 

The Boyds being Boyds, this artistic lineage isn't just restricted to (William) Merrie Boyd and Arthur 

(Merrie) Boyd. Although Arthur was indisputably the most well known of Merrie Boyd 's five children, 

there were accomplished artists preceding, surrounding and extending beyond these two. This exhibition 

wisely restricts itself to a more manageable domain, so we have the Boyd genius (or if not genius, then 

at least talent) distilled, and as contained as such an improbable thing can be. 

Given the extensive touring schedule, the exhibition is not overly large but this works to its advantage 

and one gets the impression that there is very little padding. And there is an excellent catalogue, which 

should be a welcome addition to the library of anyone interested in the history of Australian art. 


View 

As to the work displayed, the paintings and prints of Arthur Boyd are already well known but there 

are other things - for example, some early drawings of Merric Boyd and the ceramic plaques of Arthur 

Boyd - that are rarely seen in public collections. 

I must admit to finding aspects of this exhibition quite confronting and to being challenged by the 

apparently seamless merging of naivety and sophistication embodied in the work. The overwhelming 

impression I am left with is that Merric Boyd, despite the accomplishments of both his parents and 

siblings, was somehow born an innocent. He wasn't a naIve artist, charming but unschooled, nor was 

he an 'outsider' in the true sense of the word - when your parents are graduates of the Royal College 

of Art and your siblings are famous painters and novelists you just don't have that luxury - but Merric 

never quite belonged and that is very evident in his work. Some of the early drawings are a revelation 

and, selected and displayed as they are here in their most favourable light, they bring to mind early 

expressionism, a movement that was contemporaneous with the earliest work on show. Others are, at 

least to my eye, a little too clumsy, more childish than childlike. As for the ceramics, for which Merric 

Boyd is best known, they are very much of the era. I find it hard to interpret them now and to see 

what virtues so recommended them to an earlier audience, but this type of early 'Australiana' fetches 

enormous sums at auction and is keenly sought by collectors. These pots represent some of the very 

first examples of 'art pottery' to be made in this country and as such are the progenitors of much of the 

ceramics movement that was to follow, in all its permutations. 

Although Arthur Boyd is best known as one of the most important Australian painters of the second 

half of the twentieth century, this exhibition casts a welcome light on his early ceramic work. There 

are functional works and sculptures and a few wonderful wall plaques, ceramic paintings executed 

in a luminous palette of lead-glazed 

earthenware. 

I found myself wishing that he had 

pursued this medium longer, as there is 

something about the light emanating 

from the glazed surface that fitted well 

with the narrative content of the work. 

Instead, Arthur Boyd's eventual fame 

rested on the type of work which greets 

the viewer as they enter the exhibition: 

two large paintings, one of which, in 

a lovely curatorial turn, depicts a small 

ceramic head modelled by Merric Boyd 

of his infant son, Arthur. There is also a 

series of wonderful prints by Arthur Boyd, 

executed in London in the late 1960s, in 

which the figure of the potter assumes 

an almost mythological status, conjuring 

shapes at the wheel in an act of manic 

creation. 

M errie Boyd, Trees, 1950, pencil and 

watercolour on paper. h.24.7cm. w.18cm 

Photo: courtesy Bundanon 


View 

Ultimately, I found myself wondering whether 

this exhibition would have been as impressive had 

it just restricted itself to the ceramic production 

of the Boyd's, and I think that the answer has 

to be no. Some of the ceramics on display here 

are fully the equal of the other work, even 

outshining it at times, but the problem is that 

the Boyd's ceramics are all grounded in painting 

and sculpture and in the European decorative 

tradition . They are as removed from the graceful 

and self-contained models of Oriental ceramics as 

it's possible to be, relying as they do on charm or 

the novelty of surface to overcome clunky forms 

and a fa irly amateurish tech nique. As Cochrane 

quotes Peter Herbst ' , a potter who worked at the 

Arthur Merrie Boyd Pottery (AMB Pottery), when 

speaking about their products, "We avoided 

'good taste' like the plague ... "2 

Arthur Boyd, Potter Fallen beside Sculptured Head 

1968--69, needle etching and sugariift aquatint on paper 

h.64cm, w.52cm 

Seen in that light, historians of the 

development of Australian ceramics might 

understand why this work was so ignored by 

the early exponents of the Leach derived Anglo Oriental model of pottery, with its emphasis on classical 

Chinese, Korean and Japanese ceramics executed in a muted stoneware palette. Many of the early 

powerbrokers of Australian ceramics had a virulent dislike of decorated earthenware, dismissing out of 

hand any contemporary ceramics that employed these techniques, the Boyds' included. Which is a pity; 

because, quite frankly, most of these same practitioners simply did not have the breadth of knowledge 

1 Arthur Boyd, Merrie Boyd jug and head of his son Arthur Boyd, 1980, oil on canvas, h.18.3cm, w.17.5cm 

2 Merrie Boyd, Head of Arthur Boyd aged three months, 1920, pale pink earthenware, handformed, unglazed 

h.12.4cm, w. 14cm: photos: courtesy Bundanon 

2 


Merrie Boyd, Jug w;rh Trees. 1925. buff earthenware. wheelthrown, carved and modelled tree-form, grey engobe. paInted 

blue and green underglaze colour, blue interior, clear glaze. h.18.5cm, w.23.7cm; photo: courtesy Bundanon 

or flexibility of mind to comprehend the Boyds' freely expressive approach. In short, they were not really 

artists, whereas the Boyds most emphatically were. 

In the end, like all good exhibitions, White Gums and Ramoxes - ceramics by Merric and Arthur 

Boyd from the Bundanon Trust Collect ion raises as many questions as it answers. Due to projects 

such as this, the role of ceramics within the vast artistic output of the Boyd family is well established - 

it would now be interesting to see how the ceramic work of the Boyd 's stacks up against later influences 

which re-introduced the concept of low-fired, irreverent ceramics into the mainstream. 

1 Peter Herbst was later to become Professor of Philosophy at the Australian Naoonal UnJVefSlty. 

2 p. 63 'White Gums and Ramoxes: Ceramics by Merrie & Arthur Boyd from the Bundanoo Trust CollectIOn' by Grace Cochrane, 

Bundanon Trust 2009. 

Damon Moon. Willunga, 2011 


7S

l eft: Tjariya Stanley, Kapi Tiukula munu Karu (Waterholes and Creeks); centre: Pantjiti Lionell, Kapi Tjukula 

(Waterho/es); right: Ungakini Tjangala, Kapi Tjukufa munu Kampara (Waterho/es and Bush Tomatoes), 2011 

handbujJt terracotta and white earthenware, slip, black stain, sgraffito, 11000(, h.18cm, w.14cm; photo: Ruth McMi Jian 

Two Communities - 

the language of Clay 

Cathy Franzi reports on an exhibition by Indigenous artists at 

Strathnairn Homestead Gallery 

Within a decade of the introdudion of ceramic process, the remote Indigenous artists of Ernabella 

are rapidly gaining recognition for their exciting contemporary ceramics. A stunning range of work 

was exhibited at Strathnairn Homestead Gallery in Canberra during April 20 11. Featured artists from 

the desert community were Alison Carroll, Malpiya Davey and Carol Williams, along w ith Robert 

Puruntatameri, a second generation ceramic artist from the Tiwi Islands, north of Darwin. 

As the title suggests, these two remote but geographically different communities share the practice of 

ceramics in their arts centres. Coming together to exchange knowledge and to provide support through 

workshops and residencies at each other's communities and at the Australian National University and 

Strathnairn Arts, this exhibition is the latest for the Remote Communities Ceramics Network. In the 

show were vases, cyli ndrical vessels, large platters and domed sculptural pieces, unified through the 

use of striking carved patterns and the earthy colours of white, terracotta and black. This unity gave 

strength to the body of work as a whole; however each piece also spoke individually, enticing the viewer 

to come closer to study the surface and to engage intimately with its story. 

The Ernabella artists use a fine red slip made from their local earth and cultural imagery to capture 

a sense of place in their decoration on the vessels made by ledurers and students from the ANU. In 

the strong sgraffito lines and blocks of colour, one can see the tracks of emu across the sand, the focal 

point of water holes, the rhythm and patterns of the wind etching contours in the sand dunes and the 


View 

I Carol Williams. Ngaya Walka. 2011 

wheel thrown stoneware. Ernabella terra 

si9illata, black stain, sgraffito, 1140"( 

h.36cm, W,I4cm 

2 Alison Carrol. Minyma Kutjdra 

(Two Women), wheelthrown 

stoneware, Ernabella terra sigillata 

black stain. sgraffito, 1140'(' h.6cm 

w.44cm 

3 Malpiya Davey, Ka/aya Tjukurpa 

(Emu Story), wheelthrown stoneware 

Ernabella terra sigillata. sgraffito 

1140'(, h.6cm, w.40cm 

Photos: Ruth McMillan 

burst of new growth in dormant plants after rain. An attuned 

awareness of the land is embodied in the confidence and strength 

of the mark making, Responding carefully and intuitively to the 

placement of surface design on these forms, Carroll. Williams 

and Davey draw material from traditional stories and images, such as tjukula (rock holes) or bush food 

and flora such as wayanu (quandong). Interpreting this tradition through their own view of the world 

as contemporary artists has led to each having a distinctive personal style. The domed or 'loaf' forms 

were made by fifteen relative newcomers to ceramics at Ernabella Arts during a workshop led by Janet 

De Boos and Anita Mcintyre. The interesting shapes, alluding to central Australian mountain ranges, 

allow versatility in the approach of the mark making by the newer artists and, although striking, they 

did underscore the level of skill in sgraffito of the more established artists. 

Robert Puruntatameri uses a different visual language to that employed 

by the desert artists. The environment of the Tiwi Islands is tropical and 

coastal, focused on the ever-changing sea. Robert creates patterns and 

uniform lines in one colour. The lines cross hatch in straight rows evoking 

fishing nets and a relationship to the sea. In some pieces this leads to the 

focal point in the design of fish such as barramundi. Puruntatameri makes 

his own vase and platter forms on the wheel, achieving a quiet and 

confident mastery over his material and decoration. 

In this exhibition could be seen representation of the remote and unique environments in which the 

artists live, through the imagery drawn from their cultural and historical link to the land and materially 

through the colour of the earth. The patterning, form and colours of the ceramics skillfully evoke an 

expression of something intrinsic to the Australian landscape. 

Two Communities - the Language of Clay (English) 

Itarra murrakipinni - ingingaminni purrarpulirri (Tiwi) 

Ngura kutjara - wangkamantanguru (Pitjantjatjara) 

The exhibition pieces were created during a workshop and residencies supported by a Skills 

and Arts Development Grant from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Board of the 

Australia Council for the Arts and a grant from Country Arts South Australia. 

Cathy Franzi is undertaking Higher Degree Research in Ceramics at the ANU and was able to 

see the artists at work during their residency. www.strathnairn.asn.au 


Process + Meaning 

One Journey 

Stephanie Out ridge Field discusses work and clay with Kim Schoenberger 

"Our life is a journey and we are both the result and an integral part - a combination of 

inner strength and outer influence ... " 

Work made is the result of the process, the person and the often precarious journey that includes 

learning, familiarity, skill, vision, enthusiasm, commitment, determination, and sometimes an 

unwillingness to accept defeat. Pots can be the punctuation points along the journey - sometimes even 

a full stop along a side road . 

Kim Schoenberger, a ceramic and mixed media artist based on the Sunshine Coast hinterland, is on 

such a journey. 

An essential ingredient to the mix is where Kim lives and works. Her workshop and studio gallery is 

across the garden from her high-set Queensland house. The property overlooks a rich farming valley that 

has equipment lying around in various states of repair and use. Her assemblages could only be made in 

a rural landscape, as many of the elements are found objects from this environment - twisted, tortured, 

rusted barbed wire, discarded rusted wheels and cogs, remnants of human activity and endeavour. 

Kim's work evolves over time as elements cluster around her and are finally assembled with the 

'finishing' parts often being made out of porcelain or stoneware clays. Sometimes Kim uses bricks 

to create temporary press-moulded edges as in the works Ebb and Flow and Dominatrix. Th is 

combination of materials, found and made, is like 'gluing on the sparkle' to the idea which emerges and 

becomes concrete in the process of collecting, arranging and making. 

Inspiration is drawn from the contrasting textures, which prompt Kim to explore forms and layering 

and, by natural extension, the building techniques she employs, such as stacking, welding and 

interweaving. This process promotes the disparity between, for example, the softly squeezed clay and 

hard-edged moulded metal. This duality is a continuing fine balancing act in Kim's work - interior/ 

exterior, old/new, found/made, gloss/matt, discarded/treasured, softlhard. 

In the assemblages, both large-scale totems and small-scale structures (sometimes with moving 

elements), Kim sees the energy of each individual component contributing to the collective energy of the 

piece. The works gather presence from the previous lives of the chosen found elements as well as the 

invigoration from the new incarnation. 

Kim says, "People respond to the gentle aging and the evidence of its previous importance ... there is 

a familiarity, a 'knowing'''. The work makes a journey within the viewer's mind's eye and the narrative is 

complete. 

Kim has been making totems for more than five years. The smaller sculptural works that sit on tables 

and the wall works are more recent. These works have a yin and yang duality - the bone-like qualities 

of the porcelain adjacent to the aged rusted metals - which creates a vibrating energy. Perhaps th is is 

the underlying concept and driver for all her work, whether the focus is incidents in Iraq with Austra lian 

soldiers or the fragility of life. 

In the two small-scale works Trinity and Falling Soldiers Kim has explored issues relating to current 

combat as well as the historical context of the ANZAC tradition. In Falling Soldiers, using decoupage 

techniques, Kim lined the interior surface with relevant newspaper articles, secreting them away behind 

a window of etched glass. 

She is a powerhouse when it comes to getting on with the business of being an artist, broadening 

her skills in web design, blogging, a range of teaching experiences, residencies and, of course, the more 


Process + Meaning 

, I 

• I 

A. 

, 

'·e, • • 

}J 

Kim Schoenberger. White Clown, 201 1, pinched, thrown 

handbuilt assemblage, sterling silver, diamantes, polished 

Southern Ice. h.2OCm 

usual exhibitions. Kim has been in nearly forty 

group and five solo shows since 2000. 

"My current direction is working with iconic 

objects from my childhood - companions to 

my growing up. I am addressing my life and 

reflecting on how I am feeling now. I am 

choosing comforting and nurturing images 

and reinterpreting them using the purity of 

porcelain." 

The four works Max, Maxine, Cutie 0 0 /1 

and White Clown are part of this series. They 

are beautifully made, technically delicious, and 

they work. Maxine collapses in a heap when 

you push her base button linking the silver wires 

threading through her component parts. Release 

the button and she pops back up, pert as ever. 

The smooth porcelain lies well with the sterling 

silver bling and the minimal use of colour. The 

works are very tactile and their scale relates 

perfectly to the hand, inviting play. 

Kim's work is about balance and, like the 

consta nt swing of a pendulum, she oscillates 

Kim Schoenberger, FaJ/ing Soldiers, 2011, assemblage. metal, porcelain, oxide, 1300cc reduction , h.13cm. w.17cm. d.5cm 

Photos: Tony Webdale

Process + Mea ning 

Right: Kim Schoenberger in studio 

Below right: Kim Schoenberger, Dominatrix 

2011 assemblage, metal. stoneware clay, dry 

glaze,cone 5, oxidization, h.95cm, w.53cm. d.23cm 

Opposite page: Kim Schoenberger, Ffourish 

2011, thrown, metal assemblage, polished 

Southern Ice, h.llern, w.7cm, d.7cm 

Photos: Tony Webdale 

between clay being the dominant material and 

the found elements that she gathers and frames. 

Her thrown porcelain vessels, Punctured 

I and Punctured II, their smooth whiteness 

pierced with large rusty horseshoe nails that 

overlap on the interior, defeat the role of the 

vessel. The exterior is punctuated by the rusty 

square nail ends, which form a red brown polka 

dot pattern. The interior, intersected by red 

brown lines cantilevering off the interior wall, 

form an impenetrable matrix. 

Kim is a doer. With several projects on the 

go at once, her workshop is a clean, organised 

and productive working space. Her found 

objects are neatly organised and highly visible. 

Kim comments, "I don't want to be considered 

decorative, but rather more serious ... making 

challenging and visually engaging work that 

prompts a second thought or another look, at 

the very least." 

Kim Schoenberger's practice is challenging, 

interesting and gently provocative. Her 

competent and technically articulate approach 

to her materials adds great finesse to the 

concepts she chooses to explore. There is a 

delightful freshness about her approach that is 

legible and accessible. I know she is going to 

continue prodUCing amazing and beautiful work 

that draws from her life's experiences and her 

reactions and responses to her world. 

www.kimschoenberger.com 

www.kimschoenbergerceramicartist. 

blogspot.com 

Stephanie Outridge Field is a ceramicist, 

freelance writer and curator based in 

Brisbane. 

80 THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS NOVEMBER 20 11

Inside My Studio 

Ian Clare unpacking his kiln in his Eggs and Bacon Bay Studio. 2011 

In Conversation with Ian Clare 

Vicki Grima: When did you first use clay and what did you make 

Ian Clare: My parents were potters so there was always clay around. I still have small sculptural items 

that I made when I was a child. 

VG: Where is your current studio? 

IC: I have two studios in Tasmania, one in Eggs and Bacon Bay (yes there is such a place), and the other 

in Cygnet. 

VG: Do you work alone or with others? 

IC: I work alone but have collaborated with Buddhist scu lptor and good friend, Jonathan Partridge. 

VG: How long have you been working in your current studio? 

IC: Four years at Eggs and Bacon Bay and just a few months in the Cygnet studio. 

VG : What are the essential features a studio of yours has to have? 

IC: Natural light, running water, good heating in winter and a bar fridge. 

VG: Describe your work pattern - hours/days/weeks etc. 

IC: In the past I have had very intensive work patterns with long hours, but now my approach is more 

relaxed . At present I work 16 to 20 hours a week and rarely on weekends. 



VG: Describe the work you make in your studio. 

Ie: I make both fundional and non-fundional work which may be wheelthrown, slipcast or handbuilt. 

I use all firing ranges. 

VG: What is the most satisfying part of your work? 

Ie: Choosing my own hours and being creative. 

VG: Why is clay your chosen medium? 

IC: I have a strong sense that initially clay chose me. Any medium that cracks, shrinks, warps, explodes 

and collapses is extremely hard to master; I love the challenge that clay offers. 

VG: Type of clay' 

Ie: I use several commercial clay bodies as well as tidal native clay, dug at low tide and used without 

any processing. 

VG: Type of glaze? 

Ie: I make my own glazes, many in the Japanese tradition. 

Ian Clare, Twisted Citrus Ceramic Lemon and Lime Juicers, 2011 . slipcast. clear glaze, underglaze stains, 

each, h.8cm, w.5cm; photo: artist


Ian Clare, Bowl, 2009, wheelthrown stoneware, chun 

underglaze brushwork. h.1Ocm. w.18cm: photo: anist 

Ian Clare, Bowl, 2010, wheelthrown, crazed glaze, carved 

rim, h.5cm, w.34cm; photo: artist 

VG : Type of kiln/firing? 

Ie: I use a gas-fired 18 cu ft Porta Kiln for reduction and oxidation, and an 8 cu It gas-fired kiln 

for raku . 

VG : List your 3 favourite things that you listen to while working. 

Ie: Triple J, Hamish & Andy and WonderMouse, an Aussie techno band. 

VG: Your favourite tool? 

Ie: I love my air compressor; after thirty years it owes me nothing. 

VG : How do you identify your work? 

Ie: I stamp my work, but at times it is hard to find as I often hide it under the glaze. 

My insignia is an 'I' with a 'C' cut through it. My workshop's stamp is like a crescent moon 

which represents Eggs & Bacon Bay. 

VG: How do you sell your work? 

Ie: I sell through commissions, exhibitions, galleries and shops. 

VG: Do you teach or sell from your studio? 

Ie: Both - the teaching studio is in (ygnet, and I am also planning to develop an exhibition 

space there. 

VG: What do you do with your seconds? 

Ie: I have sold seconds, but I am more likely to smash them or give them away. 

VG: What other jobs, paid or unpaid, fit around your ceramic practice? 

Ie: At present I have a project with a few mates restoring a 28-foot Queenscliff-style (outa boat 

bu ilt in 1929. 

VG : What is your favourite part of the ceramic process? 

IC: 

(racking the kiln door when it's cool enough (and even when it's not). 


Inside My Stud io 

VG: What is the dreaded job that never 

gets done? 

IC: Probably cleaning the workshop up 

after working towards a show. 

VG: What are you fussy about? 

Ie: I am fussy about finish and quality 

through the making process. 

VG: If you could change one thing about 

your studio, what would that be? 

IC: Size - you can never have too much 

space. 

VG: Which single piece of ceramics would 

you most like to own? 

Ie: There's a beautiful Ming bowl in 

Museum Victoria that I love. Maybe owning 

it would deprive others, so just to hold it 

for a while would be enough. 

VG : What would you do if you won the 

lottery? 

IC: Develop a demonstration program to 

take around schools. Oh yes, and travel a 

bit (well a lot). 

VG: Exhibitions/workshops coming up? 

Ie: There will be a Christmas show in 

early December in Cygnet. And if anyone 

is interested, I am taking bookings for 

workshops next year. 

E: ianj,clare@gmail.com 

www.twistedcitrus.com.au 

T: 03 6297 8188 

All work by Ian Clare 

1 Sphere, 2011 , porcelain, reductlon·fired 

h.l8cm, w. 21cm 

2 Tea Bowl. 2011 . wheelthrown. crazed 

celadon, h.8cm, w.13cm 

3 Stamp Collection, square, Ie Insignia; round 

Eggs and Bacon Bay Workshop Stamp 2011 

Photos: artist 


8s

Edu cation 

Big Hands Little Hands 

Nicole Lister reports on her residency at Gladstone Public School 

The opening of the exhibition Big Hands Little Hands at the Macleay Valley Community Art Gallery 

(MV Gallery) on 25 August 2011 was an exciting event for the students of Gladstone Public School- all 

47 of them - their families, the teachers and the broader community. The exhibition was the culmination 

of an Artist in Schools program ' that enabled the school to have me as their Artist in Residence for a 

two-month period. Commencing in mid-May I worked with all the students in the school, Kindergarten 

through to Year 6, three days a week in the school's outdoor classroom called The Clayhouse. 

Nicole lister, Roll Call. 2011 , wheelthrown stoneware. satin matt glaze. 

digital decals (ot students' self portrait drawings). shelving, installation, 

h.60cm, w.llScm; photo: Anthony Teisseire 

Thanks to another local ceramicist, 

Robin Furner, The Clayhouse was 

established in the school's old timber 

weather shed in 2006. Furner ran 

a small, school-funded ceramics 

program based upon studying local 

endangered species in the Hat Head 

National Park . A Duncan top-loading 

kiln was donated to the school and 

sculptural works were created and 

exhibited at the MV Gallery, which, 

conveniently, is located almost right 

next door to the school. Having 

experienced the educational, social 

and professional benefits of Furner's 

program, Principal Wayne Craig, was 

very open to pursuing funding for another ceramics program, especially as they had not been able to 

build upon the previous program due to lack of funds and lack of teacher skill and knowledge in the 

medium. In late 2010, we lea rnt that the funding application had been successful. 

Gladstone Public School is located on the Mid North Coast of NSW between Kempsey and South 

West Rocks. It is a small, two-teacher school situated on the Macleay River. Farming lands surrounds 

Gladstone. As the school had recently become a Waterwise School (a program designed to educate 

students about water sustainability issues) the principal suggested a visual arts program based around 

the theme of water and he was keen for the students to make water jugs for the table. With reference 

to the NSW K-6 Visual Arts Syllabus, I developed a program that, through a sequence of learning 

experiences in both 2D and 3D media, led to the making of ceramic cups (Kindergarten - Year 2) and 

jugs (Years 3-6). 

It is fair to say that the program I devised was ambitious and challenging. I felt that it was important 

to provide the children with experiences that would excite and inspire them and lead them to create 

works that were highly individual and well made. The learning experiences that the students were 

engaged in each week were designed to help them understand ways of representing water through the 

use of line, colour and texture. By exploring and experimenting with these art elements and with all the 

enthusiasm, imagination and curiosity that young children bring to new experiences, they created works 


Ed ucation 

- drawings, paintings, prints and ceramics - that reflected not only their developing knowledge and 

technical skills but also conveyed the excitement and energy with which they were made. 

The public presentation of work is an important aspect of any artist's practice and the exhibition at 

the MV Gallery was an important part of the learning experience for the students. They were proud 

of their achievements and eager to show and discuss their work and the work of others with their 

families. Some revisited the gallery several times. When officially opening the Big Hands Little Hands 

exhibition, Geoff Maddams, Head of Creative Industries North Coast TAFE, said" ... you cannot help 

but be knocked over by the energy, strong individual expression and enjoyment that each of the 

student artists have portrayed as integral elements in every piece exhibited . Whether it be a painted 

panel, a mono print, a self portrait or a beautifully designed and bu ilt ceramic form, the consistently 

high standard of technical execution, married to advanced conceptual ideas, is an absolute credit to all 

involved" . 

1 Lilly Sydenham (year 4) Water lug, 201" coi lbuil! earthenware, majolica glaze, I I 00"( h.27cm 

2 Logan Davis (Year 4) Wa ter Jug , 2011, coilbuilt earthenware, majolica glaze, 1100"( h.20cm 

3 Jack Walsh-McKiernan (year 5) Water Jug, 2011, (oilbuilt earthenware, majolica glaze, 11000C h.175cm 

4 Murray Seers (Year 3) Water lug, 2011, coilbuilt earthenware, majolica glaze, 1100"(, h.22cm 

Background by Dominic Rh(on (Year 1); photos: Anthony Teisseire 

"In NSW, The Artist in Schools program 

is a joint initiative between the Australia 

Council for the Arts, Arts N5W and the NSW 

Department of Education and CommunitIes. 

It is: a Federal Government initiative 

therefore similar programs run in each State 

administered through State Government 

agencies. 

Funding is provided for schools to engage 

an artist to work with students and teachers 

to enrICh schools' arts programs and 

encourage future artists and arts audiences. 


Ed ucation 

Nicole Lister talks with students - Lilly Sydenham (Yr 4), Logan Davis (Yr 4) 

Murray Beers (Yr 3) and Jack Walsh McKiernan (Yr 5) about their jugs before they 

were bisqued and glaze fired. 

NL: lilly, can you describe your jug? 

LS: My jug is brown and it is about 30cm in height. It has lots of little splash·like pieces of clay on it. On 

the handle it has a little groove in it at the top. The spout is long, that makes it tall. At the bottom it has 

a small foot ring. 

NL: Logan, How did you make your jug? What techniques did you use? 

LO: First we sketched it, then we made the base of it. After that we rolled coils and built the sides up. 

When we had done that we shaped it. Once we shaped it, we gave it texture. 

NL: Murray, What do you most like about your jug? 

MB: The best part of my jug is the way that it curves in and out. I also like the handle. 

NL: Jack, What do you most like about your jug? 

JWM: The best feature of my jug is the design. It looks like X·Man drawed on it with his claws! 

Left: Murray Beers (Year 3) hand building his jug 

Photo: Nicole lister 

Above: Magen Ellery (Year 4) inCising patterns on 

her jug; photo: Nicole Lister 

~Ik 

NSW artsnsw 

- , Education & 

~ Communities 


Education 

M ia Parker (Kindergarten) 

preparing her cup for the base 

Photo: Nicole lister 

How to Make a 

Ceramic Cup 

"First we made a slab and 

we put patterns on it. 

Then next we folded it in 

a cup shape. We painted 

our cup with white slip. 

Then next we painted the 

underglaze colours. Then 

Mrs Lister fired the cups 

two times and glazed 

them." 

Keira Sydenham. Yr 1 

1 Big Hands Little Hands exhibition. Macleay Valley Community Art Gallery, 25 August - 4 September 2011 

2 lacey MacPherson (Kindergarten), Keira Sydenham (Year 1) Water Cups. 2011, slabbuilt earthenware, white slip 

underglazes, clear glaze, 1100"C, h.ll.5cm, w.8.5cm; photo: Anthony Teisseire 

3 Jugs in progress. Lilly Sydenham and Ji Barker (year 4), photo: Nicole Lister 

4 Elise Pittard and Marcel lister (Year 1) painting white slip on their cups, photo: Nicole lister 


Community 

WAC ceramics studio. 1978 

Education Without 

Boundaries 

Elizabeth Rowe reports on 50 years at the Workshop Arts Centre 

Sunlight falls into the small enclosed courtyard. Homemade benches have been moved into the 

shade and heads come closer together for better communication. The sound of voices and laughter 

rises from the area as a straggler joins the group. Outside on the grass, a semi-circle of chairs has been 

formed under the shade of a large plane tree and a clutch of freshly thrown pots sitting neatly on bats is 

vulnerable as they also share the shade. And so it continues - the distinct and gentle rhythm of another 

day in the life of students of ceramics at the Workshop Art Centre IYVAC). 

Still at its original site on Sydney's lower North Shore in the residential suburb of Willoughby, this 

remarkable centre was founded 50 years ago as a place of artistic learning and endeavour, and now 

offers courses ranging across all visual arts forms. Over the years, the original complex has been 

expanded and renovated and now comprises three large painting and drawing studios, a ceramics 

studio, printmaking facilities, jewellery studio, sculpture studio and a photography darkroom. Over the 

past half century, WAC has built up a proud tradition of creative and financial independence. 

"There are very few wholly independent not-for-profit arts organisations around. It is the last of its 

kind, really," says Arts Administrator Ann Fisher. 


Commun ity 

WAC ceramics studio, 2010 

"We are not a school. People don't come here for a qualification. They come here for the experience, 

the camaraderie and to share as well as benefit from the expertise of the highly qualified and 

experienced artists who teach here." 

The study of ceramics is a core discipline introduced in the early days, in 1960s. Pioneer teacher 

Renata de Lambert, a well-regarded ceramic artist, retired only two years ago after more than three 

decades teaching at WAC. During these years, a fully 

functional ceramics studio was set up with both gas and 

electric kilns. 

Renata was soon joined by wood-firing expert, Barbara 

Campbell-Allen, who has managed to teach and inspire 

students at the WAC while maintaining her own artistic 

career and practice. At times these two strands of 

Barbara's life cross over, with students regularly invited 

to participate in selected pit and wood-firings held at the 

small acreage owned by Barbara and her husband, Paul, in 

the foothills of the Blue Mountains. 

Everything from raku, black, sawdust and pit firings 

to full-blown three-day wood-firing in one of Barbara's 

traditional anagama kilns are usually held during the 

Right: Petra Svoboda, Gokko-Neco, 2011; photo: courtesy WAC

Comm unity 

WAC exterior, 1978 WAC exterior, 201 1 

winter term or break each year, with results being shown off at annual students exhibitions at WAC's 

Ewart Gallery, or further afield at major galleries around Sydney. 

Recently, two new teachers of ceramics have brought their unique perspectives and skills to the WAC. 

Kwirak Choung uses his Korean background for inspiration in his work and teaching, a practice that 

has evolved using his knowledge of the traditional concepts of Taoism and Buddhism. Introduced a 

couple of years ago, Kwirak's classes in wheel-throwing have proved as popular as his own exquisite tea 

bowls and larger work. 

Adding her modern, 'pop' vision and skills to the teacher mix is Petra Svoboda who teaches the more 

traditional art of mould-making, as well as specialty 'Printing on Clay' workshops. Petra's own trademark 

pop surrealist ceramic characters now regularly adorn the studio shelves in various stages of completion, 

adding a new dimension for the inspiration of students. 

The latest and smallest addition to studio equipment is perhaps the most indicative of how the WAC 

studio works. A small circular gas kiln was donated to the ceramics studio late in 2010. It was quickly 

put into use by a group of students, inspired by the travels to North Africa of fellow student Warwick 

'Wazza' Barnard, who took up the challenge of developing recipes for Egyptian paste, making small 

objects, and gas-firing them. 

Known affectionately as 'Mr Fixi!', Warwick, a retired manager, uses his skills to regularly service the 

studio's collection of ageing throwing wheels and keep the cranky slab roller moving. He makes the 

important point that "whatever I put into the place by way of volunteering and helping, I more than get 

back from the joy of sharing ideas with a group of like-minded people", 

Two years ago now, a group of Campbell-Allen's students devised and undertook their own study 

tour of some important ancient kiln sites and pottery hotspots in Japan. Admittedly, this group was ably 


Above: Barbara campbell-Allen, Arrow of Time; photo: Alex Kershaw 

Below left: Kwirak Choung; photo: courtesy WAC 

aided in their undertaking by fellow student Kyoshi Ando, who used his 

knowledge of the travel industry to put together the trip of a lifetime, w ith 

stops in traditional 'ryokan ' inns and various hot spring resorts along the 

way. 

One Japan trip participant sums up the experience: "The months leading 

up to our trip were such a busy time. We each chose a topic that was an 

aspect of our trip, for example Bizen pots. We researched it and then gave 

lunchtime presentations, with notes, to the group so that when we got to 

Japan we got the most out of being in a place. 

It would be true to say that while ceramics courses at WAC follow 

the traditional system of an academic year of four semesters, education 

parameters are anything but, as students are encouraged to explore further and to push their own 

boundaries out into the greater community. 

Whether in the ceramics studio, out woodfiring in the bush, or travelling anywhere from Gulgong to 

Egypt or Japan, students of ceramics at WAC are truly able to experience a ceramics education without 

borders. 

For more information on ceramics courses at WAC, go to www.workshoparts.org.au 

or phone 02 9958 6540 

Former ABC radio producer, Elizabeth Rowe, has been a student of ceramics at WAC 

for the past decade. 

THE IOURNAl OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS NOVEMBER 2011 93

Even t 

Australian Ceramics Triennale 2012 

Subversive Clay 

Adelaide, South Australia 

28 September-1 October 2012 

Sophia Phillips discusses the theme of the upcoming Triennale 

Subversive Clay will explore clay as a medium capable of challenging artistic, social and cultural 

issues through investigating past traditions and invigorating future experimentation. 

The field of ceramics has a long history of bucking trends and laying its own path in the world 

of the visual arts. The physical versatility of clay means it is not a medium easily confined to set 

definitions or aesthetics. It is that slipperiness, both literal and figurative, that makes clay an 

excellent vehicle for the subversion of accepted norms, as well as an extraordinarily useful material. 

The term 'subversive clay' initially leads one to think of the socio-cultural narratives and 

commentaries explored by many ceramic artists; however there are other quiet ways in which 

clay and ceramic artists subvert assumptions within and outside the field ... sometimes ideas are 

forgotten, or mistaken for one thing when, in fact, they are another - or both. The contradictions, 

confusions and passionate disagreements over 'The Vessel'. 'Skill' and the 'Is it Art or Craft' 

question (to name a few) are part and parcel of the 'clay-game', along with unkempt nails and 

questionable footwear. These points of friction are integral to development, exploration and the 

expansion of knowledge - and ultimately such discussions are about shaking up assumptions. 

Sophia Phillips is a tutor at the School of Art, Architecture and Design 

University of South Australia. 

28 Sep - 1 Oct 2012 

ADELAIDE

Nicole Cherubini 

Installation view, 2007 

Institute of Contemporary Art 

University of Pennsylvania 

Speakers and Artists 

Nicole Cherubini 

Cherubini is an American artist who makes non-functional vessels that 

appear extravagant and excessive, breaking new ground in the exploration 

and potent ial possibilities of clay whilst also challenging our perception of 

the final 'object'. Cherubini's work directly engages with historic clay vessels, 

making clear references to Greek classical pots but blurring the images by 

retaining memories of traditional vessel coil-building processes through 

surface thumb print markings. Glazing is colourful, at times carefully applied 

and at other times, dripping and messy. The addition of other elements 

such as wood, prints, costume jewellery, even garishly dyed furs, and the 

placing of her work on plinths, all contribute to her renegade approach to 

contemporary clay.

Event 

Clare Twomey 

Twomey is a British ceramic artist who 

specialises in large-scale installations, sculpture 

and site-specific work. She has exhibited widely, 

including at the Tate (UK), Victoria and Albert 

Museum (UK), Crafts Council (UK), and the 

Museum of Modern Art (Kyoto, Japan). 

Clare's work is influenced by observations 

of human interaction and political behaviour 

and pursues her interest in space, architectural 

interventions and the gallery as destination. Her 

installation, Consciousness/Conscience at the 

Ceramic Biennale in Korea in 200 1, consisted of 

8000 hollow bone china tiles laid on the floor. 

Guests were invited to walk into the gallery 

space, crushing the tiles underfoot as they moved 

about. 

Twomey's installations re-invent and re-examine 

the way in which artists work in clay and, 

importantly, the way their work is presented in 

public environments. She subtly alters a gallery 

space, challenging our perceptions and the way 

we behave in those settings. 

Clare Twomey. Trophy, Vidoria & Albert Museum 

Cast Courts, September 2006 

Masamichi Yoshikawa 

An internationally celebrated ceramic artist, 

Yoshikawa is based in Tokoname, Japan. His 

inspiring ceramic forms are represented in 

major public and private collections throughout 

the world. Yoshikawa draws inspiration for his 

work from ancient Chinese ceramic forms and 

glazes. Working in porcelain he creates strikingly 

modern re-interpretations of these structures and 

covers them in dripping seihakuji (blue-white) 

glaze. 

Masamichi Yoshikawa 

28 Sep -1 Oct 2012 

ADELAIDE

Anton Reijnders, Duty, 20 11 drawers 

doorma t. fired clay, terra sig illata 

shopping bag, wood and plates 

h,171 cm 

Anton Reijnders 

Reijnders is acclaimed internationally for his ceramics 

exhibitions and commission work and is represented in many 

collections throughout Europe, Asia, Australia and the US , He 

uses simple forms such as spheres and cones to create poetic still 

life arrangements, frequently combining clay w ith other materials 

such as wood, cloth and newspaper. These arrangements are 

constructed to contest and undermine perceptions of the fragility 

of fired clay. 

From 1987 to 2003, Reijnders headed the European Ceramic 

Work Centre in 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands. He also assisted in 

developing new clay materials and technical processes which have 

been incorporated into important contemporary arch itectural 

projects. 

Reijnders currently teaches at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, 

Amsterdam and is the author of The Ceramic Process, an 

encyclopaedic work commissioned by the European Ceramic 

Work Centre (EKWC) and an important text in the field of 

ceramics. 

Akio Takamori 

Takamori was born in Japan but has lived in the United States since 1974. His work is represented in 

many public collections, including the Carnegie Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 

American Craft Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum (UK), George Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art 

(Canada), Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park (Japan) and Ariana Museum (Switzerland). 

Takamori's work has always been figurative, based on the human body and expressive of human 

relationships, emotion and sensuality. Initially making vessel forms adorned with painted figurative 

details, he later shifted to an interest in sculpture. Standing and sleeping figures portray historical 

characters, contemporary society, and rural villagers, their day-to-day existence recalled from his 

ch ildhood in Japan . He has recreated 

his hometown from memory using clay 

and translated traditional Japanese prints 

into three dimensional porcelain figures. 

Takamori's ceramic sculptures evoke an 

eerie sense of reality and presence. Since 

1993 he has been a faculty member of the 

University of Washington School of Art. 

Akio Takamori, Alice/Venus

Wedge 

Gary Healey 

"Plinth" Phillip - please don't take me to the tip! 

My name is Plinth Phillip. I stand proud at 120cm tall and 40cm square. My 

complexion is a pasty white; arctic white officially. I don't get out much given 

I have no legs. Some bloke at an exhibition said to me, after his third glass of 

free wine, " Mate you belong at the tip. Cerami cs is now all multi-media and 

installation . You're just a white box; so yesterday." 

I pondered this - which for an inanimate object is pretty cool. True, I am a white 

box and will always be a white box. I can see no way of reinventing myself as 

some new fangled way of displaying things; not least because I have no arms to 

pick up the saw and hammer and never completed my Certificate III in Carpentry. 

But hey, what is wrong with a white box - surely not everything needs to be 

multi-media or installation ? I am really quiet, so I won't get in the way of whatever 

you put on me. In fact, some people say I am so quiet that if you put something 

on me which is crap, it will be really obvious. Is this what they are worried about - 

nowhere to hide? 

I met one of these multi-media machines last week at speed dating. She wasn't 

very articulate and kept on saying the same thing over and over - something 

about a continuous loop! As best I could make out, she was going to the recycling 

depot once her exhibition was over. I assured her that being fashionable is not a 

crime and shared my own dilemma about whether I would be better off down 

the tip. We agreed to meet again but both had a realistic appreciation of the 

difficu lties of achieving this. 

She asked how she would know it was me. I gasped. I am so plain and there are 

so many others like me. I said, "If the piece on top of me takes your breath away, 

it's probably me." 

Gary Healey 

In Honour of 

the Chinese 

Glaze Masters 

Catherine 

Asquith Gallery 

Collingwood 

Odober 2011

Potters Marks 

Potters Marks 

:lOll 

Amanda Shelsher Ashley Fiona Dee Taylor-Graham 

Lynda Draper Marianne Huhn Helen Earl 

Mary-Iou Hogarth Mollie Bosworth Liz Low 

Trisha Dean Pru Morrison Robyn Phelan 

THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS NOVEMBER 20 11 99

Archive 

EDITORIAL 

W ith the expansion of 

. 

the Potters 

' 

. 

S 

ocle 

' tyfNew 

.0 

So th Wales members felt that a pub li cat ~ on dealing with 

th~ re uirements of local potters was des.rabl.e, and with 

h . . q . we have now launched our fIrst ed,t,on. 

t IS In View 

"P tt in Australia" has been produced primarily to 

aery. . g potters and to endeavour 

disseminate informatIon damon d' of ' our problems bath 

to promote a better ,un erstan 109 , , 

technical and aesthetIC, 

" Th' f'rst ed'lti~n with on article on stoneware bodie~ , 

, IS I , 'bl b' t f a potter s 

bnd another an the ':'°h re hintangl he ~f ~~s ~ries to fulfill 

philosophy, t~ether WIt P otagrap s , 

this purpose, 

. Acknowledging the stimulus of Bernard Le.ach'~ , per 

Seriality by publishing this edition follOWIng h,s VIS~ to 

ould et stress the fact that the potters t ~m- 

~~~i;,;:et~e ma(;,stoy of this and any ~ut'!t! prod~tl~~ 

IN d d on the support of our su scn rs a 

st i~ul~~~f our cont ributors. With this encouragement ~he 

journal may expand in scope and perform a genuine servIce 

to potters. 

EDITOR, 

. , 

.. ~~' 

Page i 

You are invited to comment on the past and look into the future 

As part of the 50th anniversary issue of The Journal of Australian Ceramics, I would like to publish your 

comments on whether we have been true to the mission statement expressed in the first editorial by 

Wanda Garn sey (see above). Also welcome are your thoughts on the direction you would like to see in 

future editions. Using up to 250 words, send in your comments and a selection will be printed in the 

milestone 5111 issue. 

Vicki Grima, editar 


Well Read 

The Art of 

WOOD F IRE 

The Art of Woodfire 

A Contemporary Ceramics Practice 

by Owen Rye 

Published by Mansfield Press, 2011 

160 pages, hardback, $ 11 0 

ISBN 9780980879803 

Now available online 

www.australianceramics.com 

or call 1300 720 124 

I think it only fair to first declare my interest in the subject matter and also to knowing the author. As 

co·editor and publisher of the only international journal dedicated to wood·fired ceramics (and I also 

like to think of myself as a good friend of Owen's), I could have a biased point of view, particularly given 

the favourable mention that our publication receives in this book. Setting this aside, I have aimed to be 

objective as any reviewer should. 

Dipping in here and there to begin with, my first feeling was that the title of the book was somewhat 

misleading, and to be added to others guilty of the same . Perhaps a more accurate title would have 

been The Art of Woodfire: an Australian Perspective. However, having read the whole book I am 

now more inclined to agree with the title chosen, The Art of Woodfire - A Contemporary Ceramics 

Practice . Although an Australian perspective is fundamental to the information in the appendices and 

the statements of the represented artists, the essence and sense of creative descriptions capturing both 

the woodfire process and it's aesthetic in the main text, are as valid to contemporary wood firing on an 

international level as they are in Australia, and relevant to all woodfirers wherever they may live. 

Some years ago Owen wrote an article about wadding for our journal. At the outset he expressed 

concern that writing about wadding might be similar to a Michael Palin television sketch in which a 

character endlessly compares shovels and the slender distinctions between them. But Owen persisted 

'on the basis that the ultimate quality of work coming from a woodfired kiln is derived from subtleties 

explored and perfected in every aspect of the process', which is exactly what he has strived to document 

in this book. 

Given his earlier research and work in archaeology, the human experience is essential. Th is approach 

was perhaps one of the driving forces that eventually encouraged Owen to organise the first Australian 

woodfire conference in 1986 (Woodfire '86), during which he published the findings of his survey to 

discover how many woodfirers and woodfire kilns there were in Australia at that time. The survey and 

conference had a profound effect on woodfirers throughout the country, and was perhaps the starting 

point for what would eventually become the 'Australian wood fire movement'. 

The essays that introduce each of the three chapters, Aesthetic Considerations, Woodfire Practice 

in Australia and Technical Discussion, essentially contextualise the short statements and descriptions 


Well Read 

written by each of the 24 woodfirers 

whose work has been seleded to 

illustrate the book. Given that the images 

of work were specially taken for the 

publication, I would have liked to see 

more of a focus on surface detail, as one 

might have the opportunity to examine a 

piece of work up close in a gallery or at 

an exhibition. 

So, who is this book for? If you are 

already a wood firer, it is interesting to 

read about other woodfirers and their 

pradice; if you are a student of ceramics, 

it provides a valuable insight into a 

creative process that thrives on chance 

and an aesthetic of imperfedion; if you 

are a colledor of ceramics, it offers a 

window through which to view and 

gain an understanding of con temporary 

Australian woodfired ceramics. It is 

a welcome addition to the published 

writing on the art of woodfired ceramics. 

Review by Robert Sanderson 

Editor, The Logbook, Ireland 

www.thelogbook.net. 

Above: Owen Rye. Bottle. 2010 

Below: Rowley Drysdale, Marker, 2010 


Australia Wi de 

act 

August certainly was Clay Month in Canberra. 

The Material Matters exhibition at the ANU, 

with accompanying workshops and symposium, 

proved to be a concentrated distillation of the 

past twenty years of developments in the ceramic 

process and a demonstration of lateral thinking 

in the use of ceramic materials. As such it was 

stimulating and seductive and it would be a 

closed mind that was not inspired to leap into 

the studio and try something new. 

The Canberra Potters' Society Annual Exhibition, 

Clay Cohesion opened on 22 October with Peter 

Beard from the UK as selector and judge. The 

winner of the 2011 Doug Alexander Award was 

Maryke Henderson. Other award winners were 

Moraig McKenna, Erin Kocaj, Zoe Slee, Ingrid 

Adler, Suzanne Oakman, Chris Harman, Debra 

Boyd-Goggin, Sylvia Marris, Chris Harford and 

Verney Burness. 

The Foundry at Strathnairn Arts Association 

(SAA) is now open and the woolshed studios 

have been completed. There were two wellsupported 

woodfirings of the Olsen tunnel kiln 

in August and October. The Homestead Gallery is 

undergoing extensive renovations but exhibitions 

continue as programmed. The SAA members' 

exhibition this year will run until 20 November. 

Following the successful introduction of a 

Summer School program in January 2011, 

Canberra Potters' Society will offer two summer 

workshops in January 2012 with tutors Kevin 

Boyd and Bev Hogg. Full details available on our 

website, wwvv.canberrapotters.com.au. 

Best wishes to all for the festive season. 

Jane Crick, E: janecrick@dodo.com.au 

nsw 

On show at Newcastle Art School Front Room 

Gallery in August were impressive embossed 

mugs and plates by the Yili Indigenous Design 

Group from Great Lakes TAFE Art and Design 

School. Using computer-aided drafting and 

laser-cutting equipment, the designs were made 

into finely detailed woodcuts which were then 

pressed into clay before being formed into 

vessels. Other mugs were screen printed with 

oxides. Steve Williams, Head of the School, is 

enthusiastic about the future of Indigenous 

design and is progressing towards a North Coast 

TAFE National Indigenous Design School. We look 

forward to seeing more work from this group. 

In the Hunter region, many potters are returning 

to the craft after long breaks away. Rosemarie 

Momsen is one such ceramicist who recently 

had a very successful exhibition at Back to Back 

Galleries, not so much as an emerging artist but 

a re-emerging artist. Large thrown platters, bowls 

and full body forms were glazed in a silky black 

glaze with glaze-on-glaze decoration confidently 

painted on the surface with broad brush strokes, 

further enhanced with lush dabs of colour. 

Environmentally and socially acceptable graffiti 

was the order of the day at the TAFE Faculty of 

Creative Industries workshop week. Inspired by 

American artist Charles Schneider who visited 

last year, students painted large clay 'canvases' 

that had been painted onto the brick walls with 

porcelain slip, Following excursions to various 

destinations, including a donkey sanctuary and 

urban sites, images relating to the trips were 

created. The paintings will slowly erode with 

some lovely subtleties over time. An Indigenous 

student, Damien, painted the trunks of several 

trees, repeating the word 'wampa', which is a 

culturally appropriate word to use in a hostile 

situation. (Wampa describes delicately extricating 

yourself from answering a direct question so as 

not to disrupt or cause offence.) 

Back to Back Galleries will be celebrating 20 

years in 2012. The bowl show, Bow led Over 

Again, will be on in September. More info to 

follow soon. 

Sue Stewart, E: sue@ceramicartist.com.au 

qld cairns 

Our national ceramic exhibition Melting Po t 

2011 was held at Cairns Regional Gallery from 

29 July to 18 September, and was a great 

success. We sold more than a third of the 54 

works with many pieces going overseas. Our 

only disappointment was that we did not receive 

many entries from ceramicists outside the 

Cairns region. We hope to continue our biennial 

national ceramic exhibitions, so for information 

on the award winners, the judge's comments and 

photos of the exhibits, go to 

wwvv.cairnspottersclub. net. 


Australia Wide 

During Festival Cairns on Sunday 28 August, the 

club opened its doors to the people of Cairns 

for a Raku Open Day. Many parents brought 

their children along for some fun. If they had 

not already made a pot for the firing, they 

could buy a bisque pot, decorate it with glazes 

provided and have it fired in our raku kiln. When 

we finished at 9 pm, after numerous firings, 

we watched many happy people walking away 

with a warm pot in their hands. It was a good 

opportunity for us to promote the club and the 

classes we run. 

Lone White, E: lone@tpg.com.au 

Raku Open Day at Cairns Potters Club 

qld south east 

20 I I has seen a hedic schedule for the Gold 

Coast Potters Assoc Inc (GCPA), starting with our 

second Empty Bowl Lunch in June with more 

than 400 bowls, tons of preserves, fabulous pots 

in our silent audion, and mouth-watering food 

filling the bowls. We raised almost $8000 for 

Anglicare Crisis Centre. Many people made it a 

success: Geoff Crispin, Gerry Wedd, Katherine 

Mahoney, Suvira McDonald, Michael Pugh, Su 

Brown, Di Buckland, Geoff Walker, Megan Puis, 

Eda Blank, Vera Mantle and all who donated. 

Suki Mead, as usua l, proved to be a tireless 

convenor. 

The Helen Charles workshop in July was a terrific 

success with 15 participants making huge pots, 

which only just fitted into our kiln. The Venturi 

gas burner was popular, if a little awesome! 

The GCPA Annual Members Exhibition was held 

in August with a record number of entries and 

esteemed ceramicist Dianne Peach as judge. 

Major award winners were Anne Mossman, 

Wendy Hodgson and Katherine Mitchell. On the 

last day the GCPA and the Sculptors Society held 

a combined market day to showcase their work 

and talents for the public. 

The Swell Sculpture exhibition at Currumbin, 

and Spring Fever are events we are looking 

forvvard to on the Coast. 

For images, judges critique and lots more, go to 

www.goldcoastpotters.com . 

Happy potting, Lyn Rogers 

T: 07 55943307; F: 07 55943365 

E: romeo-whisky@bigpond.com 

qld townsville 

NQPA members and friends have had a busy 

year, starting with the clean-up after Cyclone 

Yasi. We have had a number of social nights 

where all brought a plate of food and shared a 

meal, good conversation and companionship at 

our studio as a way of introducing new members 

and students and encouraging them to feel at 

home. 

Two of our members, Sharon Jewell and Annica 

Stenval-Batts, have recently been to Jingdezhen, 

China, as part of the graduate program offered 

by the Australian National University. We had 

a great night with Sharon showing photos, 

talking about the experience and showing all the 

beautiful little pots she had bought back. 

An Instrudion and Participation ledure series has 

been running throughout 201 1. These popular 

3-hour blocks have been offered by different 

members, giving instruction on their specia lity 

area. Regular classes continue at the studio and 

we are now looking at offering an advanced or 

master class series for 2012. 

In Odober, Petra Svoboda, from Sydney, 

joined us for a Printing on Clay workshop. All 

participating were very busy getting prepared 

and excited about having such an exciting artist 

com ing north. 

NQ Potters' Association Inc celebrate their 40th 

anniversary in 2012, coinciding with hosting the 

Townsville Ceramic Awards from 9-25 November. 

A call for entries will go out in April 2012 . 

Sharon Jewell, E: sharon-jewell@hotmail.com 


Australia Wide 

sa 

Congratulations to Gus Clutterbuck for recently 

winning a Special Prize at the Gyeonggi 

International Ceramix Biennale 2011 in Korea. 

The last quarter has seen a busy period with 

many ceramic artists and potters exhibiting as 

part of South Australia Living Artists (SALA) Week 

2011 . JamFadory Atrium hosted a new group 

of figurative works by Charmain Hearder, and 

Seeds, an exhibition of new works that were 

the culmination of an ArtSA-funded Mentorship 

Program with two Indigenous artists Christina 

Gollan and Daisybell Nungala Virgin and Chilean 

artist Silvia Stansfield. This program was run in 

the Ceramics Studio at JamFadory. 

SALA also saw exhibitions by Tamara Hahn 

at One Small Room, Gerry Wedd at Curious 

Orange, Lesa Farrant, Phil Hart and Maria 

Parmenter in Suite at St Morris Upholsterers. 

Maria, Lesa, Chris De Rosa and Helen Fuller will 

exhibit in Home Front at Murray Bridge Regional 

Gallery from 21 Odober. Helen Fuller had a 

resounding success at Adelaide Central Gallery 

with her SALA exhibition Winding Threads. 

Stephen Bowers will exhibit an impressive body 

of new work, Larks Tongues in Aspic, in 

Odober at Robin Gibson Gallery in Sydney. 

The past month has seen exhibitions from 

interstate visitors with Jenny Orchard showing at 

Art Images Gallery and Merran Essan at BMGArt. 

Owen Rye conducted an excellent two-day 

workshop at Studio Potters Klemzig in July, which 

was very well received, as was his exhibition at 

the Studio Potters Gallery. 

Sally Gibson-Dore won the Helpmann Academy 

JamFadory Award, entitling her to a six month 

residency in JamFactory Ceramics Studio. Also 

at JamFactory, Ceramic Studio Associate Maria 

Chatzinikolaki was the recipient of the President's 

Award at CraftSouth's members exhibition 

Wish list. Maria, along with fellow associate 

Wayne Meara, was also selected as one of the 

finalists for the JamFadory Design Award. 

Preparations continue for the 2012 Australian 

Ceramics Trienniale to be held in Adelaide from 

28 September - 1 October. For more information, 

go to http://australianceramicstriennale.com, or 

phone 088410 1822. 

Kirsten Coelho; E: kandd@chariot.net.au 

tas 

Tasmanian born ceramicist Simone Fraser recently 

returned to her home town to give a workshop 

for the Tasmanian Ceramic Association (TCA). 

Simone has been exhibiting for more than 

30 years and is included in many prominent 

colledions, including the NGA, the Art Gallery of 

SA and Artbank. She currently teaches at tertiary 

level and since 1981 her work has been included 

in more than fifty exhibitions. 

Simone began with a presentation on her studio 

set-up and her work. Of particular interest was 

the work of Simone's mother, Barbara Cauvin, 

one of the TCA's original members and the 

designer of the logo which we still use today. As 

a child Simone spent many hours playing with 

clay while her mother worked on her sculptural 

pieces and developed her crystalline glazes. 

Simone showed us her amazing technique of 

throwing up-side down, then drying the clay 

to a leather hard consistency before adding 

another band of clay and throwing-on. In this 

way it's possible to make very large pots without 

having to centre a huge amount of clay. She also 

demonstrated techniques for making textured 

surfaces, and shared her glaze techniques and 

recipes along with the application of gold leaf 

and other metals onto fired surfaces. Simone left 

us inspired to try her techniques, perhaps in time 

for our upcoming annual exhibition Lasting 

impressions. Simone's workshop certainly 

created a lasting impression I 

Members of the TCA. Polytechnic students and 

others are busy making bowls for an Empty 

Bowl Projed lunch to be held at Battery Point 

on 29 November. Our community will be able to 

purchase soup in a beautiful hand-made bowl, 

and keep the bowl. Money raised will help to 

feed those in need. This is one of many empty 

bowl projeds potters participate in all over the 

world. 

The Offcentre ceramics cooperative has changed 

premises, still within the Salamanca Arts Centre, 

but now in a more accessible ground floor 

location. 

John Watson; E: john@dmink.net 


Austra lia Wide 

vic 

Victorian potters are becoming more involved 

in local Open Studio events. Kicking off w ith 

a group exhibition at Sticks Winery, the Yarra 

Valley Open Studios ran over two weekends and 

amongst the local artists were eight potters. 

Having Sticks Winery as one of its major 

sponsors, the Open Studios event was marketed 

along with w inery tours, helping to make it a 

very successful event. The Dandenong Ranges 

Pottery Open Studios in October will showcase 

ten potters. 

Ceramics Victoria has held their first of a number 

of bus tours to regional areas, visiting ceramicists 

in the Castlemaine area and the Castlemaine Art 

Gallery, with a special 'behind the scenes' tour. 

The Pat Emery Award 2011 for an emerging 

ceramicist will be held at the Studio@Flinders 

from 21 October - 13 November. The award was 

established in 1989 in honour of Pat Emery, a 

founding member of Ceramics Victoria, who said 

her wish was " for this award to go to a young, 

creative and ambitious potter to kick-start their 

career " . 

Diploma of Ceramics and Visual Arts students 

from Holmesglen TAFE participated in The 

Teapot Tips Exhibition at the Gallery@Bayside 

Arts and Cu ltural Centre along with works from 

the Bayside City Council's teapot collection. 

Showcasing functional, decorative and scu lptural 

teapots, the works included The Yellow 

Submarine and Julia in Hot Water. 

The Valley Potters had an enjoyable weekend 

away in the Castlemaine area . Highlights 

included Barry Singleton's most informative 

workshop and visits to the studios of Maria 

Coyle and Phil Elson. The Valley Potters Annual 

Exhibition, Clay Directions, will be at the 

Kingston Arts Centre until 29 November. 

The Pottery Expo @ Federation Square 2011 will 

be held on Sunday 4 December from l Oam to 

5 pm; visit www.potteryexpo.com. 

Glenn England 

E: glennengland@optusnet.com.au 

wa 

If you're planning a weekend drive in the hills, 

be sure to visit the historic cottage gallery of 

Cathryn and Bruce Cann at 20 Brook Road, 

Darlington; www.darlingtongallery.net. 

The Clayfeet Exhibiting Group celebrated 10 

years of ceram ic creativity with an exhibition, 

Feats of Clay, at the Old Bakery Gallery, 

Maylands. 

Two magicians of their craft, Ian Dowling and 

Robyn Lees, conjured up beautifully progressive 

works to w in the two major prizes at CAAWA's 

Annual Selective Exhibition at Heathcote. Highly 

commended went to Njalikwa Chongwe, Atsuko 

Sandover and Cher Shackleton. 

At the CAAWA AGM, Cher Shackleton agreed 

to continue as President. Bela Kotai was guest 

speaker on the night, talking about his residency 

at Anderson Ranch in Colorado, USA. 

Garry Zeck spoke on ABC radio about his 

exhibition of pots and paintings at Gallows 

Gallery that created a narrative of the lives of the 

early pioneer residents in Israelite Bay, a remote 

southern coastal part of WA. Garry also has 

work in the exhibition Out of the West at the 

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Works by 

Sandra Black, Pippin Drysdale, Eileen Keyes and 

Joan Campbell are also part of this exhibition. 

Ela ine Bradley is one of nine emerging artists 

graduating from the ANU School of Art who are 

showing in a series of award exhibitions. Elaine 

was selected for the Craft ACT: Craft and Design 

Centre 2011 EASS Award as a graduate of ANU 

School of Art Ceramic Workshop. 

Janet De Boos, a top-rate presenter, gave a 

weekend demo workshop at CIT, thoroughly 

enjoyed by all. Betty Churcher presented a 

Lifetime Achievement Award to Pippin Drysdale 

at the Art Gallery of WA. 

Fremantle Bazaar is on 2 - 4 December 2011 and 

The Old Bakery Gallery, Maylands is once again 

holding its esteemed teapot exhibition, 

Tea Party, in January 2012 . 

Pauline Mann; T: 08 9459 8140 

pandpm@Westnet.com.au 


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THE 10URNAl OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS NOVEMBER 2011 109

Books & DVDs 

On the Shelf 

.... 

POnr:R 

LooKS 

" Goo 

More books are available on www.australianceramics.com 

-- 

~"'l¥Oltl'" 

1. The Art of Woodfire 

- A Contemporary 

Ceramics Practice 

by Owen Rye 

This book illustrates the 

work of more than 24 

Australian ceramic artists. 

Owen Rye discusses his 

perspective on woodfiring. 

its technical 

aspects and the aesthetic 

possibilities. 

AU 5110 

2. Slab Techniques by Ian 

Marsh and Jim Robison 

Covers all the basics, such as 

making your slabs, joining 

techniques, simple building 

methods. use of supports. 

creating textures, decorating 

with slips and ways to avoid 

disasters during firing. 

AU S39.95 

3. Introducing Pottery 

The Complete Guide 

by Dan Rhode 

Offers a complete course 

in pottery, explaining all 

you need to know to get 

started from where clay 

is found to preparation 

for use and in-depth 

description of methods of 

making. 

AU S45 

4. A Potter looks for God: 

The Energy of Evolution 

by Bernard Sahm 

Hardback; 215 pages; B&W 

and colour illustrations; A 

series of essays which tackle 

some of the deep spiritual 

questions, along With his views 

about human beings accepting 

personal responsibility for their 

actions. 

AU S30 

Elect;; Kiln 

GLAZES 

CONE' 

12AIf'C/tUf" , 

DVD 

DVD 

5. The Electric Kiln 

by Harry Fraser 

Written for the craft 

potter, studio, amateur, or 

professional, this book is 

a comprehensive guide to 

the selection, installation, 

use and maintenance of 

electric kilns in studios 

and schools. 

AU 539.95 

6. Glazes Cone 6 

by Michael Bailey 

This illustrated book 

provides many base glaze 

recipes for the popular 

temperature 1220-124O"C 

and ranging from shiny 

to matt. It explores the 

chemistry behind glaze 

formulation. special effects 

glazes, single firing and 

brush·on glazes. 

AU 540 

7. The leach Pottery 

1952 

DVD, 32 minutes. 

B&W with narration by 

American potter Warren 

Mackenzie; 17 minutes 

of bonus footage taken 

at the pottery in 1952; 

14 page booklet by Shoji 

Hamada. 

AU 540 

8. Ben Richardson - 

Fire Works DVD and 

booklet 

This DVO and 38 page 

booklet. published in 

April 2010, examines, 

challenges and celebrates 

Ben Richardson 'S 

dedication to making 

site-specific, wood-fired 

ceramics; 24.S minutes. 

AU 545 

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Classifieds 

CERAMIC SUPPLIES 

CUSTOM DECALS 

By using stale of the art digital printing technology, Decal 

Specialists can produce high quality Custom Ceramic Decals 

from original artwork. The decorative possibilities with 

Custom Decals are only limited by your imagination! 

Check out our website: WWVII.decalspecialists.com.au 

T: 1300 132 771 ; E: enquiries@decalspecialists.com.au 

KERR IE LOWE GALLERY 

Sydney inner city pottery supplies: Keane's Clay - discount 

on 5 bagsll 0+ bags; Southern Ice Porcelain; Museum Gel; 

Chinese Decals: Wide range of tools, glazes, underglazes - 

student discount on glazeslunderglazes; Kerrie lowe Gallery. 

49 King St, Newtown; T: 02 95504433; E: lowekerrie@ 

gmail.com; Mon to Sat. 1 Dam - 5.30 pm; Thurs until 7 pm. 

ON-GlAZE/CHINA PAINTING SUPPLIES 

Gold Coast China Painting Supplies is one of Australia's 

largest suppliers 01 china painting products. We supply 

on-glaze paints, painting mediums, lustres, gold, brushes, 

tools and specialty decals. Please contact Sandra to discuss 

requiremen ts, technical information or to request a full 

product listing; T: 07 5597 0859; E: sandra@goldcoastchina, 

com.au; WVIIW.goldcoastchina .com.au 

POTTERS EQUIPMENT PTY LTD 

Quality supplies and friendly service; A wide range of clays 

and colours, kilns, wheels, slab rollers, pugmills, extruders, 

all sorts of accessories. materials, glazes and tools. 

Shop 13 /42 New St, Ringwood VIC 3134 

T: 03 9870 7533; F: 0396470793 

POTTERS NEEDS 

Sound technical advice. kiln repairs and maintenance; 

Clayworks', Walker's and Keane's clay; pottery equipment 

and tools; delivery to your door; short courses and regular 

specialist workshops; friendly personal service. 

Potters Needs Gallery, 75 Curtis St, Oberon NSW 2787 

T: 02 6336 0411 ; F: 02 63360898; M: 0418 9B2 837 

E: info@ponersneeds.com.au; lh'WW.pottersneeds.com.au 

TETLOW KILNS & FURNACES PTY LTD 

One of Australia'S most experienced kiln and furnace 

manu-facturers; Australia's largest range with 40 standard 

sizes, custom sizes on request; Clean, eHicient electric and 

gas kilns and furnaces; made in Australia, environmentally 

friendly. 12 George St, Blackburn VIC 3130 

T: +61 (0)39877 4188; F: +61 (0)398941974 

E: info@tetlow.com.au; WNIN.tetlow.com.au 

m VENCO PRODUCTS 

Manufadurers and exporters of high quality pottery 

equipment. Venco manufacture a range of pugmills with 

output capaCities, suitable for schools and studios through 

to high capacity industrial units. Venco pottery wheels are 

world regarded for quality and reliability. 

T: +61 (0)8 9399 526S; F: +61 (0)8 9497 1335; 

\ItNMI.venco.com.au 

CERAMIC TRAVEL 

ZESTE FRENCH TOURS 2012 Small personalised tours 10 

France: 21 May-4 June: Painting in Provence; 7-21 June; 

Pottery, Lavender and Rural Hideaways; 1·15 July: Music 

and Pot1ery; 7-21 September: Beaujolais, Burgundy and 

Alsace - wine, pottery. Contact Jane by email, 

jane@zestefrenchtours.com; T: 03 9644 2337; 

M: 0422 942 216; www.zestefrenchtours.com 

GROUPS 

CERAMIC STUDY GROUP In( 

CSG holds monthly meetings in Epping NSW and occasional 

worKshops with guest demonstrators from Australia and 

overseas. We maintain an up-ta-date library of books, 

magazines, videos and DVDs and we publish a monthly 

newsletter. We are an ideal forum for experienced potters as 

well as beginners and students, to learn and network. 

E: csgsecretary@hotmail.com 

www.ceramicstudygroup.org.au 

MOULD/MODEL MAKER 

SPECIALIST IN PROTOTYPE AND MOULD-MAKING for 

ceramic mass production and artworks. Ceramic design 

service also available. Contact Somchai T: 02 9703 2557 

M: 0401 359126; E: ealandclay@gmail.com 

OPPORTUNITIES 

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE AT CANBERRA POTTERS SOCIETY 

We have a recently constructed studio and residential unit 

set aside for our NEW Artist in Residence Program. For more 

details go to www.canberrapotters.com.au or contact us tor 

an information pack. Canberra Potters' Society Inc., Watson 

Arts Centre, Aspinall St, Watson ACT 2602 

E: admin@canberrapot1ers.com.au; TIf: 02 6241 1670 

POBox 7021 Watson Act 2602 

TOWNSVILLE CERAMIC AWARDS 2012 

North Oueensland Potters' AsSOCiation will be celebrating it's 

40th anniversary with the next Townsville Ceramic Awards 

which will be held 9-25 November 2012 at the Perc Tucker 

Regional Gallery, Townsville. Call for entries will be advertised 

in April 2012; T: 07 4772 345B; http://nqpotters.com 

PHOTOGRAPHY 

GREG PIPER IMAGING SOLUTIONS 

Providing ceramic artists with digital and traditional 

photegraphic imagery, as well as graphic design to' print or 

electronic media; an Associate AIPP (Australian Institute of 

Professional Photographers) with over 30 years experience 

in various advertising, corporate and government projects; 

previously (ter eleven years) inaugural manager of the 

photographidmultimedia unit at the Powerhouse Museum 

in Sydney; Drummoyne NSW 2047; T: 02 9181 1188 

M: 0411 107744; E: greg@gregpiper.com.au 

www.gregpiper.com.au 

PLINTHS 

PLINTHS MADE TO ORDER 

Affordable, designed for strudural inlegrity, IighlWeight; 

also for hire. Roger Fenton. St Ives NSW 

T: 02 94888628; F: 02 9440 1212; M: 0417 443 414 

WORKSHOPS I SEMINARS 

HOT TO POT WORKSHOPS at Moonshill, Tarago, (nr, 

Goulburn) 

17 January 2012 (Tues) - Holiday Fun Firing Day - various 

rapid firings, varying cost; 7 February 2012 (Tues) 

- Welcome back to Tutorial Tuesdays for 2012 with a free 


Classifieds 

half day workshop to make a Character Bell; 4 March 2012 

(Sun) . Colours in a Landscape· 1 day workshop. ways of 

worKing with coloured day, $95. Bookings are essential for 

workshops. Contact Jane, T: 02 6161 OB06; 

E: Janecnck@dodo.com.au; www.janecrick.netflrms.(om 

THROWING .. GlAZES .. FIRING CLASSES 

Classes for beginners to advanced with Gary Healey 

clay/projects chosen to suit skill levels; Balwyn, Victoria 

TIF: 03 9816 3012; E: ashglazes@gmail.com 

WORKSHOP ARTS CENTRE WILLOUGHBY 

Ceramics classes, day & evening. Monday to Friday. 

weekend & holiday workshops; Teaching artists; Barbara 

Campbell·AUen, KWlrak. Choung & Petra Svoboda. Beginners 

and advanced students welcome. Workshop Arts Centre. 33 

laurel Street, Willoughby NSW 2068; T: 02 9958 6540 

E: admin@Workshoparts.org.au; www.workshoparts.org.au 

AUSTRALIAN GALLERY DIRECTORY 

INNER CITY CLAYWORKERS GALLERY CO-OP LTD 

ThiS well established co-operative is run by a group of 

professional potters and ceramic artists. For information 

about upcoming exhibitions, membership and the hiring of 

the gaUery space go to VV\'\IW.clayworkers.com.au. 

Cnr St Johns Rd and 51 Johns Rd Glebe NSW 2037 

TIF: 0296929717; www.clayworkers.com.au 

SHEPPARTON ART MUSEUM 

2011 Indigenous Ceramic Art Award, 18 February to 22 

April 2012; 2012 Sidney Myer Fund Australian Ceramic 

Award Applications open online 1 Nov 2011 . The Museum 

is closed for redevelopment until 18 February 2012 . Please 

visit the website for details on the SAM Launch Party and 

updates on the redevelopment. Shepparton Art Museum. 70 

Welsford Street, Shepparton VIC 3630; T: (03) 5832 9861 ; 

E: art.museum@Shepparton.vic.gov.au; www.sheppartonartmuseum.com.au 

SMALLpieces 

SMALLpieces is a Melbourne retail and gallery space seilIng 

contemporary Australian ceramics. The work in SMALlpieces 

is from emerging and established practitioners, of high 

quality and broad price range. Items include jewellery, 

vessels and sculptures; 142 - 144 Weston St. Brunswick East 

VIC 3057; E: smallpieces@bigpond.com 

WININ.northcoteponery.com.au 

NATIONAL EDUCATION DIRECTORY 

CHISHOLM INSTITUTE. VICTORIA 

The Diploma of Ceramics IS a skills-based course delivered 

by specialist staff in a well resourced studio. Studies In 

all aspectS of ceramic process and design, and first hand 

experience with firing a wide variety of kilns, as well as 

dIVerse arts business strategies, provides students with 

a solid foundation from which they can build careers as 

independent arts practitioners. Contact Judith Roberts. 

T: 03 92125398; E: judith.roberts@chisholm.edu.au 

HOLMESGLEN TAFE 

Holmesglen Chadstone Campus: Diploma of Ceramics 

The scope and vision of our Diploma of Ceramics Course at 

Holmesglen is to prepare students for a career in ceramic 

art. We provide a professional, well equipped studio environment 

and the staff are recognized, practising artists. Our aim 

is to inspire individual development and encourage ongoing 

levels of inquiry. 

Kim Martin, Course CoordInator of Ceramics and VIsual 

Arts, T: 03 9564 1942; www.holmesglen.edu.au 

HUNTER TAFE - CREATIVE INDUSTRIES 

The Newcastle Art School campus offers Diploma and 

Certificate N. full-time and part-tIme in Ceramics. All aspects 

of ceramIcs are explored (technical, practical & theoretical). 

Dedicated staff include Paul Davis. Sue Stewart, Helen Dunkerley 

and Jo Davies, all professional exhibiting ceramists. 

The Ceramics Department has well equipped studios and a 

gallery on site. The campus is located in the cultural preCInct 

and is within walking distance to seven galleries; 

WNW.newcastleartschool.com.au 

Contad Sue Stewart: heather.f.stewart@tafe.nswedu.auor 

Paul Davis: paul.davis42@tafe.nsw.edu.au 

LA TROBE UNIVERSITY BENDIGO CAMPUS 

Ceramics as a major study is offered on the Bendigo campus 

In the Bachelor of Visual Arts course at La Trobe Visual Arts 

& Design. Honours is offered to high achIeving students 

wishing to develop their practICe to an advanced level, 

allowing entry into post graduate Masters or PhD by 

research within ceramICS. 

Contact Tony Conway, T: 03 5444 7217 

E: a.conway@latrobe.edu.au 

NATIONAL ART SCHOOL. SYDNEY 

BFA Ceramics is offered 3 years full time: BFA Honours - 1 

year part time; MFA part time or full time. Pubhc Programs 

Summer School 20 12: 9-13 January 2012 - A Week on the 

Wheel with Cameron Williams and Imagination in Clay with 

Jenny Orchard. Semester 1 Short Courses: Saturdays, 1 Dam 

- 4pm, 6 sessions commencing 25 February 2012: Wheel 

with Kwi Rak Choung. The Ceramics Department maintains 

an artist in residence program, international exchanges 

and visiting artists. Contact Merran Esson, T:02 9339 8718; 

E: merran.esson@nas.edu.au; \IIIVvW.nas.edu.au; Forbes St. 

Darlinghurst 

RMIT UNIVERSITY, MELBOURNE 

Introducing a new course in 2012: ObJed Based Pradice - 

Contemporary 3D concepts in Ceramics, Gold & Silversmithing, 

and hybrid object making; 8A Fine Art (full time); Post 

Graduate Studies by Research and Coursework (full-lime 

and part-time); contact Sally Cleary, Studio (o-ordinator, 

T: 03 9925 3858; E: sally.cleary@rmlt.edu.au; 

lNWW.rmit.edu.au/art 

TAFE NSW - NORTH COAST INSTITUTE. LISMORE 

Certificate, Diploma and Advanced Diploma Courses in 

Ceramics. Courses require application. 

EnqUiries: John Stewart, T: 02 6623 0218 

E: john.stewart@tafensw.edu.au 

TAFE NSW - NORTHERN SYDNEY INSTITUTE 

Hornsby and Northern Beaches College oHer accredited 

qualifications from Certificate to Advanced Diploma levels as 

well as short specialist programs for both the begInner and 

advanced ceramicists. For more informatIon, 

E: nsi.ceramics@tafensw.edu .au. For general course and 

program enquiries call 131 674 or go to 

www.nsLtafensw.edu.au 

TAFE NSW - SYDNEY INSTITUTE. GYMEA 

Certificate and Diploma courses in ceramics - full and 

part-time attendance; now offering Advanced Diploma 

online. Cnr Kingsway and Hotham Road, Gyme. NSW 

T: 02 9710 500 1; F: 02 97 105026 

www.sit.nsw.edu.aulceramicslgymea 

THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS NOVEM8ER 2011 113

Classifieds 

Have something interesting to say? 

Don't know how to say it well? 

Improve your communication skills 

Lift your professional profile 

Express yourself powerfully with 

words 

Writing Workshop 

Learn Online at Horne 

Suitable for all levels of experience in 

writing 

Workshop fee payable February 2012 

Workshop begins April 2012 

Three essays in three months; the best 

may be published in The Journal of 

Australian Ceramics. 

For obligation-free information email 

Owen at ryeowen@gmail.com 

The Aust ralian Ceramics 

Association 

Secure and Easy 

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114 THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS NOVEMBER 20 11

Studio-based courses 

Full and part-time 

Wheelwork Tableware 

Handbuilding Sculpture 

Contemporary Installation 

Mouldmaking & Casting 

Decorating Techniques 

Glaze & Kiln Technology 

Raku & Woodfiring 

Why not enquire about our new Master Classes! 

www.sit.nsw.edu.au/ceramics/gymea 

CERAMIC 

DESIGN 

STUDIO 

Amanda Middleton, Cert III, Ceramic Design Studio 

Cm The Kingsway & Hotham Road 

Gymea NSW 2227 

Tel : (02) 9710 5001 Fax: (02) 9710 5026 

Catherine.Fogarty@det. nsw.edu.au 

Photography: Catherine Fogarty

The Art of Victor Greenaway 

Italy 2007 - 2011 

14 March - 14 April 2012 

Mannlngham Gallery, 699 Doncaster Road, Doncaster 

After five years of living and working in Italy, Victor Greenaway 

returns with a selection of paintings and ceramics that reflect the 

people and environment of Italy. 

Victor Greenaway, Untitled, 2010, 

porcelain, 120 mm wide x 95 mm high

sa~ e 0 

tosa •

Artist -in-residence 

program 

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GROUP Inc. 

We have a recently constructed studio 

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Details at canberrapotters.com.au or 

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Canberra Potters' Society Inc 

Watson Arts Centre · Aspinall Street · Watson· ACT 

admin@canberrapotters.com.au --~ 

ph/fax (02) 624 1 1670 ~ ~ 

po Box 7021 , Watson AU 2602 '5' 

Ceramic Study Group Inc 

Annual Summer Workshop 

Tutor: Johanna DeMaine 

Non-participatory 

Sunday 19 February 2012 

Powerhouse Museum, Sydney 

Bookings are essential. 

T: 02 9894 0249, 02 9484 2067 

www.ceramicstudygroup.org.au 

A CAREER 

IN FINE ART 

Choose from RMIT's wide range of fine art 

programs at degree and postgraduate level, 

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in ceramics and gold and silver-smithing. 

Wrth a new course structure in 2012, 

you can tum your creativity into a career. 

> For further information about 2012 

programs, phone 03 99253858 or 

email saliy.cleary@rmit.edu.au 

www.rmit.edu.au/art 


To work creatively with clay is to 

play with the elements; earth, fire, 

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intellectual and practical skills. 

CERAMICS 

Develop your ceramics practice at 

Australia's longest continuing art 

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The Ceramics Department is one of 

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BACHELOR OF FINE ART 

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BACHELOR OF FINE ART (HONOURS) 

1 year full-time 

MASTER OF FINE ART (CERAMICS) 

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PUBLIC PROGRAMS SHORT COURSES 

Summer School : 9-13 January 

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Merran Esson, 

Subject leader - Ceramics 

(02) 93398718 

merran.esson@nas.edu.au 

www.nas.edu.au 

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Woodrow offers a complete range 

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WORKSHOPS 

Kiln repairs, maintenance and 

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a licensed industrial electrician 

Sound technica l advice 

Friendly personal service 

Wonderful range of clays - 

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Pottery equipment and tools 

Short pottery courses 

Regular specialist workshops 

New exhibition space - 

Potters Needs Gallery 

Delivery to your door 

Potters Needs is operated by 

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Full details available at 

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Or phone (02) 6161 0806 

COLOURS Rockwood Pigments, Cesco , 

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ACCESSORIES Brushes, corks, 

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Beginners and 

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Come and train in some of 

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The f aci lities include: 

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> NSl's open studio practice provides access to the NSf studios 

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For more information about the ceramics training facilities 

and services available, email: nsi.ceramics@tafensw.edu.au 

For general course and program enquiries: 

Call 131 674 or go to www.nsi.tafensw.edu.au

quality pottery supplies and services 

Northcote Pottery Supplies Pty Ltd 

142 - 144 Weston Street 

Brunswick East 3057 

(PH) 0393873911 

www.northcotepottery.com.ou

18 September - I October 1012 

Australian Ceramics Triennale 

Adelaide, South Au:stnllla·

Curated by 

GerryWedd 

THE 2 December 2011 - 22 January 2012 



Artists: Julie Bartholomew Mallie Bosworth Deborah Burdett Barbara Campbell-Allen Kris 

Cood Steve Davies Terry Davies Trisha Dean Lynda Draper Helen Earl Fiona Fell Ashley Fiona 

Honor Freeman Shannon Garson Amanda Hale Christopher Headley Mary-Iou Hogarth Jan 

Howlin Marianne Huhn Liz Low Janet Mansfield Pru Morrison Mirto Ouro Robyn Phelan 

Amanda Shelsher Dee Toy/or-Graham 


Feeneys 

Clays 

WALKER 

~ 

Clays Glazes Colours 

Cesca 

Glazes & Colours 

Greg Daly, Dappled light, platter 

earthenware, sliver lustre glaze 

copper decoratIon, dlam.60cm 

Service and Supplies 

03 8761 6322 1800 692 529 

sales@walkerceramics.com.au

The Journal of Australian Ceramics Vol 50 No 3 November 2011

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