The Journal of Australian Ceramics Vol 54 No 1 April 2015

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3 EDITORIAL 

Contents 

4 CONTRIBUTORS 

5 AWARDS & GALLERY 

8 SHARDS 

FOCUS: THE FUNCTION OF ART, THE ART OF FUNCTION 

11 Guest editorial: Euan Craig 

12 The Function of Art, The Art of Function 

Euan Craig and the aesthetics of sharing 

18 The Vibrancy of the Slightly Incomplete 

Ben Richardson putting the vessel in context 

22 Simple Virtues 

Damon Moon shares his journey from the road to the table 

26 My Journey to the West Cape 

by Warrick Palmateer 

30 A Cup of Kindness 

Shannon Garson explores the art of living 

34 Touch 

Mel Robson and Suzi Lyon explore the function of art in the community 

38 Quiet Unorthodoxy 

The work of Mitsuo Shoji by Natal ie McDowell 

42 Constant Movement in Space and Time 

Kelly Austin explores the contribution pots make 

46 Conversation, Jazz and Pots 

Sandy Lockwood discusses art as process and object 

50 Shino - Form and Beauty 

Angela Walford shares her passion for the unpredictable 

52 A Place in Time 

Maggie Zerafa reflects on her place in the ceramics continuum 

54 The Integrity of Function 

John Dermer defines his stance as a craftsman 

The Journal of Australian Ceramics Vol 54 No 1 APRIL 2015 S16 

Cover 

Euan Craig, Machawan Tea Bowl 

Diam.13cm, h.Scm, Jomon rope decoration 

Igusa straw marks and natural ash, 

woodfired In the Hamada Noborigama kiln 

February 2015. upright WIth green lea (front 

cover), Inverted (back cover), (haire tea 

caddy, diam.7.Scm, h.l ' .2cm, with TalsMo 

Period (circa 1912-1926) ivory and gold lid. 

See pages 11 and 80 for more information. 

Publication dates 

1 April. 17 July, 20 November 

Publisher 

The Australian CeramICs Association 

PO Box 274 Waverley NSW 2024 

T: 1300 720 124 

F: +61 (0)293693742 

mail@australianceramiG.com 

www.C.ilistfaiianceramiCS.com 

ABN 14 001 535 502 

ISSN 1449-275X 

Editor 

VICki Grima 

WWIN.vickigrima.com.au 

Guest Edito r 

Euan Craig 

httpJleuancralg.blogspot.jp 

THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS APRIL 2015 1

Contents 

REGULARS 

60 VIEW 1: The Domestic Artist 

The art of Melanie Jayne by Mark Henderson 

63 VIEW 2: Capturing the Ephemeral 

A refledion on Stephen Bird's 2014 exhibition at Gould Galleries by Robyn Phelan 

65 SPACES AND PLACES: paper boat press 

an atelier in Brisbane 

66 EDUCATION: Pathways to Practice 

Lou McCallum examines the pathways that three Australian ceramic artists have taken 

69 WEDGE: The Whispering Gallery by Glenn Barkley 

70 POCKET PhD: Brett Smout Explores Low-fire Vitrification to Reduce Emissions 

72 STUDIO: Inside the Studio of Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran 

77 POTIERS MARKS 

78 AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS OPEN STUDIOS 

80 GATHERINGS: Baptism of f ire 

The rebirth of the Hamada kiln, witnessed by Euan Craig 

84 COMMUNITY: Touch This Earth Lightly: a participatory environmental art project 

Bridget Nicholson shares her experience of presenting work to a new audience 

86 ASSOCIATION: The Trudie Alfred Bequest Ceramic Scholarships 2015 

88 ASSOCIATION: The Trudie Alfred Bequest Follow Up 2014 

93 CERAMIC SHOTS 

97 AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS TRIENNAlE 2015 

101 AUSTRALIA WIDE: Reports from around the country 

The Journal of Australian Ceramics Vol 54 No 1 APRll2015 $16 

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Editorial 

From Minakami to Sydne-y: 

Euan Craig and Vicki Gnma on Skype, discussing the 

Intricacies of editing, proofing. captions and charaders 

I didn't expect this change so quickly. From plain 

white china being commonplace to Australian 

handmade tableware gracing tables in more 

than a few of our restaurants and cafes, the 

shift has been swift. The look is more rustic, with 

the earthy colours of grey and brown creating 

a perfect backdrop to stunning local food. The 

plate served to the table, graced with delicious 

food, is a work of art. The term 'farm to the 

table' is now joined by 'studio to the table'. 

I have enjoyed working over the last six months with guest editor Euan Craig, and we have proven 

that with email and Skype it is possible to edit the journal from anywhere in the world. Euan has 

brought to us some unique stories of what it means to make functional ceramics today and how our 

collaborations with chefs, restaurants and our local communities are at the crux of ensuring the value of 

our ceramics is enjoyed by as many people as possible. I'm sure you 'll enjoy Euan 's special focus in this 

issue. 

In daily discussions with The Australian Ceramics Association members, journal subscribers and those 

who find our magazine on library and book shop shelves, I have been encouraged to share my call for 

your support here. The Association has been able to offer this wonderful connection with, and record 

of. the Australian ceramics community over 53 years by your support through membership fees and 

subscriptions, and advertising revenue from the ceramics businesses (suppliers, galleries and regional 

groups) who generously support us to make this happen. Please support us and our advertisers in every 

way you can. Encourage fellow potters and ceramicists to join our Association. Buy your supplies from 

our advertisers. Buy a gift subscription to the Journal or a TACA membership. Do a ceramics workshop. 

Give a gift made by your local potter. What goes around comes around and will help us to make the 

ceramics community in Australia bigger and stronger. 

I hope to be able to meet you in person at the Australian Ceramics 

Triennale in Canberra in Ju ly. It's shaping up to be a great coming together 

around our common love of ceramics! 

~. 

THE JOURNAL Of AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS APRIL 201S )

Contributors 

Kelly Austin is a Canadian ceramic artist 

currently living in Canberra, ACT. She received 

her undergraduate degree in General Fine Arts 

from the Emily Carr University in Vancouver, 

Canada and is currently half way through a 

practice-led Master of Philosophy within the 

ceramics workshop at the Australia National 

University. 

www.kellyaustindesign.com 

Glenn Barkley is an independent curator, writer, 

artist and gardener based in Sydney. He was Senior 

Curator at the MCA Australia 2008-2014. 

In 2015 he co-founded The Curators Department. 

A practising artist. he exhibits at Utopia Art Sydney. 

Recent exhibitions include Clay 2 and Glazed and 

Confused at Hazelhurst Gallery 

www.thecuratorsdepartment.com 

www.utopiaartsydney.com.au 

Photo: My Media Sydney 

Lou McCallum is a ceramic artist based in 

Marrickville, Sydney. lou is making a transition 

into ceramic arts from a career in international 

public health and has just completed a Masters in 

Visual Art at the Australian National University. 

Coming from a ceramist family, Natalie 

McDowell's interest in pottery began at an 

early age. She has lived in Japan several times 

and worked as a journalist for a Japanese 

newspaper through which she has encountered 

many in the Japanese and Australian ceramics 

communities. The Nihon Mingeikan (Japan Folk 

Crafts Museum) in Tokyo is her spiritual home. 

4 THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS APRIL 2015

Shards 

THANK YOU 

For decades, TAFE ceramics studios 

have been centres of excellence 

when it comes to providing in depth 

skills development and knowledge 

around working with clay. 

Many of Australia's finest ceramic 

artists have taught and/or have 

studied through TAFE, benefitting 

from the wonderful facilities that 

have dotted the urban and regional 

landscapes. 

Over the past few years, ceramics 

departments around the country 

have faced huge challenges to 

remain operational and in some 

cases have closed due to changes 

in government policies around 

vocational education and cuts in 

funding at a Federal and State level. 

The Australian Ceramics Association 

wishes to acknowledge the 

dedicated work of all Head Teachers 

and their staff in the TAFE sector all 

over Australia who have strived to 

keep studios open and accessible, 

so new generations of potters and 

ceramic artists can continue to 

thrive. 

Trisha Dean, Head of Ceramics at 

Hornsby TAFE, with student John 

Uzzell; photo: Robert Stow 

Spring. 

1883 

SPRING 1883 will return in 2015 - 

I and this time it's in Sydney. 

I Through its intervention into a 

I hotel's context, SPRING 1883 

I sees the traditional art fair model 

discarded and replaced with a 

boutique site for dialogue and 

I interaction between galleries, 

artists and collectors. 

I From 9 to 12 September 2015, 

SPRING 1883 will take over the 

entire Establishment Hotel, in the 

I heart of Sydney's CBD. This luxury, 

boutique hotel contains numerous 

bars and restaurants, making a 

I visit to the fair an experience to 

I remember. 

I 

Twenty-five galleries presenting 

the very best contemporary art 

from the region will fill four levels 

of the hotel; 

http://spring1883.com 

http://digitalfire.com/ are on a 

mission to help manufacturers and 

I educators who not only want to 

make beautiful functional objects 

but have a sense of accountability 

for their durability, strength, and 

safety, and a desire to take control 

and not abdicate it to suppliers, 

consultants or educators. 

I It's a thorough website. 

I C heck it out. 

I 

I 

I 

I 

I 

Sherbet-like acidity ... fine 

bubbles .. . sweet cherry flavours! 

A special offer for readers of 

The Journal of Australian Ceramics 

can be found on the insert included 

with this Journal. For every dozen 

purchased (cost $199), $50 goes to 

supporting The Australian Ceramics 

Association. 

1------ 

'i , T 

I ",ntIR'-'I'1 

Big Hearted Business is a love- 

I project built to teach creative people 

about business, and business people 

about creativity, in ways that make 

I sense. But really, it's a trojan-horse 

here to help big-hearted people do 

what they love, make money, and 

I save the world (even just a little bit); 

http://bigheartedbusiness.com.au 

---lID 

Join us for our third national open studios event! 

Australian Ceramics Open Studios 2015 

Saturday 15 & Sunday 16 August 

For the Expression of Interest form and more 

information go to: http://tinyurl.com/acos2015 

Turn to pages 78 & 79 to be inspired! 

AUSTRALIAN 

CERA 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. ...................... . 

open studios 

15 & 16 AUGUST 2015 

8 TH E JOURNAL OF AUSTRALI AN CERAMI CS APRI L 2015

Shards 

Entries now open 

VICTORIAN CRAFT AWARD 

This year Craft Victoria turns 45 

years old, and to celebrate this 

milestone they are pleased to launch 

the inaugural Victorian Craft Award. 

The Award is a biennial event 

facilitated by Craft Victoria in the 

pursuit of presenting and celebrating 

excellence in the crafts. 

Entries close midnight 6 April 2015. 

www.craft.org.au/see/victoriancraft-awardl 

I 

StartUp is a series about what happens when someone who knows 

nothing about business starts one. Produced by Gimlet Media, 

StartUp is a made up of 14 high-quality, narrative pedcasts. 

I For more information go to: II!::JA 

http://gimletmedia.tom/show/startup/ W 

rACA Members' Exhibition 2016 

CALL FOR PROPOSALS 

I , 

benwell/halpern. 

Ceramics by Stephen Benwell 

and Deborah Halpern. 

31 January - December 2015 

Shepparton Art Museum 

Shepparton. 

Stephen Benwell, Vase, 1994 

I 

I 

I 

I 

I 

The arts matter to Australia, 

and the data shows it! 

A landmark new report 

titled Arts Nation: 

An Overview of 

Australian Arts, was 

released on 4 March 2015 by 

the Australia Council. 

The report provides a fresh 

approach to understanding 

Australian arts through a new 

set of indicators that enrich 

the existing evidence base 

for the arts. It builds on key 

data collections and research 

undertaken by over 100 arts 

and research organisations 

across Australia. You can access 

the Arts Nation report here: 

http://tinyurl.com/artsnation 

Go to page 126 for the run-clown. 

In Australia we discard 1 billion 

takeaway cups and lids each 

I year. The Responsible Cafes 

I Program connects responsible 

cafes with conscious consumers 

by encouraging cafes to offer a 

discount to customers with 

reusable takeaway cups. 

Read more here: 

http://responsiblerunners.org/ 

I responsible-cales-program 

RESPONSIBLE 

CAFES 

... 

The Ken Don Museum was formed from the 

private collection of Kenneth lawrence and Don 

Evans who began collecting studio ceramics in the 

1980s. The collection focus is on Australian studio 

potters from the post World War II period. Among 

the artists represented are Arthur Boyd, Merrick 

Boyd, Jeff Mincham, Peter Rushforth, Milton Moon, 

Les Blakebrough, John Dermer, Gwyn Hanssen 

Pigott, Victor Greenaway, Harold Hughan, Alan 

Peascod, Pippin Drysdale, Col Levy, Owen Rye 

and Janet Mansfield. The primary focus of their 

collection was to show the growth of individual 

potters, both well and lesser known, over many 

years. 

Check it out here: http://kendonmuseum.com 


Focus: The Function of Art, The Art of Function 

-------- .---- 

It has been 25 years since I lived in Australia. I wondered what had changed in the pottery community 

during those years. Being guest editor of this journal gave me the chance to take a core sample of 

potters from around the nation and give them a common theme to discuss. 

I asked them to tell their story. 

Each of the authors between these pages has striven to give words to their thoughts and feelings, 

to describe their process and aesthetic, to share their life with us. My role as guest editor has been to 

help them communicate those ideas to the reader while staying w ithin the editorial guidelines. I have 

occasionally stumbled. Without the help and support of all the authors, as well as Vicki, Suzanne and 

Astrid at the journal, you would not be reading this. Thank you all. 

I have learnt that Australia is still a vibrant and varied nation of potters, and that there is finally a 

growing appreciation in the food scene of the vital role that handcrafted pottery can play. I hope this 

will lead to a revitalisation of the ceramics education and training system in the future. 

There is, however, a limit to what words can convey. They are arbitrary constructs which we try to use 

to describe things which are real, things which are so much greater than the words themselves, and will 

never truly do justice to these potters and their works. 

I commend you, therefore, to seek out their works. Touch them. Hold them. Experience the reality of 

them. They will communicate to you, more clearly than any words or images can, the truth that their 

creators are striving to share with you. This, of course, is something that neither time nor distance will 

ever change. 

Euan Craig. 2015 

Cover Image: The Japanese Machawan 

tea bowl is considered the pinnacle of 

functional ceramic art. It finds completion 

in use and even the beauty of the foot 

is of vital importance. The machawan 

used on the cover was fired in the 

first chamber of the Shoji Hamada 

Noborigama in February 2015 during the 

editing of this magazine. We have tried to 

show it in context and as close to actual 

size as possible. 

See page 80 for more on the firing of 

the Shoji Hamada Noborigama. 

Opposite page: 

Euan Craig. ceramic bowl, Nanasun 

Moriawase (7" mixed serve), Kaiseki Cuisine 

by Chef Touru Hashimoto of Kappo Toyoda 

Nihombashi, Tokyo, Japan 

Photo: courtesy artist 

THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS APRIL 201S 11

Focus: The Function of Art. The Art of Function 

The Function of Art, 

The Art of Function 

Euan Craig and the aesthetics of sharing 

Sometimes we feel very much alone. When I was young and the expectations and pressures of the 

world around me became more than I could bear, I would walk into the night and the mountains of 

trailings left in the Great Gold Mountain of Bendigo. Sitting alone on the heaps of mining refuse in 

the darkness, I felt embraced by it. The cool breeze would runs its fingers through my hair and the 

pale moon rising over the far horizon would illuminate the world with its soft amber light. There is 

no judgement in nature, only acceptance. My loneliness would drain away and, more than any other 

waking moment, I felt like I belonged. 

Since then I have striven to understand my place in this world, constantly seeking reasons for the life 

we live, not just excuses. So many preconceptions are forced upon us, and it is difficult to differentiate 

between those things which are real and those which are prejudices taught to us which we then accept 

as real. I have come to realise that there are many things which we are taught to accept as absolute 

truths which are, in fact, nothing more than arbitrary customs. It is these customs which separate us one 

from another, when in fact we share more in common than we realise. 

By its very nature the universe is beautiful, its matter consta ntly rearranging itself into forms that find 

balance and harmony within the forces at work upon them through the course of time. It is a beauty 

born of constant striving for an ideal form, infinitely variable solutions to the changing conditions of 

the environment. For this brief time, the matter of the universe has found form in us, and within us 

a consciousness that is capable of abstract thought and, through experience and observation, can be 

aware of the beauty of nature. We are the universe made self conscious. 

It is not surprising, therefore, to find that we humans share a common understanding of beauty. 

All people, regardless of race, creed or custom, can gaze at a sunset, for example, and be moved 

by it. There is a basic awareness of our selves in nature which forms our foundation as humans and 

transcends language and culture. It is an intuitive response to the environment of which we form an 

integral part. It is our nature. 

We are, however, each blessed with a unique perspective of the universe. Our personal journey, every 

moment of every day of our lives, our perception of the world of sight, sound, taste, touch and smell, 

provides us with an understanding of life and beauty which is ours alone. No other consciousness has 

ever seen th is moment as we have, nor felt these sensations, nor thought these same thoughts. 


Euan Craig, Breakfast: dropscones with 

homemade yoghurt and blueberry jam 

2014; photo: artist 

12 THE 10URNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS APRIL 2015

The Function of Art, The Art of Function 

--- 

Giving a new form to that understanding, communicating our unique view of the world, enriches not 

only our own lives but the lives of others. It helps us to find meaning in our existence and to add to the 

cultural heritage of humanity, helping others in their journey for generations after our own journey has 

finished . 

In common clay I have found an amorphous medium of expression which helps me give form to those 

thoughts. Clay, like all matter, tries to align itself with the forces that surround it: gravity, friction, torque, 

so many different influences. To that we add the force of consciousness, and wait for the clay to find 

form in the space between our fingers. There is an immediacy of expression which springs spontaneously 

from the vessel and can be understood by the user without the clumsily constructed intermediacy of 

language. When fired, these expressions of our thoughts are given permanent form - a form that 

touches the lives of our contemporaries but will also last at least ten thousand years. Just as the works of 

potters from ages past speak to us of life and the human condition, so too will our works touch the lives 

14 THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS APRil 2015

- ~-. ------------,-,=,.......,...,. 

of future generations. It is not an endeavour to 

be undertaken lightly. 

As our experience of the world encompasses 

every waking moment, and quite often our 

dreams as well, surely the ideal culmination of 

our act of creation would be for those works 

to become an integral part of the everyday lives 

of others. The beauty of nature rediscovered 

through the guidance of our thoughts and the 

skill of our hands, touched by the hands of 

others in their most intimate moments. Seen 

in a multitude of different lights and contexts 

Ceramics by Euan Craig 

1 Hors-d'oeuvre by Chef 

Masahiro Morishige of La 

Butte Boisee, French restaurant 

Setagaya, Tokyo 

2 Grilled yellowtail with ginger 

by Chef Touru Hashimoto of 

Kappa Toyeda, Nihombashi 

Tokyo 

3 Simmered chicken and 

vegetables, by Chef Touru 

Hashimoto of Kappa Toyoda 

Nihombashi, Tokyo 

4 Dessert by Chef Masahiro 

Morishige of La Butte Boisee 

French restaurant, Setagaya 

Tokyo 

5 Translucent sashimi, detail 

6 full course Kaiseki by Chef 

Touru Hashimoto of Kappo 

Toyoda, Nihombashi, Tokyo 

Photos: Euan Craig 

THE JOURNAL Of AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS APRIL 2015 15

The Function of Art. The Art of Function 

throughout the day - lifted gently to their lips, giving them warmth and sustenance, enriching their 

lives. 

I have been blessed with the opportunity to use pots from antiquity, to touch them, feel them, and, 

on occasion, enjoy nourishment from them. Each vessel I have used has shared a different perspective 

on life, be it a thousand years old or fresh from the kiln. They all offer a new perspective on this 

wondrous life, a parallax which helps me to understand myself in this world. To this I add my own 

understanding, through the medium of clay, becoming part of a great conversation - a conversation 

that has been going on for hundreds of generations of human experience, which may continue for 

hundreds of generations to come, and of which we form the fulcrum. 

By the work of our hands in the clay, co-operating with the forces of nature, surrendering to them 

when necessary, we create vessels which reach the souls of others through the touch of their hands, just 

as we would share our feelings with the ones we love. Above all, it is them for whom we make these 

works, yet the making of these vessels, this process of creation, is also for the sake of our own growth. 

I make my pots for the people I love, the making of them is for me. 

When we create, it is not for strangers. It is for our beloved, our children, our friends. We strive to 

share with them this sublime beauty that makes our own lives so rich and fulfilling. We offer humbly to 

them a vessel which will feed their body and their soul. We also know that there are others, friends and 

1 Behind the scenes, preparing for a formal tea ceremony at 

Megurian tea house with tea bowls by Tatsuzo Shimaoka, 

National living Treasure. and Euan Craig, 2014 

Photo: Yoshiaki Namba 

2 Ceramics and food by Euan Craig. Lunch: nourishment 

for body and soul, 2014; photo: artist 

3 Euan having breakfast during his 21st anniversary exhibition 

at Ebiya Gallery, Tokyo, 2014; photo: courtesy artist 



loved ones we have yet to meet, who we may never meet, but whose hands and hearts will be touched 

by our work. We share our love of life with all of them through our vessels, whether it is today or a 

hundred years from today, whether they know us or not. 

In an ever increasingly artificial world, handcrafted functional pottery provides a dose of real, natural 

beauty that can help restore the soul. It is a relationship between vessel, food and lifestyle and there is a 

role that functional ceramics plays as the most intimate of installation art, embellishing the lives of both 

the maker and the user. It communicates ideas in a form that will be relevant to all people in all cultures. 

This wholesome beauty offers nourishment for the spirit and a way forward for humanity and a healthy 

society. 

Many years have past since I was alone in the dark, whispering to the wind, longing for someone to 

share my journey. I have come to understand that we walk this road together, hand in hand. We share 

this path with a myriad of peers over thousands of years. Our work is an exploration of ourselves in this 

universe, a conduit of our emotions into the lives of others. I stand on a foundation built in ages past 

and add to that my own understanding, living in the hope that there will be others who will carry this 

passion into the future. 

It is not a soliloquy, it is a conversation. It serves to help us understand ourselves in this universe and, 

more importantly, to live rich and fruitful lives, every single day. 

That is the function of art. That is the art of function. 

http://euancraig.blogspot.com.au 

THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS APRil 2015 17


The Vibrancy of the Slightly 

Incomplete 

Ben Richard son putting t he vessel in context 

While in Melbourne about eight years ago I passed a bookshop on Gertrude Street that went by the 

name Books for Cooks. On entering and perusing a number of the cookbooks I was disappointed, 

though un surprised, to see very little non-industrial tableware on their glossy and seductive pages. Many 

of them celebrated slow food and seasonal produce but presented the results of their foraging on the 

fastest plate-ware you could possibly find. Leaving the bookshop, I questioned how we could have a 

whole shop that celebrated the preparation and presentation of food in diverse ways and languages but 

leave the makers of handmade contemporary tableware missing from the action. 

Just few years later and the situation is very different. Handmade tableware is making a real impact, 

not only in cookbooks, but also in food and lifestyle magazines. There seems to be a desire for more 

local, authentic and artisanal expressions of place and purpose in the rituals and special occasions of daily 

life. The work I make hasn't changed significantly but the climate I am making in has - it's gratifying that 

th is is the best time in 20 years for making and selling pots that find their full expression in creative use. 

But what has changed? 

For me the catalyst for change has been the chance for work to be seen in context. I abandoned 

exhibiting work regu larly in galleries years ago, choosing to concentrate on direct sales from the 

workshop showroom, but, being a little isolated, this had some difficulties. However, almost five years 

ago, the partners in Garagistes restaurant in Hobart approached me to make tableware for their new 

restaurant. Initially I was to make just the smaller dishes and the larger plates were to be industrial 

porcelain . I expressed the view that the approach of mixing handmade local and industrial global was a 

difficult one to make work, so the question came back, "Okay then, can you make them all?" 

It was a chance too good to pass up, but there were problems - the main one being that I didn't 

have glazes with the colour and surface that chef Luke Burgess wanted. He had just completed a stage 

at Noma in Copenhagen where all the tableware was handmade and before that had apprenticed with 

Tetsuya Wakuda in Sydney, so his understanding of, and commitment to, using handmade tableware 

was strong. I had significant teaching responsibilities at the time with only electric kiln firings available 

to test and develop new glazes in a very short time frame. For a potter passionate about woodfiring 

this was a bit like dining with the devil - but there is nothing like necessity for chal lenging prejudices. 

I converted a vitreous slip recipe that I had used in teaching to work as a glaze on bisque work and 

revived a matt glaze I had used as a student and suddenly I had the palette. In close consultation with 

the chef I produced test pieces in several shapes using the new glazes. After a few refinements there 

OPPOsite page: Ben Richardson. 20 12. tableware for Garagistes restaurant in Hobart, Tasmania 

Photo: Jonathan Wherrett 

18 THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS APRIL 201S

The Fu nction of Art, The Art of Function 

were just three months to produce all the tableware for a 45-seat restaurant specialising in using local 

produce, foraged ingredients and natural wines on shared tables with a no-booking policy - at the time 

a revolution for Hobart. 

The restaurant opened just before another revolution struck Tasmania - the opening of MONA, the 

Museum of Old and New Art, the irreverent and subversive brainchild of David Walsh. This brought the 

interest and focus of the world to Tasmania and this restaurant with a strong design focus that included 

handmade contemporary tableware made an immediate impact. That impact started when you came 

through the door and saw the communal hardwood tables set with charcoal glazed place plates. Then 

came the shared plates - a series of walled servers, versatile shallow bowls used for hot and cold dishes, 

finishing with deeper bowls for dessert. The food, that was innovative with clean fresh flavours, looked 

great on charcoal and grey with the occasional bone-white intruder. 

During the last five years the restaurant has functioned almost as a de facto private gallery, allowing 

my work to be seen and enjoyed in context. It has confirmed my feeling that 'working pots' seen and 

enjoyed in creative use almost sell themselves. The opportunity to experience the pots in a setting where 

they are an integral part of the overall dining experience has created strong demand for that work, with 

orders from all over the country and enquiries from as far away as London, Dubai and Taipei. It has been 

a way to make contact with people who I always felt were out there and would be interested in what 

I was making, but I really didn't have a way to find and connect with them. It has led to commissions 

not only for the restaurant tableware but also for a variety of woodfired work - in contrast each has a 

chance to show its individual face. 

Recently we made a series of Garagistes walled servers for a major Tourism Australia function at 

MONA - guest chef Ben Shewry from Attica restaurant in Melbourne had insisted on using handmade 

tableware for his signature dish and with a few days to spare we managed to deliver 280 bowls for 

a dinner with international exposure. It's been a wild ride and demand for the tableware far exceeds 

our ability to supply and I am constantly trying to persuade potential clients to develop a relationship 

with potters close to them - to build contacts with local makers in the same way they do with specialty 

produce suppliers. However the reply often comes back that they have tried that and either can't find 

anyone interested or able to make the work, or often they aren't able to get the glaze colour and finish 

that they want. Interestingly, the chefs we work with accept variation in colour and minor imperfections 

as expressions of the process - how things have changed from the blank canvas of clinical industrial 

porcelain. 

Our tableware for Garagistes restaurant was recently described as having" ... a vibrancy of the slightly 

incomplete." 1 I found this an apt and perceptive comment, as this is work that finds its complete 

expression in the fullness of use. 

http://ridgelinepottery.com.au 

1 Breytenbach Yvette, 'Understatement', Ceramic Review, Issue 262 July/August 201 3 


The Function of Art. The Art of Fun ction 

1 Ben Richardson, 2012, tableware, Garagistes restaurant in Hobart 


2 Ben Richardson in his studio, 2014; photo: Jonathan Wherren 

3 Savour Tasmania, 201" Marco Canora@ Garagistes: photo: Chris Crerar 

4 Ben Richardson, 2012. tableware, Garagistes restaurant, Hobart 




------------------------ 

Simple Virtues 

Damon Moon shares his journey from the road to the table 

In the early 2000s I was coming to the end of a curatorial project which involved chaperoning AWAS! 

Contemporary Art from Indonesia, an international touring exhibition, around Australia. I had spent 

the last few years going to and from Indonesia, initially on an Asialink residency, researching, raising 

funds, and generally just doing whatever it took to get the exh ibition seen by an audience in Australia, 

and subsequently in Japan, Germany and the Netherlands. AWAS! was a great show and well worth 

the effort but by the time it arrived at its final Australian destination at the Cairns Regional Gallery, I'd 

had enough. On the first day in Cairns I injured my back trying to move a crate in the loading bay and 

for the next week I supervised the installation, attended the opening and conducted the floor talks in 

considerable discomfort. Arriving back home in Adelaide I knew that I needed to relax, stop travelling as 

much and get back to basics, which for me has always been ceramics. It was a period of self-reflection, 

as the years I'd spent working with contemporary art had shown me that it was not a world I wanted to 

be immersed in as a permanent career. 

I didn't feel ready to jump straight back into full-time making, so I decided to do a PhD in art history, 

looking at aspects of the development of Australian ceramics in the post war period. This was a way 

of trying to make sense of my family history, to examine and order the experiences, people and images 

that had made up my childhood and see how they could be situated within the wider history of the 

crafts. 

I thought it would be easy: lots of reading, a bit of writing, three years of a university stipend - 

my God, I'd be so relaxed I could barely keep my eyes open . A couple of hundred thousand words of 

writing ending up as an eighty thousand word thesis with a thousand footnotes! 

Despite the fact that I wanted to do the PhD purely by thesis, I began, in a very low-key manner, to 

make some pots. There were a few reasons, one being that my forays into the world of contemporary 

art had left me missing the simple act of making. Secondly, I began to explore the use of local materials 

in making functional work, as this philosophy was a part of the l eachiCardew and subsequently 

McMeekin et al approach, which was something that informed my PhD research . It proved to be quite 

fascinating. It was a revelation to find that one could go for a drive in the hills with a pick, shovel and 

some empty buckets and sacks and collect useful materials with which you could make pots. Friendships 

were made with people who owned quarries, maps were marked with the locations of mineral deposits, 

and wood ashes were sourced from different plants. It was like having a lovely hobby and the results - 

after several false starts - began to be worth the considerable effort this way of working entails. 

Around this time I was contacted by the chef and author Gay Bilson. She had just moved to South 

Australia after a high profile career in New South Wales, where she had variously run the restaurant 

at the Sydney Opera House and the famous Berowra Waters on the Hawkesbury River, a restaurant so 

exclusive that one had to access it either by boat or make a rather spectacular entrance by seaplane - 

as one does! 

Opposite page: Damon Moon. Magill Estate ware bowls. 20 14. hand-galhered and processed porcelain with 

clay body shown to right of bowls; photo: Andre Castellucci 



---------- ---- 

Gay was in Adelaide to work with the avant-garde American theatre director Peter Sellars, who had 

been appointed director of the 2002 Adelaide Festival of the Arts. Sellars had promised a festival that 

would truly live up to the rhetoric of being cutting edge, innovative and challenging. Much to the 

concern of all involved it rapidly became apparent that he wasn't just saying this would be a festival 

like no other, but that he actually MEANT it. Sellars resigned a few months before the festival opened 

leaving a large hole in the budget and a sort of anarchic cultural echo which has rendered every 

subsequent festival more predictable than the last, not that anybody notices in the midst of pop-up 

hipster venues and thousands of dreadful Fringe comedians. 

Food played an important part in Sellars' proposed program, with a mix of events from gastronomic 

symposiums (rather like writer's week but with balsamic drizzle) to conceptual projects exploring the 

intersections of food and society. Gay - another person who definitely doesn't conform to expectations 

- came up with a project whereby she would supervise some meals for patients at local hospitals. She 

was looking for a potter to make work for several of these events and she ended up with me. 

Two sets of work were finally made: some plates for a symposium dinner and a couple of hundred 

small bowls for the hospital project. In the process of making these I found a renewed passion for the 

functional, the simple, and the real. Not art, not Ceramics with a capital C. just bowls and plates for 

food . Simple enough, or maybe not? 

Thirteen years later I'm working as Creative Director of the Ceramics Studio at the JamFactory in 

Adelaide, where 2014 ended with us having made at least three thousand items for local restaurants 

and the domestic table. These were based on our Thrown product range (featured in The Journal of 

Australian Ceramics Vol. 53 NO. 3 November 2014, pages 78,79) designed in house and made by 

local craftspeople in the JamFactory studios from local clays made by a local company and not, I repeat, 

not Made in China . 




1 Oamon Moon, Magill Estate ware, 2014, local 

clay with clay, rock and ash glazes, stoneware 

2 Damon Moon 

Lett: Magill Estate ware, 2014; Damon Moon, 

small pressed dish, woodgrain pattern and ash/clay 

glaze; white bowl: Damon Moon (designer) and 

Charmain Hearder (wheel thrower), large shallow 

bowl with spiral motif, 2014 

Photos: Andre Castellucci 

There has been one commission, however, that I have enjoyed working on myself out of the Jam 

studios, for Scott Huggins and Emma McCaskill, the executive chefs at the Penfold's Magill Estate 

Restaurant. They have spent time working in Japan where they were exposed to the myriad aspects 

of Japanese ceramics, a far cry from the ubiquitous white-ware which plates up so much Australian 

food, and there is an element of fashion, where adventurous restaurants and cafes are more and more 

wanting to have individual, bespoke ceramics to match their food. There is also the fact that Scott and 

Emma, like many other chefs, are interested in the local, the seasonal and the variable. They want their 

ceramics to reflect this, and by working with a potter they have the chance to explore textures, shapes 

and colours designed to really complement the food. 

Over the year, fitting in with my other responsibilities and having more than a few failures along the 

way, I have been slowly making and supplying Magill Estate with nine sets each of thirty items for their 

degustation menu. They are quite unlike any normal white wares, and some of them might even push 

the boundaries of what is expected of hand-made ceramics for the kitchen or table. From using the ash 

from the kitchen braziers where they burn the prunings from Penfold's vineyards, to utilising hand dug 

kaolins which, when unsieved, still contain feldspar and quartz inclusions, to plastic black, sodic clays 

gathered from the vineyards and olive groves that surround the little town where I live, I have tried to 

make work for them that is absolutely suited to their needs whilst truly reflecting the landscape, because 

it is from the landscape. I think we have similar aspirations, Scott, Emma and I, albeit in different fields. 

I hope that the relationship will be ongoing, because nothing delights me so much as when they 

unexpectedly send through an image of food they have arranged on one of my - their - our - plates or 

dishes or bowls, so making it complete. 

Damon Moon. Willunga 2014 

www.damonmoon.com 

THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS APRil 201S 

2S

My Journey to the West Cape 

by Warrick Palmateer 

There is nowhere else I'd rather be, nothing else I would prefer 10 be doing. 1 am al the beach looking wesl wilh the 

conlinent behind me as the sun tracks down to the sea. I have my bearings. 

lim Winton, Land's Edge: A Coastal Memoir 

Tim Winton's words describe my intimate relationship with the beach perfectly. They capture the essence 

of a love affair that started when I was a youngster growing up on the west coast of Australia. There 

"was nowhere else I'd rather be" than at the beach and I spent all my spare time surfing, swimming 

and beachcombing. When I was 15 years of age my art teacher introduced me to clay and a polter's 

wheel, and the beach suddenly had a rival for my attention. I became so successful at dividing my time 

between the two pursuits that I'm never sure if I am a potter who surfs or a surfer who throws pots. 

I left high school soon after discovering my love of clay and enrolled at Perth Technical College, 

graduating with a Diploma of Studio Ceramics three years later. I was somewhere between 18 and 19 

when Lady Luck smiled on me and Joan Campbell employed me as a thrower. Her studio was on the 

shore of Bathers Beach in Fremantle and many of the pieces we created together were inspired by the 

ocean and the coastal landscape. Joan was an amazing woman who pushed boundaries to the extreme 

in her quest to create the 'special' piece. She was a great mentor and a wonderful friend and her 

influence resonates through the West Cape Passage series I created for the HERE&NOWJ4 exhibition 

held at the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery last year. 

Throwing pots for other people became a way of life for me and for the last 22 years I have 

enjoyed a successful collaboration with internationally renowned ceramicist Pippin Drysdale. I throw 

fine porcelain, open vessels that taper to balance perfectly on small bases for Pippin and she uses the 

colours and textures of the Australian landscape to create beautiful works of art. In fact, it was Pippin's 

encouragement and belief in my ability that gave me the confidence to accept the gallery's invitation to 

exhibit my work. 

26 THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS APRil 20t5

The Function of Art. The Art of Fu nction 

OpposIte page: West Cape, Western Australia, 2014 

Photo: Aaron Cross 

Right: Warrick Palmateer collecting images and 

inspiration, West Cape. 2014; photo: Helen Connor 

Below right: Warrick Palmateer making work, 2014 

Central Institute of Technology, Perth 

Photos: Lynn Vroombout 

Once the invitation had been accepted there 

was no turning back and I came face to face with 

the 'bla nk page' syndrome usually attributed to 

writers, but relevant to anyone search ing for the 

starting point of a creative journey. Suddenly I was 

hurtling head first out of my comfort zone as a 

thrower into the uncharted territory of creating 

'ceramic art'. I needed to get my bearings, and to 

get my bearings I needed to go to the beach , 

Instinctively I travelled to the most southern 

point of Western Australia where the Southern 

and Indian oceans meet and the raw, dramatically 

sculptured coastline bears witness to the ferocity 

of the merger. The contrasting colours and 

textures of granite and sedimentary cliffs bordering 

pristine beaches, barnacled buoys at rest on the 

sand, and the old timber water wheel that time 

and the elements have turned to stone never 

cease to amaze me. I had returned to a special 

place in my memory and imagination and found 

my inspiration for the body of work that I named 

West Cape Passage. 

Knowing what I wanted to create and working 

out how to go about it could be described as 

'the stuff migraines are made of'. It took months 

of testing clays and glazes before I thought 

about sitting down at the wheel. I finally settled 

on a mixture of clay from the Perth hills and a 

commercial paperclay and wedged the brew by 

hand, The iron oxide in the clay from the Perth 

hills rewarded me with warm, rich ochre colours 

under a heavy gas-fired reduction atmosphere 


The Function of Art, The Art of Function --- --------


Warrick Palmateer, West Cape 

Passage, installation view, 2014 

h.170cm, w .800cm. d.1SOcm 

Background: Pippin Drysdale, Solstice 

2014; photo: Robert Frilh, Acorn Photo 

Here&NowI4, July- September 2014 

lawrence W ilson Art Gallery, WA 

as well as providing the refractory properties necessary to withstand the kiln firing. The commercial 

paperclay enabled the textural surfaces to bond to the clay body. I created each piece by hand using a 

coil and throw technique and then applied a heavy, thick slip with sweeping hand gestures to create 

texture and a fluid movement on the surface of the form. After a biscuit firing the vessels were glazed 

with a mixture of barium, lithium, copper and iron to create a vivid turquoise colour that contrasted 

with the granite colour produced by the silicon carbide and the ochre tones provided courtesy of the 

local clay. The silicon carbide also created bubbling and unusual textures in the glaze surface giving the 

finished form the appearance of having been weathered by the elements. The vessels were all gas fired 

in a heavy reduction atmosphere to around 1250° C. 

My creative journey was a roller coaster ride of highs and lows. It was heartbreaking when vessels 

collapsed in the kiln or glazes failed to create the effect I wanted, but that was soon forgotten in the 

exhilaration I experienced when a vessel emerged from the kiln intact and resplendent in the colours and 

textures of the West Cape region . The sheer size of each vessel tested my physical strength and without 

the use of the equipment at the Central Institute of Technology in Perth, where I was the Artist in 

Residence, it would have been almost impossible for me to manoeuvre the vessels in and out of the kiln. 

I was also physically and emotionally taxed by a quest for perfection that drove me to create 'just one 

more vessel' in the belief that it would turn out to be superior to its counterparts. My last, and possibly 

best, piece came out of the kiln the day before the exhibition opened, and the vessel was st ill warm to 

the touch when I transported it to the gallery. 

I chose five pieces for the West Cape Passage series and they were set out on a long, gracefully 

curved plinth that swept through the centre of a large room in the gallery. I had achieved my goal of 

creating forms and textures inspired by the West Cape coastline and the opening of the HERE&NOWI4 

exhibition completed an incredible creative journey best summed up by Bernard Leach. 

It seems reasonable to expect thai beauty will emerge from a fusion of the individual characler and cullure of Jhe 

pOller with (he nalltre a/his materials. Bernard Leach, A Poller's Book 


1,4& 5: Warrick Palmateer, West Cape Passage, detail, 2014; Here&NowI4, July-September 2014 

Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, WA; photos; courtesy The West Australian 

2 Warrick Palmateer throwing, 2014, Central Institute of Technology, Perth 

3 Heavy reduction firing, 1250·C, 2014, Central Institute of Technology, Perth 

Photos 2 & 3: lynn Vroombout 


The Fun ction of Art, The Art of Function 

A Cup of Kindness 

Shannon Garson explores the art of living 

What is the function of art in an ordinary, washing the dishes, going to work, eating lunch, gardening, 

reading books, talking, making dinner, looking at the stars, putting the dishes away, sweeping the 

floor, turning the lights out and going to bed kind of life? How does the milk jug I use to make the 

tea matter? Although the glaze and form of my milk jug are ones that the potter has made hundreds 

of times, I feel them anew as I take the jug out of the dishwasher and pour the milk in. It interrupts 

my life and takes me, for a moment, into the maker's life. I wonder why the glaze is so crystalline and 

white and think that maybe it snows up where she lives and in winter it must be nice to sit by the kiln, 

listening to the crackle of the wood fire, wearing a fuzzy hand knitted jumper. All these thoughts take 

only a second to flit through my sleep addled brain as I move around the kitchen in a familiar rhythm, 

boiling the water, and making the tea. A soothing familiar task with its alternating smells and textures, 

tea leaves crunching as the spoon dives into them, the teapot's riSing chime as it fills with hot water, the 

ring-a-d ing of the spoon against the rim of the teacup, a recogn izable rhythm similar to that of making 

pots. 

I started making pots in the 1990s as a refuge from the swamping waves of post-modernism 

battering away my identity in abstract sweeps at Art College. It was such a relief to draw on something 

that would be useful no matter what the content, something that I knew had a practical function and 

would have the possibility of being part of everyday life. As I continued my career at college I became 

more and more sure that I wanted to make art that could fit in a dwelling, domestic-sized art that could 

be handled. I was given an amazing opportunity through artist and potter Clairy Laurence who started a 

gallery called Amfora. She made and fired the pots and let three of four of us from the college come in 

every week and decorate those beautifully thrown forms with whatever we liked. The patterns (inspired 

by medieval majolica, Uberty fabric, angels, insects and flowers) that I drew on pots were a stark 

contrast to the abstract renderings I was torturing out of the pencil and paintbrush at college. 

I learnt a lot during this period about the sorts of things that have become inspiration and sustenance 

in my life as an artist. I learnt how to look at patterns and paintings, old china and fabric, and process 

them through my head and hands to become deSigns on pots. Through watching Clairy live and work 

as an artist, I learnt what a life making practical, beautiful, mundane things looked like. It was an 

unconventional apprenticeship. 

One of my favourite smells in the whole world is that of earthy, damp and wet clay. That fragrance, 

combined with the first cool, sticky touch of a new ball of clay, sets a rhythm: a thump of wedging, 

the buzz and hum of the wheel, the first powerful compression of centreing. The rhythm of making 

in the studio has hummed and thumped through my life for years now. Accompanying me through 

early mornings and hot afternoons were tiny babies now children, growing up, ready to try the wheel 

themselves. My studio is under the house and the day ebbs and flows between using pots in the kitchen 


Shannon Garson, 20 15, porcelain, glaze, underglaze, terra sigillata 

Photos: artist 


32 THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS APRil 201S



Shannon Garson, 2015, porcelain, glaze 

underglaze, terra sigillata 

Selow: Shannon in her studio. Maleny. OLD 

Right: Shannon Garson, 2015, rope detail. porcelain 

glaze, undergJaze. terra sigillata 


upstairs and making pots in the studio downstairs. 

The function of art performs this gentle swing 

within my life as a maker. The upstairs pots that 

I touch and use and pass from hand to hand 

enrich the food I put into them, endowing 

physical nurturing with psychological and cultural 

resonance. The downstairs pots, formed into vessels from a slippery lump of clay and then sent out 

into the world, are a way of contributing to society, punctuating everyday life and saying "look closer", 

emphasising connection. 

Domestic rituals around food vessels comfort and nurture us in small but powerful ways every day. 

Handmade pots in the home become talismanic objects, gathering meaning as they move between 

shelves and hands throughout the years. I use functional forms as a ground f or drawing about the 

environment - ropes, birds, the ocean, and geology - because the familiarity of a teapot or a soup bowl 

acts as a keyhole to the abstract concepts that I am engaging with in the drawings. I know that when a 

piece of successful art is encountered it has a resonance that chimes like a bell and the vibrations are felt 

through your whole body. Like falling in love, encountering art that pulls at you powerfully is a matter 

of timing. This is where bowls, cups, vessels, vases and the flotsam of the domestic sphere are perfectly 

placed. A chance encounter with a pure white porcelain teacup, a drip coming off the rim of a bowl, or 

a speckled brown glaze when making dinner or laying a table can transport, whisking you away from 

the domestic sphere into a world of abstract ideas. 

Using handmade ware is an act of communication; from the first touch of the hand to the pot a 

narrative begins. Through texture, weight and form, handmade domestic ware draws the user into its 

history as an object, and through this objective history there is a connection to the subjective history of 

the maker. 

The Platonic ideal of an unchanging idea behind the gritty reality is evoked by handmade tableware: 

ideas about art and creation, a life lived in pursuit of functional beauty, a web of connection 

radiating out from a handmade plate or cup. As artists we see this when we meet someone who has 

incorporated our pots into their lives, Last year someone came up to me at a market and told me they 

used one of my cups every Saturday morning for their coffee. A cup serving its purpose out in the world 

gives a stranger joy through a ritual they have constructed around its function, as months before that in 

the studio, it gave me joy as a blob of clay smelling of soil, unformed. full of potential. 

http://shannongarsonporcelain.com.au 


Mel Robson. Suzi lyon and members of the Alice Springs Community. Touch. detail. 2014 

Installation of 12.000 clay pinch pots; photo: Suzi Lyon 

Touch 

Mel Robson and Suzi Lyon explore the function of art in the community 

II Slaried wilh an aesThelic idea - a vision of Ihe loveliness of pinchpols. 'he simplest of ceramic forms. en masse. 

II became an idea about communiTy. I 

Touch , an installation of 12,000 pinch pots held at Watch This Space Gallery in Alice Springs in late 

2014, began as a conversation when a small group of pinch pots were discovered on a shelf while 

cleaning up the ceramics studio at Charles Darwin University: the beauty of such a basic utilitarian form, 

the appeal of an uncomplicated process, and the visual possibilities offered by multiples and repetition. 

The vision of a gallery filled with thousands of these vessels emerged. and ideas around how to achieve 

that evolved. To get the many thousands of pots needed to fill the gallery space we realised we would 

need to involve other people. 



It started small, at dinner parties, afternoon teas, and gatherings with friends and work colleagues. 

We would supply the clay and people would begin enthusiastically pinching pots. Encouraged by the 

positive response and obvious enjoyment people were getting from making these little pinch pots, we 

began to extend the involvement beyond our known circle. This experience of involving other people 

ultimately became the focus of the project - getting out of the studio, going into public and community 

spaces with bags of clay, inviting people to join in, seeing their responses to this simple act of making, 

and experiencing the way in which it allowed interaction and conversation. It gave us an opening with 

which to make contact with others. 

It gave us access 10 people who we might not normally have conversations with in the normal course of our daily 

lives ... in our busy lives we don ~ necessarily just sit down and talk 10 people, especially people we don I know. Bur 

when people do something with their hands, il relaxes the space between them and conversations flow. ] 

Often, making art can be an exclusionary and solitary practice, with the artist working alone and at 

the centre of the process. By involving the community in making this work, the focus became less about 

us the artists, and more about community and connection. It broadened the emphasis beyond simply 

the production of objects, and onto the creation of links between people and community. 

We began to work with local arts festivals, took bags of clay to schools and community arts 

organisations, sat in parks and malls, on the lawns of public buildings, by water holes and in the dry 

river beds of the desert. We held workshops where participants were blindfolded while pinching pots, 

encouraging further contemplation of the material and the nature of making. At Charles Darwin 

University, where both of us teach, we invited other university employees from all departments to join 

us at lunchtime once a week to pinch pots. People who had never met each other sat side by side in the 

sunshine, chatting whilst pinching pots. 

Something about the immediately tactile nature of clay and its ability to be easily formed and 

manipulated struck a chord with everyone. It was accessible, sensory and democratic and seemed to 

appeal to that most basic impulse of human beings to make things. Making reference to such items 

that perform basic but necessary tasks, in this case to carry and contain, somehow pays homage to the 

object and its function. This was part of the allure of these small things, these miniaturised versions of 

functional objects that we have and use in our daily lives. 

When it came time to install the 12,000 pots, we took as our starting point the Central Australian 

landscape as seen from above, mapping our community and drawing a link between people and 

place. We didn't work from a plan, but rather let the pots people had made direct the layout. As the 

installation unfolded organically, it felt like we were painting or drawing with the pots, shading and 

blending colours and sizes and forms, mining both the similarity and variation within them. 

AI/hough most a/the tiny pOlS ;)' !Jare a similar shallow ctlpped/orm,from being shaped in the palm of the hand. this 

'memory of community' is seen in their difference, ay slight as it may be. J 

Highlighting the number and diversi ty of people involved in the project were black and white 

photographs around the walls of the gallery of the many pairs of hands involved in making the pinch 

pots. An area of the gallery was also set aside with a table and clay so that for the duration of the 

exhibition visitors to the gallery were able to make their own pots to add to the installation . Over a 


period of a month it grew and evolved, snaking out from the edges and taking on new form. All but 

a few of the 12,000 pots remain unfired. Ultimately they will all be recycled. In a world with such a 

frightening abundance of things, this ephemeral nature was an important element in our approach. 

There are many parallels one could draw between the process and evolution of this work, and 

the way a community works. Like a community it was made up of individual elements that, brought 

together, created a whole. But it is the diversity and difference, the light and shade, the subtleties and 

nuances that give charader and meaning. It reflected the community from which it came and the many 

hands that brought it into existence. 

What was created was a map of sorts: a visual and visceral record, a physical dialogue of a 

community, recording movement and moments. Inherent within the final work was a plethora of 

stories and experiences. And when looking at the pots, it is this we see more than anything, the 

stories exchanged and the personal interadions experienced over the course of the project. For us, and 

hopefully for those involved, this was the real outcome and the real meaning of Touch. 

Suzi lyon is Head of Art and Mel Robson is Ceramics lecturer at Charles Darwin University, 

Alice Springs, Northern Territory; E: suzi.lyon@cdu.edu.au; E: mel@melrobson.com. 

1 Kieran Finnane, The Light Work of Many Hands, ExhiMion Review. Alice Sprmgs News Online, 20 October 2014 

www.alkespnngsneYllS(om.au 

2 Mel Robson, Artist Talk, quoted in Kteran finnane, Ibid. 

OJ).CIt. 

Above: Mel Robson. Suzi lyon and members of the Alice Springs Community, Touch, detail, 2014 

Installation of 12,000 clay pinch pols; photo: Suzi lyon 


1 Some of the many hands that contributed to Touch; photo: Mel Robson 

2, 3 & 4 Mel Robson, Suzi Lyon and members of the Alice Springs Community, Touch. details, 2014 

Installation of 12.000 clay pinch pols; photo: Suzi lyon 

36 THE JOURNAL Of AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS APRil 2015

THE JOURNAL Of AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS APRIL 2015 37


Opposite page: Mitsuo Shoji, M any Wishes Triangular Form, 2008. stoneware, colour inlay. coilbuilt 

double wall gold/silver leaf, h.35cm, w.44cm, d.44cm; photo: Greg Piper 

Very few in Australian ceramics would be unfamiliar with the work of Mitsuo Shoji. Even if you are 

among them, you may have - without knowing it - laid your hands upon a piece of his work. 

There are some individuals whose influence weaves through life's fabric to touch on many worlds. 

Shoji san is one of them. 

One strand in Shoji san's thread of influence is a long standing collaboration with the institutions of 

contemporary Australian food culture - among them Tetsuya Wakuda, Kimitaka Azuma and Ryuichi 

Yoshii. For decades now his functional pieces have served as the stage on which their work is presented 

to the world. If you have ever savoured one of the offerings of these places, you will have also admired, 

if not touched, a piece of Shoji san's work - a sashimi platter, a small torizara plate, a dish for soy, a 

green tea cup. 

As hand crafted functional ceramics become increasingly common in Australian restaurants, in Japan 

the collaborative relationship between prominent chefs and ceramicists is age old. Trained in Japan, Shoji 

san understands this relationship well. 

Born and raised in Kansai, region of ancient capitals, he found his entry into ceramics through the 

prestigious Kyoto City University of Arts. There in the late 1960s, he began to practise under the 

tutelage of Rokubei Kiyomizu VII of the great kyoyaki dynasty, as across the Pacific ceramic culture was 

only starting to mature in the country that would one day become his home. 

It was a period of intense learning and inspiration. Unlike the others in his cohort who had either 

been raised in old ceramics families amid famed pottery collections or othervvise versed in clay, Shoji 

san did not have a ceramics background. It was there in the university workshop that he first learnt the 

fundaments of wedging and throwing and began to develop his practice. 

It was probably a gruelling rite of passage, but Shoji san talks of the time with warmth. There was 

much opportunity for experimentation and the prestige of his teachers and the institution opened doors 

on encounters to which many an influential person may not have had access at the time. Shoji san 

tells of a study tour of the six significant pottery centres of t he ceramics world, known in Japan as the 

Rokkoyo, and Mashiko, the place where Shoji Hamada had settled his home, workshop and kiln as the 

spiritual home of the mingei movement. 

There in Mashiko one evening the master Hamada, in his eighties and already more than a decade 

revered as a living national treasure, welcomed the travelling students into his home. They passed under 

the vast thatched nagaya gate and entered the main residence, an old building that would have been 

vast and cool - a harmony between the human warmth of mingei, the emotive austerity of sabi, the 

subtle machismo of midcentury European design, and the restrained heat of a hibachi. 

Shoji san remembers the othervvorldly intensity of the elderly sensei's presence - diminutive, and 

with the scientist's air lent by the characteristic heavy tortoiseshell spectacles. Most of all, Shoji san 

remembers the fineness of his mind. As the group sat talking, t he discussion was punctuated w ith 

the persistent ringing of the telephone, which Hamada would unfailingly rise to answer. "Returning 

THE 10URNAL OF AUST RA LIAN CERAMICS APRIL 2015 39


each time to the conversation, he would continue his 

previous thought as if there had been absolutely no 

interruption. He was very sharp," says Shoji san. 

Not long after this time, Shoji san's teacher, 

Kiyomizu, radically renounced ceramics, destroying 

almost all of his award-winning ceramic work and 

turning his focus to the minimalist sculpture for which 

he became renowned. Perhaps it was the influence of 

the sensei's sudden change in direction or the freedom 

of being unbound by generations of inherited ideas, 

or maybe something fundamental within Shoji san 

himself, but his practice has always been characterised 

by a similar unorthodoxy and adventure. 

In the more than forty years he has lived and taught 

in Australia - first at East Sydney Technical College and 

then Sydney College of the Arts (he retired in 2007 

but remains an honorary senior lecturer) - Shoji san 

found an affinity with the majority of students who came to ceramics as he had, without preconceived 

notions of aesthetics and with an enthusiasm for experimentation. "It was wonderful, you know," he 

says, "seeing all these things that were original and new coming out of the kiln." In Japan too in recent 

years, Shoji san says he sees some melting of the old rules with the emergence of more interest in 

sculptural work among a younger generation of potters and collectors. 

Shoji san's own work ranges fluidly across the functional and non-functional. In fact, Shoji san says 

he doesn't really think of his work in this dualistic way - functional or decorative, two-dimensional or 

three - although he does have a preference for sculptural objects. He continues to gently resist the 

idea of working perennially in one style. If this makes categorising his aesthetic elusive, Shoji san is 

unconcerned. " I just want to have fun," he says. "I don't care if a piece sells or not. To be creatively 

fulfilled I need to keep moving." 

In recen t years his focus has been on large handbuilt high-fired sculptural pieces bearing inlaid slip 

sutra tattoos and two-dimensional works. In these forms Shoji san explores the theory (distilled by the 

early twentieth century painter Grasset) that the sphere, cone and cube, and their two-dimensional 

equivalents the circle, triangle and square, form the basis of all compositional arrangements. Shoji san 

also continues to make pieces for his restaurateur friends as well as commissioned work. 

It is an often-recited tenet in Japanese ceramics philosophy that a pot is aesthetically incomplete until 

married with food. Shoji san's view on this thesis of art versus function takes a characteristically more 

subtle note. Shoji san's intention, he says, is instead for the work to stand on its own. For him, even if a 

work's ultimate purpose is to display another thing, it must have beauty enough that it does not require 

the addition of anything else in order to be complete. 

M itsuo Shoji is represented by Lesley Kehoe Gallery in Victoria and Lost Bear Gallery 

in New South Wales; www.mitsuoshoji.com. 

40 THE JOURNAL OF AU STRALIAN CERAMICS APRIL 201S


Opposite page: Mitsuo Shoji, Giant Circle, 2010 

stoneware, colour inlay. (oilbuilt, gold/silver leaf 

diam.85cm; photo: Greg Piper 

Ceramics by Mitsuo Shoji 

1 Many Wishes Ovoid Form, 2010 

h.33cm, w .4Sem, d.57cm 

2 Mitsuo Shoji portrait, 2009, photo: Christine Shoji 

3 Many Wishes Square Form, 2008 

h.35cm, w.42em, d.42cm 

4 Many Wishes Ovoid Form , 2010 

h.45cm, w.66cm, d.40cm 

1,3 & 4 stoneware, colour inlay, coilbuilt 

double wall, gold/silver leaf 

1. 3 & 4 Photos: Greg Piper 



Constant Movement in 

Space and Time 

Kelly Austin explores the contri bution pots make 

I'm sitting up at the bar inside Monster Kitchen and Bar in Canberra on a warm Friday afternoon. The 

last two hours have been spent photographing my pots in situ, trying to capture these objects in their 

home. As I move around the space my mind wanders, struggling to find a place of grounding. I'm 

dreading writing about them, worried that I don't have sufficient answers as to why they are important. 

Yet my entire afternoon - indeed most of my everyday life - is dedicated to them. 

I've captured the images I'm after and sit down to enjoy a bite. I force myself to change pace and 

ease into the moment, as if I am experiencing this for the very first time. The clarity allows me to both 

listen to the present moment and reflect on my experience as a maker. Pots are complicated objects 

for something that is so seemingly simple. Answers slowly begin to flow like water returning to a 

dry stream. Still murky and undefined, I begin to jot down ideas as to what pots offer: tremendous 

challenge, aesthetic experience and connections. They have given me the opportunity to collaborate and 

provide a physical making practice. 

Challenge 

The number of requirements that functional pots have to fulfill presents significant challenges for a 

maker. At the forefront, they have to function: a server has to be able to handle them quickly and 

efficiently, and they have to be robust, the right size, and stack in a way that maximises space in the 

kitchen. Then the object has to be in harmony with the food that is placed in or upon it. We have to 

consider colour, texture, form and weight and how these qualities will align with the sensibilities of the 

space they will exist in. 

Just like a singer in a chorus, the pot has to annunciate and sing in key. Its delivery has to be clear 

and in perfect time for the audience to experience the sou nd of many voices as one. Then there is 

the solo, where the pot has to be capable of singing unaccompanied, sitting clean and ready on the 

kitchen bench or on top of the espresso maker. The very best pots seemingly accomplish all of these 

tasks effortlessly. W ith all this in mind, we then tackle the complexities of making these objects in clay, 

for a set price point, and to a delivery date. The objects in themselves may be simple, but the fact that 

they cannot exist without a relationship to other objects and environments brings forward a group of 

complexities which I find engaging. 


Kelly Austin, Monster Small Dishes, 2014, wheelthrown stoneware, h.6cm, w .6cm, d.15cm; photo: artist 

Aesthetic experience 

When photographing my work, I notice how the pots reveal their essential aesthetic nature through 

colour, texture and form. These are the elements which artists like me use to set a visceral tone in a 

medium like clay, and it's refreshing to be reminded of this and to recognise the challenge in simply 

curating these qualities. I watch a plate carefully travel from the kitchen to a table and upon placing 

it down a moment of opportunity is revealed . Customers engage visually and sensually, absorbing the 

combination of grilled duck with pickled cherries - a moist pink sits next to a glossy deep red on a 

surface of matt and speckled light blue/grey. It is a beautifully composed experience that starts with my 

hands and ends with the chef's. The visual, tactile and sensual experience is what draws me to making 

pots, but the aesthetic experience is what comes after - the merging moments of communication and 

connection between object, user, content and sustenance. 

Connection 

Objects have the incredible ability to embody story and facilitate the making of connections. After one 

of the customers serves herself. she picks up the dish and passes it to a neighbour. Looking back up to 

the waiter, she comments about the beauty of it, appreciating the combination of colour and aroma. He 

explains to her that I've made the plates by hand and am in the restaurant taking images for this very 

article. My tableware is subtle, but it was distinct enough to spark interest and curiosity that created 

dialogue. It was an opportunity to engage and connect. She's curious about the object itself, about its 

maker and the story it is a part of. Her experience and mine become richer as connections are made. 

Collaboration 

Through the process of making tableware for restaurants, I have been fortunate to collaborate with 

many creative people. One of the plates I made for Monster Kitchen and Bar developed out of a 



Above: 

I Kelly Austin, 2015; photo: Hardy Lohse 

2 Kelly Austin, Mocan Plate, 2014, wheelthrown stoneware 

diam.29cm, d.2cm; photo: artist 

3 Kelly Austin, Monster Plate, 2014, wheelthrown stoneware 

diam.31cm, d.3em; photo: artist 

4 Kelly Austin, Mocan Prawn Plate, 2014, wheel thrown stoneware 

diam.12em, d.2cm; photo: artist 


Kelly Austin, Monster Plate, 2014, wheelthrown stoneware 

diam.31 em, d.3em; photo: artist 



question chef Sean McConnell asked me while looking at samples of my work. We were discussing the 

creation of a new plate form for the restaurant and he found elements in two different objects I brought 

in, so I combined them to make a form I had never made before. We discussed glaze qualities and for 

the first time I noticed how finger prints are strongly reflected on dark, glossy glazes. 

Collaboration has been an essential part of my development as a deSigner and maker. Pots have two 

sides, maker and user, and my considerations as a maker are deeply enhanced by the shared experiences 

of the user. This is part of what draws me to making functional art. 

Physical experience 

Throwing on the potter's wheel is physically manipulating material in space and time. From an early age, 

I have been drawn to things that offer tangible physical experiences. While out walking, I'll often bend 

down to pick up a rock, feeling its cool smoothness. Throwing a series of cups provides an opportunity 

for my entire physical body to engage. My right leg and foot control the speed of the wheel while 

my hips bend and my back falls forward. All of my upper body is focused on the clay in front of me, 

shoulders directing biceps which engage forearms, wrist and hands. I am focused right down to my 

fingertips and the slurry that glides between myself and the plastic clay. As my hands apply pressure, the 

clay responds and changes form. The slightest pinch of my fingers thins a rim and I become attentive 

to the wealth of nuance that is available. I give in to the embodiment of this moment and the cognitive 

noise begins to soften. 

What began as trepidation has resulted in a rewarding journey, revealing to me the incredible depth 

of pots. They are not something that can be rushed or concisely articulated through one idea. Pots are 

like rivers, a culmination of numerous tributaries flowing in constant movement in space and time. 

http://kellyaustindesign.com; https:/lvimeo.com/62981 019 



Sandy lockwood throwing in her Balmoral 

Village studiO, NSW; photo; courtesy artist 

Opposite page: Sandy lockwood, Three, 2014 

woodfired. saltglazed porcelain and stoneware 

h.9cm, w.SScm, d.7.Scm; photo: courtesy artist 

Conversation, Jazz and Pots 

Sandy Lockwood discusses art as process and object 

Art and function are not mutually exclusive. This is particularly the case when considering tableware. My 

ideas about this theme include art as a finished piece as well as the art of making and firing tableware, 

choosing pieces to use, and finally all the creativity involved in preparing and presenting food. 

Art in this context is not only what has been created. Art also includes a way of doing things, usually 

implying skill and judgment such as in the art of flower arrangement. In relation to making and using 

tableware, both these senses of the word art are applicable. The finished prodUd can be art, and art 

can be exercised in its creation and subsequent use. 

Pots made by hand in a studio embody all the craft skills, knowledge, creativity and visual sensitivity 

of the maker in the finished piece. Through the language of clay there is a potential for the maker to 

express something unique, to have something particular to say through the ad of making. In making 

functional pots there is a haptic appreciation of an imag ined future use. This draws on the accumulated 

experience of handling and using them that feeds back into the making process: the weight and feel 

in the hand, the softness of the lip to drink from or to invite one to pour from, the way a pot will sit 

nestled in the hand, the way the handle fits the hand. 

46 THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS APRil 20 15

~-- -- -------- ~~-------------- 


In the best examples, clay is encouraged to have something to say as well. Clay has unique 

characteristics that allow the maker to engage with it in a kind of conversation: a push here, a fold 

there, rhythms from the action of wheel and hand, a decision to leave this part clear and to allow the 

energy to show there - a conversation between imagination, hand, clay, water and wheel - a constant 

stream of mini choices that continue through into packing and firing the kiln. In my case this is a 

wood fired salt glazing kiln. There are quiet areas in the kiln where softness can prevail and other more 

dramatic areas where the movement of ash and salt are clearly visible. They both offer a very living 

surface. 

In firing, the kiln also joins the conversation. My kiln has quite a lot to say and sometimes in quite an 

assertive manner that demands judicious management. 

So, the first conversation in the art of making is between the maker, the material, imagined use, and 

the kiln . The second conversation is between the user and the pots in the choice of pieces for preparing 

and presenting food and drink. These creative acts reveal a lot about the art of function . One could say 

the final enjoyment of food and the art of conversation at the table begin as a conversation between 

the maker and the clay. This is a melding of the various meanings of art. 

The best of tableware pieces play the same role as art in provoking responses through engaging our 

senses. They can provoke thought, emotional enjoyment, satisfaction, or some blend of these responses. 

They can continue to engage us over long periods of time as we discover new things about them and 

ourselves. They can enhance our everyday lives and surprise us on a chance encounter. 

The process of collecting tableware pieces is something special and often random. Piece by piece 

there is an accumulation of experience, meaning and memory that tell the story of how they came to be 

owned and why. These thoughts and emotions become part of the pot itself. 

Storage places for pots can be seen as a library for enjoyment, perhaps a kind of personal and 

idiosyncratic art gallery. The collection may be a large and comprehensive library or it may consist 

of a few special pieces. What matters is the enjoyment derived from handling and using the unique 

collection that is your own. Each time you take pieces from the library there is a potential to st art


another conversation. It may be as simple as choosing a favourite mug, or it may start with the visual 

orchestration of form, texture and colour that complements the warmth and laughter of a gathering of 

friends for an informal banquet. 

In contrast there is also the art of choosing and using pots within a very formal setting such as a 

Japanese tea ceremony. The function and surroundings of the pieces are quite particular; however there 

is still the telling of a new story, of enjoyment each time they are carefully selected from the library and 

used. Discussion of the maker and making of pieces used is an integral part of the tea ceremony. 

Using tableware can be seen as analogous to a jazz performance. The event may be spontaneous and 

ephemeral in nature but leave a lasting impression - it can provoke an emotional response that lingers 

in the memory. As with jazz, making pots and preparing and serving food can have a variety of styles, 

genres, tempos, rhythms, tones, colours and improvisations. The venue and audience can vary from time 

to time and each event is unique, an opportunity to create a new piece of performance art. It may be 

the soothing lyric of a quiet breakfast amid the bustle of a busy life that is enhanced by a favourite mug 

for tea and a special plate for toast, or it may be the choice of bowls for a rambunctious and up-tempo 

meal of pasta and red wine with friends. 

Now more than ever it seems vitally important to emphasise human values that include caring for 

each other and our environment, creativity, compassion, conviviality, humour, art, contemplation, and 

making of ceremonies. In this context the experience of using pots every day is life enhancing . From 

breakfast to dinner there is a chance to engage with the hand, the eye, the skin, the heart, memories, 

others, and the self, without which we would be diminished. 

What I hope people get from using my pots is some connection with the story of the making - a 

connection with the energy and movement of the making process, a tactile experience that draws one 

closer to the real world of textures and undulations, to feel the hand of the maker when using the 

pieces, and to spend time being drawn into the colour, texture and variation of woodfiring and salt 

glazing. 

Like jazz, one can talk about it, but it is the direct experience that really makes the impact. 

www.sandylockwood.(om.au 

OPPOSIte page: 

Ceramics by Sandy lockwood 

1 Tray, 2014, handbuilt, woodfired and saltglazed stoneware to 1300·C 

h.4




Shino - Form and Beauty 

Angela Walfo rd shares her passion for the unpredictable 

I never imagined that studying film would lead me back to 

ceramics. While researching some documentary footage of a 

tribal village, scenes revealed the huts had brilliantly golden 

woven thatch and the film visually compared them to the hair 

weaves on the women's heads, rapidly cutting from different 

angles of view. The mise-en-scene was a stunningly beautiful 

way of seeing the simplicity and ritual in that way of life. I 

knew then that I needed to somehow explore the attraction 

that I felt to the art of texture in that native village and its 

natural beauty. 

I went back to study ceramics in 1999, learning about ki lns and glazes from John Coulter until I was 

replete! Since then I have grown to love the infinitely variable surface of shino glaze, experimenting with 

myriad additions to what was originally an American recipe. It is a hard taskmaster but I have learned 

to work together with it and enjoy the constant discovery. My glaze forms micro crystals of soda ash on 

the surface pre firing and red clay additions give the warmest surface. I've observed the difference that 

thickness of application of glaze makes, and the surface lustre created by gas and wood under heavy 

reduction can be stunning, often mistaken for wood fired . With additions of red gum chips during the 

firing, it's now a truly Aussie glaze! 

Shared workspaces can inspire me, but I usually work and fire alone in my back garden studio. 

Surrounded by quarries and brickworks in the Adelaide foothills, clay sits right on the surface of the 

roadside. Tests have provided great results and blends with commercial clay bodies have been promising. 

My functional forms, large and small bowls and mega serving bowls, are inspired by Asian ceramics, 

and subtle curves are influenced from my college days and my UK heritage. 

I take several weeks glazing and loading to prepare for firing. From lighting the gas pilots onwards, 

focus is needed to listen to the kiln and feed the fire as the temperature and atmosphere grow in 

intensity. In the early hours, when it's cold outside and the gas tanks are frozen, comes my time for 

painting with fire. I enjoy this intense time, contributing to but never completely controlling what 

happens inside the kiln; serendipity and providence are the masters of this fiery beast. What precedes 

the firing allows the atmosphere inside to do its work. Results can be disappointing sometimes, but I 

never cared for predictability! 

The slow food movement has affected the handmade market place and local potters are feeling the 

benefit of people growing their own food again . We make artful implements that complement the 

notion of making everything from scratch. Dishes of beauty, plates and cups that fit your hand and suit 

the handmade meal, and all made here in Adelaide. 

50 THE IOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS APRIL 2015


Opposite page: Angela Walford; photo: Derek McClure 

Ceramics by Angela Walford 

1 Water Vessel. 2014, stoneware, cone 10, h.l6cm, w.26cm 

2 Tapas, 2014, stoneware, cone 10, h.4em, w.22cm 

3 Cup, 2014, stoneware, cone 10, h.7cm, w.9cm 


THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS APRil 201S S I


A Place in Time 

Maggie Zerafa reflects on her place in the ceramics continuum 

Maggie lerafa 

Photo: Margaret Soraya 

Like many craftspeople, I find my personal expression through the 

making of objects. It is a way to reach others through the simple act 

of sharing an object that I have made and it is this simplicity that 

appeals and makes sense to me. I am happy to dedicate my life to 

understanding the material and process of working with clay. The 

art of function is more than simply producing an object that works 

as intended, a teapot that pours well or a cup that is good to hold 

and bring to the lips. The human dimension is the intimate sharing 

of personal experience. Just as the advent of photography has 

not rendered the portrait painter obsolete, so the machine cannot 

replicate the infinite and subtle variations of the human hand. This 

is a concept I find so hard to articulate, but it makes complete sense 

when holding an object made by another hand. 

Wandering this summer amongst the ru ins of ancient Xanthos in Turkey I turned up a shard from 

a pot made by some anonymous hand more than 2000 years ago. Just holding it gave me a sense 

of connection to the long line of potters past, of being part of a continuum stretching back into prehistory. 

In many respects, the maker'S experience cannot have changed very much over the centuries; 

authenticity, tradition and skill are enduring and still inform the lives of makers today. It is humbling to 

realise that the handcrafted object has traditions in every culture of the world with techniques, forms 

and designs that transcend centuries, language and culture. 

Soon after graduation from university in Melbourne I travelled to Japan and embarked on a traditional 

apprenticeship that changed me profoundly. My time in Mashiko gave me a clear sense of the trajectory 

of history, the context that helped me understand my place in ceramics. Being a student to a master 

gave me the framework to begin my journey, but I learned much more than the technical aspects of my 

craft. I took away another lesson from my time in Japan - to understand that each piece I make is but 

a point along a lifetime's journey, its shortcomings and failures only stepping stones towards a greater 

goal, and mastery and understanding of my material comes everyday with every pot I make. 

Because of its connection w ith use, craft has always fostered an intimacy with us as physical beings. 

Techn iques may evolve and new materials appear, but our fundamental need to communicate with each 

other will remain because we place a high value on individuality. It is a key aspect of being human. 

Giving, sharing, using - that is craft's strength, something it does quietly every day. In an industrialised 

world, the handcrafted object still has a lot to tell us about ourselves, and despite the advent of new 

technologies and modern day innovations, such as 3D printing, there will always be a place for the 

handcrafted in human culture. It may take a form we don't recognise but its capacity to enrich our lives 

will continue to be valued, and I feel honoured to be a part of this long and enduring tale. 

www.maggiezerafa.com 



Ceramics by Maggie Zerafa 

1 Landscape Teabowl, 201 4, stoneware. 128O"C, h. 1 Oem, w.13cm 

2 Crystalline Plates, detail, 201 4. 1260"( 

3 Birch Vessel, 201 4, stoneware. wheelthrown, Inlaid decoration, 12800(, h.27cm, w.24cm, d.24cm 

Photos: Margaret So,aya


The Integrity of Function 

John Dermer defines his stance as a craftsman 

The issue of integrity towards an objective can be viewed from several different aspects. There are three 

that are significant with respect to potters and pots. 

Firstly, the code of artistic principles embodied within tradition . There were four major potters who 

influenced me as a student of ceramics, and they remain as positive role models and a constant source 

of inspiration to this day. The first of these, Bernard Leach, wrote A Potters Book (1940) which became 

my most valuable resource. I would read it and reread it in order to develop the skills necessary to 

produce a functional pot that had integrity. Bernard Leach was very influential in the movement to 

legitimise good quality handmade pots during a period in history when industrially produced ceramics 

were taking hold of the market. In 1971 I was privileged to spend an afternoon with this wonderful 

elderly gentleman. At the time I was working as a production potter for his son, Michael. Bernard 

Leach's flat had a large window that overlooked St Ives beach and I sat there quietly observing both him 

and his surroundings as he busily organised some tea and cake. He asked me to move a manuscript 

off a small table to accommodate the tray. Tea was poured from a simple, cut-sided teapot into St 

Ives cups and saucers. He gestured towards the manuscript and explained that it was a final task he 

had to complete. He had spent ten years interpreting and translating Soetsu Yanagi's work, only to 

be informed, just prior to printing, that he was seeing Yanagi's writings through western eyes. The 

translation was to start again the following week, this time with the help of a Japanese girl who had 

been raised in the west. The resultant book The Unknown Craftsman was published within the year. 

Bernard Leach had spent many years studying the Japanese philosophy and traditions associated 

with their pottery. He understood their reverence for both the pots they used, each for a specific 

purpose, and the potters who made them. Through his pots he was able to bring his interpretation 

of this, to a western audience who, at the time, were becoming increasingly dependent upon massproduced 

items. My afternoon with this man I so revered was full of questions, answers, admiration and 

apprehension. Bernard Leach sensed my earnestness and my youthful need to understand. He stood 

up, walked over to his desk and, from a shelf above it, selected a simple jug. It was tall and waisted, 

with a generous pulled handle sprung from near the neck and joined near the foot with Simple but deft 

finger movements. The foot was a series of thumb depressions which formed a splayed skirt - even the 

thumbprints were still visible on the rich terracotta. A small yet functional pouring lip completed the 

pot. His words of advice, as he held this pot for my inspection, still resonate with me to this day. "This 

is 14th century. You see, it's all been done before. Just be honest to the process and be honest to the 

materials." Simple words from a wise and inspirational man - a treasured and pivotal experience in my 

early life as a potter. 

Opposite page: Ceramics by John Dermer 

Above: Bowl, 2014, h.19cm, w.12cm, porcelain, wheelthrown, saltglazed 

Below: Beakers, 2014, h.10cm. w.Scm, porcelain, wheel thrown. saltglazed 


S4 THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS APRIL 2015


The other three people who have influenced my work and my aspirations as a potter were also 

gentle, generous men whose work refleded t heir dedication, integrity and resped for traditions whilst 

pursuing their own directions: Harold Hughan and Reg Preston, who were treasured friends and 

mentors to me, and Peter Rushforth, who still is. Their contribution to Australian ceramics has been 

immensely significant. Peter Rushforth, especially, set the standards for education at East Sydney Tech, 

where skill-based training was paramount. This enabled the students to develop a st rong understanding 


of the making process whilst affording them the essential practice necessary to hone skills and learn 

from mistakes - all vitally important in order to embark upon a productive life as a potter. An equally 

important component of the course dealt with the history, traditions and philosophies of those who 

paved the way. An appreciation of the past helps to develop a respect for the present as well as a 

preparation for the journey ahead. It grieves me to note that very few educational institutions these days 

are providing students with this valuable training, often for financial reasons and counter to the wishes 

of the course designers. Because handmade pots are generally more expensive than their mass-produced 

counterparts they must attract a market through their integrity, durability, suitability and uniqueness. 

A coveted pot needs to have integrity of function as well as soul. A potter needs to understand the 

process, the discipline and the pitfalls in order to confidently produce a vessel that has such soul. 

The second aspect of integrity deals with the basic soundness of the item. This involves all facets of 

production from the suitability of materials used to the construction techniques employed, the design of 

Ceramics by John Dermer 

Above: Plates. 2014, each diam.22cm 

porcelain thrown, altered, cone 12 glaze 

left: Ginger Jar, 2014, detail, porcelain 

wheelthrown. faceted, saltglazed 


1 Teapot cross section, 2014, h. 17.5cm 

w.14.Scm, porcelain wheelthrown, faceted 

saltglazed, terra sigillata, cut after firing 

2 Teapot, 2014, h.17crn, w.14.5cm, porcelain 

whee/thrown, faceted, saltglazed, terra sigillata 

English cane handle 

3 Lidded Jar, 2014, h.32cm. w.19cm 

porcelain, wheelthrown, saltglazed 

4 Bowl, 2014, h.19cm, w. 12cm 

porcelain, wheelthrown, saltglazed 



The Function of Art. The Art of Fu nction 

the item and the appropriateness of the firing process. Each link in the chain is of equal importance if 

the pot is to be both durable and functional. I choose to use porcelain for my oven/tableware because 

of its strength and glaze fit. I am able to salt glaze this porcelain as well, so workshop production is not 

complicated with various clays. Many years ago I developed a tableware glaze with a wonderful satin 

surface which has proved to be craze free, doesn't scratch with cutlery and doesn't chip. It is reassuring 

to hear from people who have been using my pots on a daily basis, sometimes up to 40 years, that they 

are still performing perfectly and bringing enjoyment at the same time. It is also particularly delightful to 

receive similar comments from subsequent generations as the pots are passed down through families. 

The third aspect regarding integrity of function involves the design aspect itself. There needs to be 

a perfect fit between the vessel and its designated use. If a teapot is to be made, it should perform its 

function of brewing and serving tea seamlessly. The lid should not fall off when pouring, and when 

emptying, leaves should not get caught under the lid gallery. Jugs should have a balanced and generous 



John Dermer in his studio at 

Kirby's flat Pottery 

Yackandandah, Victoria 

form, a well balanced handle should facilitate an easy pour, and foot rims should be round, not square 

cut. Rounded feet provide less friction in the kiln from shrinkage, a smaller unglazed area is possible 

and they are easier to smooth off prior to use. (See article on p 11 8-119 Nov 2013 The Journal of 

Australian Ceramics) Consideration must be 9iven to the deSign's stacking suitability. Will it take up too 

much space in cupboards or dishwashers? Many customers may see that this is important, others may 

not. 

Recently I made some large, slightly curved plates for a local restaurant. There were several things that 

had to be considered when making this order. Foremost for me was how the plates would perform in 

a busy commercial kitchen balanced with the aesthetics of presentation. Handmade pots are relatively 

heavy when compared with factory produced commercial ware so this also needed to be addressed. 

Delivery day arrived and no sooner had I placed the last of the plates onto the rest aurant workbench 

when they were unceremoniously whisked, one by one, into the commercial dishwasher. Within seconds 

the plates were blasted with high pressure boiling water and detergent. After the five minute cycle 

was complete, the rack was removed and the plates dried within a minute from the residual heat in 

the porcelain. My order was to replace items which had been supplied by another potter. His pots had 

succumbed to scuffing, chipping, crazing and stai ning within a relatively short period of usage. This is 

unacceptable for an upmarket establishment. 

Over the years I have seen vessels by many potters that present food beautifully and do, indeed, 

add to the enjoyment of a special meal. However, if they have to be treated with kid gloves in order to 

preserve them for a time, their usefulness is limited. If we want our product to be a serious contender 

in the current throwaway society, it must have integrity of function. But it also needs to go that one 

step further and become an object of desire. In order to fulfill that purpose each piece must reflect the 

passion, the diSCipline and the skilled experience of a maker's integrity. Therein lies the soul of both the 

maker and the made - a perfect fusion from the head, the heart and the hands. 

www.johndermer.com.au 


John Dermer. Jug, 2013, h.23cm, w.l l em, porcelain. wheel thrown 

faceted, saltglazed, terra Sigillata; photo: artist 


View I 

The Domestic Artist 

The art of Melanie Jayne by Mark Henderson 

"Slip is a liquid clay that takes around two days to make if making it from scratch . It requires raw clay, 

water and a few chemicals (including a deflocculant) to help the fluidity of the slip," explains emerging 

ceramic artist Melanie Jayne. 

Introduced to the technique of slipcasting while studying in the Bachelor of Fine Art program at 

Sydney's National Art School, Melanie was drawn to the unique and complex art form. Slipcasting is 

often used to generate mass-produced domestic products including teapots and cups, but during her 

studies Melanie found a love for this style of ceramic art, seeing opportunities to explore originality and 

artistry of unique domestic items. 

"We were introduced to slipcasting by the extremely well established artist and teacher Stephen Bird. 

It was a challenging form of ceramics, especially the making of slip." 

Since graduating with Honours in 2013, Melanie has continued working to hone her skills as a slipcast 

artist. "My art portrays the look of a cup or teapot, but wouldn't be used as a domestic product." 

Looking for inspiration that would allow her to immerse herself in a deeper exploration of the 

slipcasting technique, Melanie came across several artists who work outside of the regular slipcast 

moulding techniques. "Before I was just making any forms that I could create with slip, using a new 

technique I found with sponges - discovered from a Dutch artist called Bas Kools." Following on from 

this, Melanie began to work with similar materials, including fabrics, thread and wool, to hand-make her 

unique casting moulds. 

"Usually it takes around a day to make one of the casting moulds. When the cast is ready, I pour the 

liquid clay slip in. I then let it sit for a while. With a small object, like a cup, the slip sits in the sponge 

mould for around four-to-five hours. Compared to a plaster cast this is a long time; in a plaster cast, it 

only takes around five minutes as plaster absorbs water quickly generating a thick enough mould from 

the cast." 

Melanie's work is often personal, drawing inspiration from past memories and times spent with her 

family as a child. "For my Honours pieces at National Art School, I built a series based on my memories 

of childhood. I remember when I was a child viSiting my grandmother; she always had floral patterns, 

doylies, fabrics, and buttons throughout her house and I really wanted to incorporate that into my work. 


1 Melanie Jayne extrading slip from a mould with an electric pump 

2 A mould and a cast in a supporting cage 

3 Unstiching a sponge mould 

4 A pile of sponge moulds 

S Melanie Jayne, Sweet Teacup , 2015, lumina porcelain. clear glaze 

with stain, slipcast, h.4cm, w. 1 Oem, d.5cm; photo; artist 

6 Melanie Jayne in her studio 


View 1 


Melanie Jayne, Peppermint 

2015, lumina porcelain, clear 

glaze with stain, slipcast, various 

dimension s; photo: artist 

That's another reason why I use sponge casts, which I sew together - I am able to use techniques I 

picked up as a child [which] add further personality to my work. 

"I make a lot of my work based on memories - images of conversation over a cup of tea, with 

teapots throughout the house, and lots of pretty colours." 

Despite her passion for sl ipcasting, Melanie's path could have been very different. "In school I wasn't 

really very good at a lot of the subjects, but I always felt comfortable with art and won lots of accolades 

and support from my teachers. I always picked art as a subject in school. I'm dyslexic so writing and 

English-based subjects were things I always struggled with. In art I found a way to express myself and 

explain things. It helped me come out of my shell. " 

"Originally I wanted to do photography, so I enrolled at the National Art School. As part of the 

course offered at the school, in your first year you had to do five short courses for six weeks, and 

ceramics was one of them. Doing it, I fell in love with the art form. I was also really inspired by the 

teacher, Don Court, who worked with pinch pots using clay. He was very earthy, even bringing in clay 

he had collected from his own garden for us to work with. I recall thinking this is real art, it's not 

commercialised or anything. 

"The art you can create through ceramics and the three-dimensional effects are amazing. You get to 

get your hands dirty and really get into using the clay. So, I totally dropped the idea of photography and 

majored in ceramics." 

Melanie Jayne is based in Lake Munmorah on the lower central coast of New South Wales. 

Her next 5010 exhibition will be held at Sabbia Gallery from 1 S April to 9 May 2015. 

Mark Henderson is a professional practising journalist and media professional. 

Twitter: @mark_onthemoon. 


View 2 

Capturing the Ephemeral 

A reflection on Stephen Bird's 2014 exhibition at Gould Galleries by Robyn Phelan 

Once Upon A Time In New England was an exhibition of Stephen Bird's most recent works. Gould 

Galleries' darkened space shone brightly, filled to capacity with 113 works all boasting Bird's vivid colour 

palette. The work was roughly divided into three bodies of practice: ceramic sculpture, decorated plates 

and watercolours. 

I had been lured to this exhibition hoping to see more of Bird's skillful sculpture and diorama. 

Presented were impressive, large-scale works, collaging lowbrow, everyday items with the pathos of the 

human figure, the emotion of portraiture, a strong dash of symbolic whimsy and subversive wit. 

A wall of sixty plates extended the ideas and motifs of the sculptural work, with the addition of being 

laden with textural truisms, slang and diaristic recordings. Plates announcing "When Dad wasn't making 

us cry, he really made us laugh!" or "I wish this could go on forever!" are affecting examples. 

The inclusion of so many works on paper was fascinating and exemplifies Bird's initial training as a 

painter. It was enjoyable to ponder the relationship between initial painted narrative and the transition 

of two-dimensional image to sculptural object. Bird 's recurring themes are based on his research into his 

family history and are clearly present in the visual language utilised in these paintings. The homestead 

of his Scottish ancestor Ralph Reid in New Eng land, Queensland and the male figure in profile, appear 

regularly and direct the pictorial composition. 

Stephen Bird, The House at Acacia Creek, 2014, clay, pigment. glaze. h.31cm, w.30cm, d.20cm; photo; courtesy artist

View 2 

Ceramics by Stephen Bird 

1 Big Ralph walking, detail, 2014, clay, pigment and glaze 

2 Stay, detail, 2014, clay, pigment and glaze 

3 Study for Last Breath, detail, 2014, clay, pigment and glaze 

4 The House at Acacia Creek , detail, 2014, clay. pigment, glaze 

5 Big Ralph walking, 2014, clay. pigment and glaze, h.52cm, w.20cm, d.26cm 

6 Study for Last Breath, 2014, clay, pigment and glaze, h.7cm, w.21cm. d.9cm; photos: courtesy artist 

One particular motif captured and enchanted my imagination. 

Appearing in both watercolour and sculptural work, Bird 

depicted the passage of smoke from the chimney of Reid's 

house and the exhalation from his mouth. The quiet poetry of 

making a person's breath tangible, reminds one of the spiritual 

energy believed to be contained in ectoplasm. So too, Bird's 

great, great, grandfather's life-spirit assuredly existed and was 

the beginning of the Reid/Bird Australian family line. Bird's 

depiction of this intangible fact, by combining swirls of smoke 

with cast faces, is a perfect artistic symbol of the ancestral line 

and fleeting act of sharing oral histories. 

This exhibition forecasts Bird's survey show of ceramics and 

works on paper from 1992-2014 entitled From Painter to 

Bastard Son of Royal Doulton, at Wollongong Art Gallery 

from 20 June to 25 October 2015. The show then tours several 

venues in NSW. 

Robyn Phelan is a Melbourne-based ceramicist and writer 

http://robynphelan.com.au 

www.stephenbird.net. 

64 THE 10URNAl OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS APRil Z015

Spaces and Places 

paper 

boat 

press 

an atelier in Brisbane 

paper boat press gallery, in Ashgrove Brisbane, is only two and a half years old. For most of the year it 

houses the ceramic work of Kylie Johnson - vessels, ornaments and jewellery. During its short history as 

a gallery it has hosted one group show and five solo shows. Highlights from 2014 were Victorian potter 

Bridget Bodenham's first solo exhibition matter and spirit, along with exhibitions by international 

visitors Momoko and Tetsuya Otani from Shigaraki in Japan. The overwhelming response to these 

exhibitions led to sell-out shows, with the Otanis also giving a successful demonstration at the Brisbane 

Clay School. 

The beautiful old building, built in 1926, also has a studio out the back and a residence further back - 

a true atelier. The gallery space is small, intimate and simple, and furnished with an eclectic collection of 

wooden furniture and shop fittings - some very old pieces and some purpose made. 

Each exhibition and shop fit-out is a joy to create in this goldilocks 'not too big not too small' gallery. 

On the back wall is a changing installation (made with ceramic letters) of the poetry of Kylie Johnson; 

however the featured wall quote by Sir Herbert Read chosen for Bridget Bodenham's May 2014 

exhibition was a favourite and remained in place for the rest of the year . 

the art of pottery 

is of all arts 

the one that fuses together 

in indestructible unity 

earth and heaven 

matter and spirit 

http://paperboatpress.com 

THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS APRll2015 65

Education 

Pathways to Practice 

Lou McCallum examines the pathways that three 

Australian ceramic artists have taken 

Lou McCallum talks with three Australian ceramic 

artists about ceramics education and the choices they 

have made. 

Changes in the style and availability of ceramics 

education over the last two decades in Australia have 

had an impact on the pathways that ceramic artists 

now take into practice. The ceramics market has also 

changed, and this affects the range of skills-building 

opportunities on offer. 

This is the first in a series of three articles looking 

at how people choose their particular pathway and 

how ceramics education in Australia can adjust to 

changing needs and available resources. 

This first article explores the issue of time - how 

ceramic artists decide on the pace of their learning, 

and how the availability of flexible learning options 

affects these decisions. Melanie Douglas is fairly new to ceramics having recently finished her Certificate 

III at a TAFE College in Sydney, a two-day-a-week course that is often a stepping-stone towards a 

Diploma. Dramatic funding cuts to the TAFE sector in NSW have removed what Melanie saw as her 

logical next learning step. She now attends a local pottery group that offers regular unaccredited classes. 

Sarah Ormonde completed a Masters in Visual Art (with Honours) at the Australian National University 

(ANU) in 2013 and is now settling into a professional practice in Bendigo. Sarah has had an art practice 

since studying painting at an Institute of Technology art school straight after high school. 

Megan Puis has been a ceramic artist since the early 1990s. She has "no letters or pieces of paper" 

and says that she stumbled into ceramics as a young mother looking for a creative outlet. She is largely 

self-taught and has" learned by doing really" . Megan lives on the Gold Coast in Queensland and has a 

varied practice that involves exhibiting, entering competitions and teaching. 

Melanie says, "Certificate III was great for me. The two-days-a-week were really manageable, but now 

I want to understand glaze technology much better so that I can produce the colours that I see in my 

head." Before the TAFE funding cuts, Melanie would have progressed to Certificate 4 and covered glaze 

Above: Melanie Douglas, Primitive Series. detail, 2012 

earthenware, handbuilt, terra sigillata, woodfired; photo: artist 


--- --- -_._-------------- 

Megan Puis, Ebb Tide, 2012, mixed clays including Southern Ice, wheelthrown, grouping: h.20cm, w.50cm, d.l8cm 

Photo: Peter Hamilton; acquired by Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville. OLD 

technology there. She is not sure that she is technica lly ready to move straight into the diploma course, 

or go to university. "That would involve a big commitment of time and money and I am not sure I am 

ready for that," she says. 

In order to keep up the momentum, Melanie attends a local pottery group. " It's good there in term of 

skills," Melanie says. " I am finally getting my skills to where I want them, but it's much harder to pursue 

my idea - the essence of what I want to communicate through my work." 

Being in control of the pace of her learning has also been a key issue for Sarah . She has deliberately 

varied the pace over time as her needs have changed. "Learning ceramics is like learning a musical 

instrument. You have to practise," Sarah says. "It took me ten years from the time I started the Distance 

Diploma at ANU to graduation with my Masters. That was partly because I had family commitments, but 

also because I wanted to learn at that pace - to have time to stop, practise, explore, absorb ideas. I had 

to move slowly and that was ultimately very useful." But Sarah also wanted to be able to step up the 

pace of learning from time to time. "The Masters at ANU gave me a great opportunity to really explore 

my ideas, materials and process. I spent the last semester as a full-time student and carved out a month 

of time on campus. This allowed me to disrupt my practice and reconsider everything. I stopped making 

for other people and just focused on push ing my work as far as possible." Sarah now works full-time in 

her home studio and part-time as a production potter and demonstrator at Bendigo Pottery, "because I 

throw, and I want to keep improving my skills, so that my work is the best it can be ." 

For Megan, time to explore is also a central part of her practice. "I started out by doing a few TAFE 

courses, but I was a bit impatient. I hate being told I can't do something. They wanted me to make 


Sarah Ormonde, Sutton Grange: Fox Co untry, 2015, high*fired terracotta and porcelain body 

iron oxide inlay, layered slips and dry glaze, max. h.32cm; photo: Ian Hill 

pinch pots, but I wanted to just jump onto the wheel. I knew I could do it! People told me I couldn't mix 

the clays the way I wanted to, but I just found some positive people like Janet Mansfield who helped me 

to realise my idea. I did a stint in production and that made me competent on the wheel. That meant 

that I had a proper canvas and could go on to create," Megan says. "Now I communicate with other 

artists through Facebook, sharing ideas, getting inspiration, and I teach at a local pottery group. I am 

still pretty self-directed. My making is often driven by a word or a metaphor, and that sets me off on a 

path to make a series of work. " 

The key message for ceram ics education here is about flexibility - about constructing pathways that 

support artists to alter the pace of their learning. This allows people to pause at particular points to 

consolidate, re-think, build their craft skills and move on. There is also a message here about continuity 

- making sure that there is a smooth transition from one level of learn ing to another. This gives people 

the opportunity and the confidence to continue. This transition doesn't have to occur in the same 

institution, particularly in this resource-constrained environment, but achieving the transition requires 

more communication between institutions and between the formal and informal learn ing sectors. That 

would help to provide clear road signs for people who want to keep progressing. One challenge here 

is the competition that exists between learning institutions. Shrinking resources mean that getting 

'bums on seats' becomes a high priority, so collaboration between institutions often suffers. Rather than 

fighting over what appears to be a smaller pool of available students, the solution lies in promoting set 

entry points, learning pathways and options for a sustainable career as a ceramic artist. This will bring 

more people into ceramic art and make ceramic practice more financially and emotionally appealing . 

Lou McCallum has just completed his Masters in Visual Art at ANU. He has a studio in 

Marrickville in Sydney and is a member of TACA's Education Sub-committee. 


The Whispering Gallery 

by Glenn Barkley 

The last couple of years in Australian art has seen a dynamic interest in ceramics from 

younger artists, which has led to a spike in its display in contemporary museums and a markedly 

increased profile in magazines, newspapers and online. 

This interest is also international. The last Whitney Biennial, a barometer of what's hot in American 

contemporary art, saw a number of artists working with clay, and art fairs are now full of ceramics, no 

gallery being complete without a couple of scatological masterpieces. 

Many of the young artists now working with clay have extensive networks that stretch in a different 

direction to the old clay networks - these affiliations lead in part to their ability to show their ceramics 

work in a broader museum context. 

It has lead to a bit of a conundrum, though, and although ceramics fortunes in the hands of 

contemporary artists seems to be driving it forward, where does it leave artists whose work with 

ceramics stretches back decades, are more process driven and engaged with ceramics' technological 

past? The whispering gallery is alive and I have seen some makers repulsed by work that seems so 

tenuously put together it appears to be on the point of collapse. But of course, therein lie its charms. 

In discussion with Angela Brennan, a painter with a well established career now invigorated by an 

intense engagement with ceramics, she spoke of the 'libido of clay' and many of the new clay artists 

directly and unashamedly celebrating its visceral and scatological power. 

Their practices' unformlessness, or seeming lack of skill with clay, is wrapped in the context of their 

broader work. Many have an interest in the artist outsider, the marginal and the untrained. It is this 

aspect of their practice that I find particularly compelling. 

This also connects it to the social activity of making. Many artists are interested in clay because it 

can take you out of your head into a broader community of like-minded people busy making - from 

backyard masterpieces, to mums seeking a bit of release, office workers wanting to break free from 

the daily grind, and interior decorators wanting to go a little more hands-on, to jaded curators just 

looking for a place to go .. after all, people are social animals. 

These things - a punk rock three chords attitude to making, clay's libidinous currency and its social 

aspects - can work two ways: pushing in to the ceramics community conservatism whilst simultaneously 

pushing against the contemporary art world's own form of repulsive media-based snobbery, and one 

hopes contemporary curators can now start to excavate back into the ceramics world which we all know 

is full of amazing work made by incredible artists. 

The ceramics community sees itself as a broad, accepting church but, like all forms of organised 

religion, it has a few hang ups. Hopefully this new injection of interest might just blow off the church 

doors. 

www.thecuratorsdepartment.com/glenn-barkley/

Pocket PhD 

Brett Smout Explores 

Low-fire Vitrification to 

Reduce Emissions 

Indulging my curiosity while taking up former Prime Minister Rudd's 'great moral challenge of our 

generation', I embarked on a project to reduce the energy required to fire ceramics, with the intention 

of incorporating industrial and agricultural waste. That quest became the scientific body of a crossdisciplinary 

thesis in the school of contemporary art. 

Early on I had a lucky encounter. A glass of red wine at a friend's wedding led me to Denis Whitfield, 

who lent me his masters and doctoral theses investigating quarry tailings and industrial waste. Blessed 

with this generosity, I sought out a sand quarry and a road-base quarry where the waste wash-off 

was fine, iron-bearing clay. Further expeditions and kindnesses yielded an exciting collection of waste 

ingredients including glass cullet, sugarcane ash, rock dust, perlite fines, corn cobs and rice husk. The 

corn cobs and rice husk produced energy when burned in an Indonesian stove with a 12-volt fan, 

leaving me with corn cob ash and rice husk ash for further experiments. 

After I undertook systematic blending to see what impact these ingredients had on each other, my 

associate supervisor, Chris Ling, helped me conduct and interpret X-ray diffraction and provided me with 

an entree to the Australian Microscopy and Microanalysis Research Facility, where I was taught how to 

use the electron microscopes to photograph the morphology of my samples. 

Several clay bodies were formulated and fired at a range of temperatures. These bodies were 

tested for absorption, porosity and fired strength using standardised methods. Engobes and glazes 

incorporating agricultural and industrial waste were formulated and tested on selected bodies at a range 

of temperatures. 

Eventually I was able to develop a vitrified ceramic at 950°C that could be bisque-fired at 700°(, and 

the density of the bodies permitted raw glazing . 

While this satisfied the goal of the research, the bodies developed were far from perfect. The 

most significant problem was thixotropy, evident by flabbiness when throwing and a tendency to set 

hard when packaged in sealed bags or left in the pug-mill. Thank you Dee Taylor-Graham for your 

patience and help with that one! Geoff Crispin kindly tested one such batch of bagged plastic clay and 

documented a range of problematic qualities including abrasiveness and lack of consistency. I have since 

been able to work around these limitations to make blends that fire higher but are more workable. 


Pocket PhD 

Brett Smout, Coo ling Tower, 2013, vitrified clay, 1040°(. CO 2 

, h.12ern, w.l1 cm; photo: artist 

Throughout this research, my principle supervisor, Jan Guy, encouraged me to think and see things 

differently. Her knowledge of contemporary art and passion for ceramics as a medium, together with 

the exhibitions and expositions of academics and my fellow students, stimulated me to use ceramics 

and other media to reflect concerns with energy use and the environment. The accompanying image 

of a ceramic cooling tower form with billowing CO, reminds me of my 4 am trip to photograph the 

tower at Wallerawang on a misty winter morning - just one of many unique experiences associated with 

undertaking a PhD. 

The whole thesis is online at http://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/handle/2123/9429. 

THE JOURNAL Of AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS APR IL 2015 71

Studio 

Inside the Studio of 

Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran 

Vicki Grima: When did you first use clay and what did you make? 

Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran: I remember doing a weekend course at a community college in when I 

was about nine years old. I'm pretty sure it was called Clay for Kids. My memory of that is hazy, though 

I remember making three things: a pretty weird small bust of a male, a bowl with chicken feet attached 

to the sides, and a really ugly blue vessel with an offensive yellow glaze adorning the interior. I loved 

clay at the time because I got to work with and get my hands in something wet. 

VG: Where is your current studio? 

RMN: I'm currently an artist in residence at the William Street Creative LiveIWork Spaces in Darlinghurst. 

This is a City of Sydney initiative managed by Gaffa. It means I get to live and create work in the inner 

city. While there are no kiln facilities in this studio, UNSW Art and Design is incredibly supportive of my 

practice. I get great support from their ceramics department and have my work fired there. 

VG: What are the essential featu res your studio needs to have? 

RMN: Space and natural light are essential for me. I make sizable, physical work, often in large 

quantities. This means my studio gets populated very quickly with all the creatures and deities I produce. 

Additionally, I often work with the colours and pigments present within the raw clay, so natural light is 

best to consider the tonal qualities of the work. It's also pretty great to see a super glossy and colourful 

glazed object in stark daylight. 

VG: Describe your work pattern. 

RMN: I typically spend three days a week in my studio. Studio tasks range from making work and 

writing grant applications to formatting images for publications and promotional material. My creative 

processes are both intuitive and structured. I spend time drawing and scribbling, and then I start coiling. 

I am usually working on two or three large works at a time. I get bored pretty quickly so working on 

multiples allows me to take risks in the hand building process. I also invite peers to provide me with 

critical feedback. I don't like working in isolation . 

VG: What do you listen to while working? 

RMN: William Street is pretty noisy and my studio windows are street facing, so by default I listen to 

ambulances, police sirens, drunk people and general traffic. It's always entertaining. Though, I've got 

some pretty good speakers and usually just put my iPod on shuffle. I'm naughty and often don't wash 

my hands when choosing the music. I usually have to spend some time w ith a needle picking the dried 

clay out of the nooks in my iPod at the end of a studio session. 

VG: What is your favourite tool? 

RMN: I don't really use conventional tools associated with ceramics. While my hands are the most 

important tools for me, anything that can make a mark in the clay is fair game. I love sharp objects. But 

if I had to decide, I can't live without the wire clay-cutting tool. It's such a simple, yet useful invention. 


- - ---- ... --- ---------- 

Studio 

1 Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran in his studio; photo: Joanna Frank 

2 & 3 Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran's studio; photo: courtesy of the artist and Gallery 9, Sydney 


Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran 

Idol, 2014, red terracotta 

handbuilt, electric kiln, 1000·( 

h.89cm, w .60cm, d.46cm 

Photo: Simon Hewson; image 

courtesy of the artist and 

Gallery 9, Sydney

Stud io 

Ceramics by Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran 

1 Pewter Dickhead, 2014, earthenware and glaze, handbuilt, multiple firings, hA9cm, w.16cm, d.1Scm 

2 Blowhole 2, detail, 2014, red terracotta, glaze, ceramic undergJaze pencil. gold and platinum lust re, hand built 

multiple firings, h.64cm, w.48cm, d.45m 

3 Leaning Dickhead, detail, 2014, earthenware, glaze and gold lustre, handbuilt, multiple firings, h.44cm, w.31cm, d.27cm 

Photos: Simon Hewson; image courtesy of the artist and Gallery 9, Sydney 

VG: What is your favourite part of the ceramic process? 

RMN : Opening the kiln door and seeing that my one metre tall beasts have been bisqued successfully 

without structural flaws, large cracks or moisture-related explosions always produces a slight euphoria. 

Though I never get too attached to the works, I try to be fluid and work practically with whatever the 

process throws at me. It seems that Post-Modernism, as well as my (anti) aesthetic really allows me to 

work with cracks and surprises. 

3 

VG: Which single piece of ceramics would you most like to own? 

RMN: Anything by Vipoo Srivilasa. His work has everything for me - heart, beauty, humour, joy and 

immense technical skill, as well as a deep and complex engagement with cultural heritage and Eastern 

ceramic and design traditions. His visibility and engagement with community also adds to my desire to 

acquire one of his works. 

VG: How do you identify your work? 

RMN: I don't have an identifying mark. Gallery 9, who I'm represented by in Sydney, are great as they 

document and archive my work as it is made. This means there will always be a digital record of my 

studio outputs. 

VG: Clay can so beautifully record the mark of the hand. Is this the reason you've moved into using 

clay? 

RMN: The shift towards new media in contemporary art and flippant declarations like 'painting is 

dead' creates a hierarchy between mediums, This means 'contemporary art' forms like ceramics, glass, 

printmaking and textiles are often placed at the bottom of the food chain. However, I'm a strong 

advocate for hand-based practices. Maybe I'm daggy and old fashioned, but I'm not a fan of dry art 

made with computers. I think clay is powerful as it really traces the humanity of the artist. 

THE JOU RNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS APRil 2015 75

Studio 

VG : Your work is described by others as vulgar, erotic, brave, deeply personal, pornographic, political 

do you agree with these descriptions? What words do you use? 

RMN : I think those descriptions are pretty spot on! I feel quite privileged that I have a platform and 

freedom to communicate my views about the world in a relatively uncensored manner and that the 

content is coming through the way I intend. 

VG: Can you elaborate on the influences on your work? 

RMN : There are numerous influences that impact the creation of my work. While my work proceeds 

from a secular, atheist perspective, religion (particularly Christianity and Hinduism) are major points 

of reference. I'm interested in the ways Western imperialism impacted India and other once sexually 

liberal societies. I'm also interested (and critical of) the ways religious creation discourses marginalise 

individuals. Pre-colonial, devotional Hindu sculpture is a formal influence. I also look to porn, the 

Internet, the animal kingdom, art history and Australia's colonial history to create my work. 

VG: Congratulations on your recent success winning various fellowships and prizes. What is your advice 

to others? 

RMN : As an artist, personal and business administration skills are very important. I always make sure my 

works are professionally documented. This means I have both studio and installation views to strengthen 

applications and have high quality promotional material. I also factor in rigorous studio time, and I 

actively seek critical feedback and make sure I'm engaged with the arts community. I think it's really 

important to go to events and exhibition openings, ask questions as well as be informed and interested. 

VG: What are your plans for the next 12 months? 

RMN: I was fortunate enough to recently be awarded the NSW Visual Arts Fellowship (Emerging). 

This fellowship of $30,000, administrated by Arts NSW, is going towards a self-directed program of 

professional development over the next 18 months. This will involve residencies in Europe and Asia as 

well as the creation of a body of new work. I also have some exhibitions coming up in 2015. I will be 

showing some works in Canberra alongside the Australian Ceramics Triennale; I have an exhibition at 

Gallery 9, and will also show some works in Sydney Contemporary. I'm pretty excited to research and 

produce a new body of ceramic work that really takes me out of my comfort zone! 

http://ramesh-nithiyendran.com 

Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, Elephant Island, installation. 2014, earthenware, red terracotta, glaze, gold and platinum 

lustre. perspex. marble, chains. cardboard, styrofoam, raw earth. concrete. ceramic tiles and enamel 

Photo: Zan Wimberley; Artspace. Sydney

Potters Marks 

Euan Craig Shannon Garson Kelly Austin 

Damon Moon Tessy M King Ben Richardson 

Warrick Palmateer 

Mitsuo Shoji 

Angela Walford 

Maggie Zerafa 


Linda Seiffert, Cascade Artist Studios 

Lawson, Blue Mounta ins, NSW 

Photo: Jennifer Leahy, Sllversalt 

Here are a few tips to prepare for the open studio event: 

o Be sure to tell the locals - family, friends, 

neighbours, your local newspaper and radio 

o Contact your local councillor and your state and 

federal members of parliament. Invite them 

along, Make them a cuppa ,.. you never know 

where this might lead. 

• Put up fliers in the local coffee shop, library or 

your corner store, 

o Mark your property with a flag or something 

bright that will mark the way for visitors 

• Be sure to make your studio safe - no slippery 

floor, trip hazards etc. 

o Make sure you have a cash float ready to go 

(a few big notes, a gaggle of smaller notes and 

a few coins). During your open studio, be sure 

to store it in a safe place (like on your body in a 

bum bag). 

• Research 'card readers' that can be attached to 

your SmartPhone, via Paypal. They are 

becoming more commonplace at markets and 

offer acceptable modes of payment without the 

bank fees. Don't jump in without reading the 

fine print as they don't work with all phones. 

o Make a plan - what w ill you be doing when 

people arrive? 

• Consider having work in progress that you can 

work on when visitors drop in, or maybe even 

something they can try. 

o Create a display of your work for sale, with 

prices clearly marked. 

o 

o 

Be ready with wrapping materials. Pop in your 

business card with any sales. 

Enjoy a cuppa with your studio visitors. Talk 

about your work and how you do what you do. 

o Take photos as a record of your open studio, 

then send the best one in to me for possi ble 

publication. 

o 

Most of all ." enjoy! 


~-~~----------- 

Australian Ceramics Open Studios 

JOIN US FOR OUR THIRD NATIONAL 

OPEN STUDIOS EVENT! 

AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS OPEN STUDIOS 2015 

Saturday 15 & Sunday 16 August 

Whether you have a newly established or well-known studio, if 

you are an inner city group, a regiona l potter or in the suburbs, 

everyone is welcome to apply. 

To participate, you (or your group) need to be a member 

of The Australian Ceramics Association, 

All participating artists must have public liability insurance. 

An insurance Certificate of Currency is required. 

Participation fee: $35 (for a single person studio); add $10 for 

each extra person. 

Deadline for Expression of Interest: Friday 15 May 2015 

AUSTRALIAN 

CERAMICS 

open studios 

15 & 16 AUGUST 2015 

For the Expression of Interest form and more information 

go to: http:/ /tinyurl.com/acos2015 

The Australian Ceramics Association T: 1300720 124 F: 02 9369 3142 

E: mail@australianceramics.com www.australianceramics.com 

Open Studio 

participants from 2014 

said they loved ... 

connecting with the community and inspiring visitors to create 

the surprising number of enthusiastic visitors 

the feeling of energy 

raising awareness in the general community about clay and classes 

spreading the word that our pottery is here 

taking a step towards professionalism in my artistic journey 

cleaning my studio; it's now a lovely place to work 

the feeling of being part of a big clay family 

the excitement of local people' discovering' my studio 

one of the local government councilors calling in, very positive and excited 

getting lovely feedback on my new line of work 

team building amongst artists 

the connectedness with other ceramic studios 

THE /OURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS APRIL 2015 79

Gatherings 

Baptism of Fire 

The rebirth of the Hamada kiln, witnessed by Euan Craig 

Flames roared fiercely into Mashiko's freezing night air, bursting from the spy holes of all seven 

chambers of the great climbing kiln. After four days of stoking, the noborigama of Shoji Hamada 

breathed fire for the first time in forty years. I stood in the wood shed beside the kiln, resting my hands 

on the haft of my axe, watching the crowd of spectators milling round the edges of the firelight while 

the stoking team brought the fire box and first chamber to their peak temperature of cone 10. It was a 

glorious sight. 

In 1923, after three years in the UK, Shoji Hamada returned to Japan in the aftermath of the Great 

Kanto Earthquake. Many Japanese were questioning the values of modern society and out of this grew 

the Mingei movement, led by Soetsu Yanagi . In 1931, Hamada established his home and studio in the 

rural pottery village of Mashiko, north of Tokyo, in order to make wholesome and humanistic functional 

art, and in 1943 he built a noborigama climbing kiln, 5 metres wide, 16 metres long and able to hold 

10,000 pieces in one firing. It was fired up to four times a year until his death in 1978. His studio and 

kilns then became a reference museum to teach the Mingei aesthetic. 

The earthquake of March 2011 severely damaged many of the kilns and the 400 potteries in Mashiko, 

including the noborigama at the Hamada Museum, and fallout from the nuclear disaster that followed 

contaminated much of the forest of northern Japan. Again, the people of Japan were questioning their 

values . 


Gatherings 

1 Tomoo Hamada with hIS grandfather Shoji Hamada 's 

ruined kiln, after the earthquake of 2011 

Photo: Euan C (aig 

2 The Hamada noborigama in ruins after the 

earthquake of 2011; photo: Euan Craig 

3 Tomoo Hamada and Euan Craig in 2014 with the 

restored noborigama; photo: courtesy Euan Craig 

4 Euan Craig stacking the third chamber 

Photo: Shikamaru Takeshita 

Four years have passed since those fateful events. The potters of Mashiko have worked together to 

rebuild their community and, with the help of many people locally and internationally, many of the kilns 

are firing once more. The most symboliC of these is the Hamada noborigama. 

Tomoo Hamada, Shoji's grandson, invited the potters of Mashiko to participate in a communal firing 

in the restored kiln. Thirty spaces of just under 1 cubic metre each were offered, and a total of 90 

professional and student potters were able to participate and share in the cost and labour of firing. 

Each chamber was set with four layers of shelves at 15 cm high intervals. In front of this was a row of 

saggars which acted as a bag wall protecting the shelves from the direct flame of the side-stoked firing 

trench at the front of the kiln. Atop the stack was a space about 50 cm high rising into the dome of the 

chamber. The pots had to be made to fit the kiln . 


Gatherings 

--------- 

Preparation of the kiln was a mammoth collaborative task: fitting the kiln furniture, staCking the 

hundreds of saggars, and preparing the 1500 bundles of red pine necessary to fire the kiln. The 

firewood was brought from Nagano 50 that it was free of radioactive materials. A three-day empty 

bisque firing was necessary to dry the kiln after forty years of dormancy. Another three days of cooling, 

then the sag gars were removed and the stacking of the pots could begin. Over the next five days we 

stacked the kiln in a roster system so that each chamber was filled in stages from the far side. The pots 

were lined up on boards in the old studio where Shoji Hamada had worked, and glazed on site before 

stacking. All the pieces I made on my kick wheel for this firing had survived the 200 km trip from 

Minakami and I glazed them. set the tea-bowls on shells and wrapped the vessels in igusa straw before 

stacking them into my space in the third chamber. Plates filled the saggars and vases occupied the arch 

space. Work that was left over was used by Tomoo to fill spaces in other parts of the kiln to achieve a 

balanced stack. Everyone worked together, finishing on schedule on the fifth day w ith the space nearest 

each of the seven chamber doors. 

On 7 February, the firing began with just a small flame to warm and dry the kiln, gradually increasing 

so that by the fourth day it was a roaring dragon belching fire into the night. We finally finished splitting 

all the wood and the crowd thinned as the side stoking began . I put away the axe and prepared to start 

my stoking shift. 

The cones went down in the second chamber. We started to sidestoke the third chamber through 

the small port in the kiln wall. spreading two bundles of split logs across the fire pit to meet the wood 

being stoked from the other side. We called to the team on the other side of the kiln. synchronising 

stokes, taking turns to feed the fire when the reduction flame spewing out of the spy holes receded. 

We continued stoking for several hours, joking, teasing each other as we stepped away from the kiln 


Gatheri ngs 

between stokes, laughing, with the scorching heat from flames on one side and freezing darkness on 

the other. Cone 9 went down, cone 10 followed. Test tiles were pulled from the spy holes and Tomoo 

called that the chamber was done. We su rrendered our position to the team for the fourth chamber, 

and the firing went on. Midnight passed, it was the fifth day. It took another half day before the last 

chamber was done and the kiln was finally sealed. 

We waited. A symposium on 14 February discussed Mashiko, past and future, and the role of Mingei 

in modern society. Then we celebrated. We could only guess how the pots would emerge from the kiln 

the next day, but we celebrated before we opened the kiln, for the true success of this firing was not in 

the vessels that emerged but in the spirit of these people who have risen to the challenge, from disaster 

to triumph. I am honoured and humbled to have been part of it. 

I & 2 Euan Craig's raw pots in front of Shoji Hamada's wheel, ready to glaze 

Photo: Euan Craig 

3 Euan Craig's tea bowls on seashells and bottles wrapped in straw 


4 Euan Craig sidestok.ing the third chamber; photo: Shikamaru Takeshita 

5 Some of Euan Craig's tea bowls and sake cups, warm from the kiln 


6 Euan Craig. bottle. from the first chamber, sitting on the Hamada wheef 

ready to be exhibited at the Hamada Museum in Mashiko; photo: artist 

THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS APRIL 2015 8)

Community 

Touch This Earth Lightly: 

a participatory environmental 

art project 

Bridget Nicholson shares her experience of presenting work to a new audience 

Touch this earth lightly is a national environmental art project designed to collect people's stories 

about their relationship to place, land, and the environment. The project has been going for five years 

across the country, from remote places like Kalkarindji in the Northern Territory to inner city Perth and, 

recently, suburban Melbourne. The process involves people through the use of clay to create a pair of 

persona lised shoes. The clay is moulded to the foot, capturing the essence of the person. Simultaneously 

the person is engaged in conversation about the nature and sensibility of their relationship to land and 

the natural world . The conversation is recorded . 

In June 2014, Art in Public Spaces Officer for the Knox City Council Jo Herbig commissioned me 

to work with the Knox community to collect stories (and shoes) for an installation to be held at the 

Stringybark Festival in October 2014. The festival was approaching its thirtieth year and has been 

evolving from a more commercial enterprise into one which explores more fully the concept of 

sustainability and its understanding within the community. The installation was designed to be presented 

in a black box, providing a place and space for Festival-goers to be immersed in local stories pertaining 

to their environment. Stories were collected from the community in the two months leading up to the 

event and used to create the installation. Over the course of the weekend, people were also invited to 

participate by having their story recorded (and their feet wrapped in clay). 

The result was a tribute to the resolve of the Council to present contemporary art in this new 

environment. The black box built into a corner of the indoor basketball court at Rowville Community 

Centre presented the stories and shoes of 94 people. Numbers were limited to five at a time to 

encourage immersion . Audience members donned wireless headphones and sat amongst the shoes 

while images collected from the Knox Historic Society, Museum Victoria, and other imagery, were 

projected onto the walls. Most surprising were the children, perhaps intrigued by the headphones, who 

sat, listened, and watched for the full 5Y2 minute loop. More than 1000 people visited the installation 

over the course of the two days and a further 20 had their stories recorded to be used in future 

presentations .. . far beyond expectations. 

Working with the public is always rewarding but also somewhat scary as you don't know what is 

going to happen and where you may be led. In this instance the diversity and sheer quantity of people 

who experienced the installation was uplifting. The concept that contemporary art is inaccessible and 

irrelevant to everyday life was clearly debunked. There are obviously many more ways in which art can 

find a place to function in the public arena . 

www.touchthisearthlightly.com 


Community 


THE TRUDIE ALFRED BEQUEST 

CERAMIC 

SCHOLARSHIPS 

The Australian Ceramics Association is pleased to announce the winners of The Trudie Alfred Bequest 

Ceramic Scholarships 2015: 

Magdalena Dmowska, Alison Frith, Leana Kim, Tess McAuslan-King and Maggie Paradysz. 

Each of the winners received $4000 to assist them with their ceramics studies at a tertiary institution 

in 2015. Many thanks to the judging committee - Sophie Moran (VIC), Ian Dowling (WA), Shannon 

Garson (QLD) and Vicki Grima (NSW). 

A call for the 5th and final round applications (for study in 2016) will be announced in The Journal 

of Australian Ceramics, Issue 54/2 . The deadline is mid-September 2015 . 

About the 2015 winners 

Magdalena Dmowska 

Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art - Object-based 

Practice) RMIT University, Victoria. 

Being chosen as a recipient of the scholarship 

is a great honour. It will greatly assist me 

in furthering my current studies as well as 

supporting associated projects. I am planning to 

experiment with ceramic surfaces and develop 

new forms suitable for larger scu lptural pieces. 

A highlight of 2015 is going to be attending the 

Australian Ceramics Triennale in Canberra in July. 

www.magdalenadmowska.com 

Alison Frith 

Diploma of Ceramics, Holmesglen Institute, 

Victoria 

As I work towards our end of year exhibition, 

I am excited to extend my throwing ability and 

experiment further with surface treatments. 

When not at school, I am busy making a small 

range of functional ceramics out of my North 

Melbourne studio. 

www.alisonfrith.net 

86 THE JOURNAL Of AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS APRil 2015

Leana Kim 

I have been studying ceramics on a full-time basis 

at RMIT University in Victoria and my course 

is Bachelor of Fine Arts. For this year, I have 

attempted to join many exhibitions internationally 

as a practising Australian ceramic artist. 

www.leanakim,(om 

Tess McAuslan-King 

Bachelor of Fine Arts (Object-based Practice - 

Ceramics), RMIT University 

This year I hope to work on a la rger scale than I 

have previously. I have been working with slabbu 

ilt forms and I think these will translate well. 

I am also looking forward to experimenting with 

enamels on my work and more mother-of-pearl 

lustre. 

http://tessymking.tumblr.(om 

Maggie Paradysz 

Advanced Diploma of Visual Arts: Ceramics 

Northern Beaches, Northern Sydney Institute, 

TAFE NSW 

With the benefit of the scholarship, my aim is to 

extend the stability and functionality of the black 

clay body I have been working on over the last 

three years. I will also be working on the glazes 

that complement it, as well as pushing a few 

boundaries with the design of the forms. Further 

testing of the clay body, and learning its limits, is 

a particular goal. I hope to realise a refined body 

of work for exhibition in October 2015 as 

I complete my Advanced Diploma. 

2016 APPLICATIONS OPEN SOON --- 

A call for Round 5 applications (for study in 2016) will be announced in the next 

issue of The Journal of Australian Ceramics, Vol 54 No 2, July 2015, and on our 

website, www.australianceramics.com. The deadline is mid-September 2015. 

THE IOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS APRIL 2015 87

Asso ci ation 

The Trudie Alfred 

Bequest Follow Up 2014 

Sharyn Dingeldei 

Bachelor of Fine Arts Arts (Object Based Practice) at RMIT. Melbourne 

The overlap of outer nature and inner desire speaks to our integral part in the scheme of things 

of life. 

Upon receiving the call from the President of TACA, I was sent into a state of euphoria, unlike 

anything I had ever experienced before. Through a series of deeply distressing events unexpectedly 

arising in early 2014, I found myself at the precipice of indecision and disabled by raw emotions. With 

the gentle guidance of my tutor Kris Coad. I was eventually able to explore the theme of balance or 

equilibrium. 

I was searching for the counterbalances to each force in life. whether that be between the dark and 

the light or the strong and the meek, and the precarious type of relationships we establish with each of 

these. 

From external experiences. my own internal dialogue and interactions with the people I have 

surrounded myself with. this three-dimensional form is generated out of the organic codes and fluid 

dynamics that presented themselves. 

I was attempting to begin a 

conversation with the issue of 

interpretation and ambiguity of 

balance. and how quickly it can be 

brought undone by a single action or 

reaction. 

The generous support of The Trudie 

Alfred Bequest has no doubt been 

invaluable to all, but especially to 

me. Part of the criteria mentioned 

things like hardship. I for one totally 

understand the depth in. around and 

inside the meaning of that one word. 

www.sharamics.com.au 

Sharyn Dingeldei. Equilibrium. 2014. h.20cm 

w.35cm, d.llcm; photo: courtesy artist 


Association 

Ebony Heidenreich 

Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours) at University of South Australia 

In 2014 I was able to undertake honours at the University of South Australia due to the support of 

The Trudie Alfred Bequest Ceramic Scholarship. It was a rich and challenging year that transformed my 

outlook on art and making. Through the lens of feminism and phenomenology I set out to explore the 

complexities of women's domestic life and handicrafts, the importance of materiality and the making 

process. By questioning binary oppositions like soft and hard, transient and permanent, present and 

absent, it was my intent to create a provocative visual dialogue and sensory experience around these 

themes. 

My year was defined by months of experimentation and techn ical battles, much frustration along with 

rewarding triumphs. I relied heavily on the financial support of the bequest money, using that freedom 

as a platform to push my ideas, expand my practice and achieve a higher level of professionalism . My 

final body of work relied on a delica te subversion of clay's traditional use and was communicated via the 

avenue of immersive, site-specific installation . 

Exciting opportunities that have fuelled my passion for art making and the ceramics community have 

spilled over into 2015 . I don't believe I could have achieved these ends without the significant 'leg-up' 

that came through the awarded scholarship and so I want to extend a big thank you to The Australian 

Ceramics Association and acknowledge the generous legacy of Trudie Alfred. 

E: ebonyheid@gmail.com 

Ebony Heidenreich, Absent Minded, 201 4, porcelain slip, various dimensions: photo: Danielle Monon

Asso cia tion 

Kylie Rose McLean 

Advanced Diploma of Visual Arts (Ceramics) atThe Northern Sydney Institute 

Hornsby Campus 

Above: Kylie Rose Mcl ean, Raw Midden, 2014, detail; Above right: What Lies Beneath, 2014, an installation piece using 

documentary components, sound, sea grass, found objects, wire, particle board, castors and hand-coiled, unglazed ceramic shell 

forms, stoneware clay bodies; photos: Stephen Cummings 

In 2014 I undertook the Advanced Diploma of Visual Arts (Ceramics) at The Northern Sydney Institute 

Hornsby Campus. It brought discoveries, unexpected surprises, intense moments and deadlines I The 

process of creating, experimenting and distilling ideas for my graduating work, What Lies Beneath, 

was intoxicating. Observations of Koo/ewong Foreshore Reserve became a participatory, multidisciplinary 

installation project reflecting the diverse usage of this public access space, human impact on 

the natural environment and the juxtaposition of urban development alongside a coastal waterway. It 

comprised more than 2000 handcoiled, unglazed shell forms. 

Being immersed in study, belonging to a community of diversely creative individuals and having access 

to generous, knowledgeable, highly skilled teaching staff was rich and inspiring, as well as instrumental 

in developing a future plan and perspective of my work. 

My Advanced Diploma is completed, several workshops and short courses opened doors to diverse 

ceramics techniques and practice, and my new camera provided a terrific image resource for reflection 

and promotional material. I entered competitions, was fortunate to win two awards and managed 

several exhibitions and two solo shows. 

Beyond the financial advantage, most significant were the personal connections I made - the lasting 

and precious aspects. Trudie Alfred's generous gift set the foundations of a dream and provided the 

framework to build a creative life in clay. Sincere thanks to Vicki Grima, Shannon Garson, Neville French 

and Kirsten Coelho for granting me one of the Trudie Alfred Bequest Ceramic Scholarships. 

www.loopyrose.com 


Asso ciation 

Adriana Prasnicki 

Bachelor of Design (Ceramics) at College of Fine Arts, University of NSW 

While on a study exchange in The Netherlands I received a surprise call from Shannon in Australia 

informing me that I had been awarded the Trudie Alfred Bequest Ceramic Scholarship. This was a 

wonderful start to 2014. Receiving the scholarship allowed me to continue my stay in The Netherlands 

in order to complete an internship with the notable design duo Niels Van Eijk and Miriam Van der 

Lubbe. During this time I worked on an installation of their ceramics collection for Imperfect Design 

and prototyped windmill souvenirs that were to be 3D printed from porcelain. This experience was only 

made possible by the generosity of The Australian Ceramics Association and Trudie Alfred. 

When back home in Sydney I decided to make a series of ceramic vessels that reflected my time 

overseas. I introduced new mediums within my work and approached the project in a relaxed manner 

without a clear end goal. I spent time experimenting using an instinctual manner to best create feelings I 

wanted to represent. This way of working is completely different to my usual well planned and thought 

out method, but I knew it was the right time to shake things up. 

My time overseas helped me realise what I am most passionate about, helped me gain confidence as 

an artist, and gave me the motivation and drive to just keep going. Thanks again to TACA and Trudie! 

https:llwww.behance.netlaprasnicki;E:a.prasnicki@live.com 

Below left: Adriana Prasnicki, Renewed Iznik, 2014, earthenware, decals, hAOcm 

Below right: Adriana Prasnicki, Haphazard, 2014, stoneware. copper wire, various dimensions 

Photos: courtesy artist 


Asso ciation 

Left: Ingo Svendsen, It's Complex /I (black ring) and It's Complex I (grey ring) 

2014, porcelain, stain, pol ished; above: Propagation of Memory, 2014, Limoges porcelain 

stain, resin, plastic petri dishes; photos: courtesy artist 

Inga Svendsen 

Bachelor of Visual Arts, Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney 

2014 was an exciting year, devoted primarily to experimenting and testing the properties of a variety of 

porcelain clay bodies and stains, making moulds of handmade and found objects, slip casting, and using 

clay with other materials. 

The prominent themes in my work at present are the significance of memory, relationships and the 

complexity of life. I have been exploring the facetted form, both geometric and free-formed, as a way 

to represent the many and varied elements of these everyday aspects of existence. I concentrated on 

making small objects and jewellery pieces, exploring the multiple, groupings and structure, as well as 

combining materials such as porcelain, resin and sterling silver. 

I have also been working on developing a porcelain clay body from ingredients readily available in 

Australia, that fires to cone 6, handles the saturation of stains well, possesses a reasonable plasticity and 

demonstrates a suitable translucency and finish. To date, the results have been promising and some of 

the jewellery pieces posted on my blog are made from this clay body. 

The Trudie Alfred Bequest has been used predominantly to procure materials and tools, giving me 

the opportunity to purchase items without financial hesitation and affording me the ability and a new 

freedom to experiment in my chosen area. The scholarship has set me up for the next few years of study 

and I am extremely grateful to have had this opportunity. 

www.ingasvendsen.blogspot.com.au 


Ceramic Shots 

WINNER: Photographer and potter: Raymond Rorke 

Philadelphia, USA, December 2014 

Knolling is the process of arranging like objects in parallel or 90° angles as a 

method of organisation. The challenge was to gather together your ceramic 

creations or collection, align or square all objects on a surface in your studio 

and take a photo, 

The competition was judged by Ben Carter, Carole Epp, Caterina Leone 

Greg Piper, Christopher Sanders, Vipoo Srivilasa and Jonathan Wherrett. 


Ceramic Shots 

Equal second: above, photographer: Bernie Morrow; potter: lucy Morrow, Douarnenez. France. May 20t4 

Below. photographer and potter: Alysse Bowd. Kecskemet. Hungary. April 201 4 

94 THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS APRIL 20' 5

Ceram ic Shots 

.-- 

-------- 

t Photographer and potter: Helen Earl. Sydney NSW, December 2014 

2 Photographer and potter: Inga Svendsen, Newtown, NSW. February 20t4 

3 Photographer and potter: Kylie Rose McLean, Koolewong, NSW. February 20t5 

4 Photographer and artist: Yvette De Lacy, Kinglake Central, VIC, February 2015 

5 Photographer and potter: Elaine K. Ng. Maine, USA, February 2015 

THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS APRil 2015 

9S

Ceramic Shots 

1 Photographer: Dave Gardner 

Potter: Ellen Hansa-Stanyer Maldon VIC. february 2015 

2 Photographer and Potter: Orit Ben Arie 

Israel, february 2015 

3 Photographer and potter: Katherine Wheeler 

(a'tlemaine VIC, february 2015 

4 Photographer and potter: Jill Symes 

Sandringham VIC January 2015 

5 Photographer and potter: Jocelyn Hee 

Melbourne VIC february 2015 

6 Photographer and potter: Elise O'Neill 

Dunedin, New Zealand, february 2015 

7 Photography: Sen .... ndau; potter: la petite fabrique de 

Brunswick, Brunswick East, VIC, February 2015 

8 Photographer: Ella Rubeli; potter: Jan Downes 

Sydney NSW, February 2015 

96 THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRAliAN CERAMICS APRIL 20 15

STEPiDTNGUP 

K 1 

CERAMIcs 

TRIENNALE 

9-11 JULY 2015 CANBERRA, AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY 

Registration is now open for Australia's premier ceramics event. 

Image: Cj Jilek, Cross 

Pollination, Slip cast 

Porcetain. Wool Fiber, 

Monofilament, Flocking. 

Image courtesy of the 

artist CJ Jilek Wilt both 

speak and demonstrate. 

Our conference program includes many, high calibre speakers and demonstrators and 

we are pleased to announce our three international keynote speakers Tanya Harrod, 

Jacques Kaufmann and Mike Goldmark. 

Stepping Up will be held between three locations at the Australian National University campus; 

Manning Clarke Theatre 1, School of Art Ceramic Workshop and School of Art Lecture Theatre. 

Conference dates: Thursday 9 to Satur day 11 July 2015 

Master classes: Monday 6 to 8 July 2015 

Visit our Stepping Up website and subscribe to our mailing 

list for up-to-date information and further details on 

conference themes, master classes and registration 

information. www.austr al ianceramicstriennale.com 

Contact: 

Craft ACT, Craft and Design Centre 

projectracraftact.org.au Ph 02 62629333 

Stepping Up partners: Craft ACT: Craft and Design Cen tre, 

The Aus tralian National University, Canberra Polters' Society. 

Strathnairn Arts, The Au stralian Ceramics Association 

?' . • 

. REGISTRAnON 

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AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS TRIENNALE 2015 

Teri Frame 

... when Canberra will play host to THE major Australian ceramics event 

Stepping Up: The Australian Ceramics Triennale 2015. 

The Triennale will run from 9 to 12 July 2015 boasting a full program of demonstrations, talks and 

discussions by local and international ceramic artists, writers and curators as well as over thirty 

exh ibitions showcasing exciting, skilful and innovative work. For anyone itching to get their hands dirty, 

the conference will be preceded by a Fringe Festival of free public programs running from 6 July, where 

enthusiastic makers can try their hand at a diverse range of ceramics techniques and work on large 

communal artworks, all in close proximity to the conference hub at the Australian National University. 

This is an event for everyone where, as well as catering for established professionals, educationists, 

committed amateurs, and collectors, you will find unique opportunities for emerging artists and students 

- the generation who are 'stepping up' - to find their feet in the ceramics community. It is a chance to 

see the breadth of the ceramics field on a global scale and learn from inspiring, accomplished ceramic 

artists and professionals, each with different ideas and approaches to building a thriving ceramics 

practice. This Triennale has a focus on active participation in our local and international community, 

offering important information and guidance for artists at the start of their ceramics careers about 

engaging with the wider world, making money, and building a responsible and viable practice. 

Day 1 will be devoted to a survey of The Changing World, including new technologies, engagement 

with Asia and, in particular, the changes in ceramics education. Keynote speaker Tanya Harrod, 

highly respected UK writer on craft, will address the persistence of ceramics as a material for creative 

expression. 

98 THE 10URNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS APRIL 201S

Australian Ce ra mics Tri ennale 2015 

Shin Koyama 

Cameron W illiams 

Day 2 will present possibilities for a responsible role in the future, and be led by keynote speaker 

Jacques Kaufmann, artist and president of the International Academy of Ceramics, Geneva. Social 

responsibility, community responsibility and the environment will dominate the presentations, offering a 

range of ways in which we can address our role in the world. 

Day 3 of the conference program is specifically devoted to practice bu ilding and financial survival, 

featuring panels and talks from several perspectives, including those of artists, gallery owners and art 

educators, discussing the pragmatic side of developing and maintaining a ceramics practice. Mike 

Goldmark, owner of the idiosyncratic Goldmark Gallery in the UK which not only shows and sells 

artwork but also publishes books and produces films (www.goldmarkart.com). will provide the keynote 

address. 

For an artist's perspective on promoting one's practice, the Marketing Panel will discuss the 

importance of the role of social media in making yourself 'known'. This panel of four accomplished 

ceramicists will make for a lively discussion. Between them, the panel members cover a smorgasbord of 

ceramic styles . From Ben Carter's Tales of a Red Clay Rambler (carterpottery.blogspot.com) and Michael 

Kline's studio pottery (klinepottery.com) to Carole Epp's charismatic and disturbing figurative work 

(musingaboutmud.blogspot.com), the panel addresses the marketing of functional as well as sculptural 

ceramics . Fourth panel member Lia Tajcnar (https:llwww.pinterest.com/LiaTajcnarl) has a foot in both 

camps, making work that frequently references function but is always undeniably sculptural. All four 

Anna calluori Holcombe 

Lia Tajcnar 

Michael Doolan

Australian Ceram ics Triennale 2 015 

panellists have built strong and supportive online communities through different social media platforms. 

They will discuss the potential of social media to shape one's practice and how to then share it with an 

infinitely accessible audience. 

The conference has an exciting line-up of demonstrators programmed every afternoon, many showing 

innovative techniques for making and firing. Cj Jilek, a ceramicist from Chicago, is one such artist, 

whose meticulous method and attention to detail make her work exquisitely beautiful and eerily fleshy. 

Her work is complex and involves layer upon layer of texture. Her component forms are slipcast, then 

expertly assembled, textured and coloured, only to finally undergo a series of post-firing treatments such 

as rubber-coating or flocking. 

Somchai (haroen is a Thai artist living in Sydney who started his career in indust rial ceramics. He 

now incorporates this expertise into his artistic process, making slipcast forms w ith extreme precision. 

Charoen pushes the technical boundaries of slipcasting, making highly complex and delicate forms that 

he then finishes with great attention to detail. He will present the moulds he uses and demonstrate 

his casting technique to create a series of forms that can be interactively assembled in flexible 

configurations. 

The free and inclusive public programs organised on the fringe of the conference will cater to a 

broad range of ages and ceramics expertise. Sli p Graffiti will be a community artwork event in which 

participants will build up a layered, textural surface by painting with different coloured slips. Another 

event will feature the construction of a large-scale ephemeral clay sculpture, built onto a central 

armature. These programs represent a practical, hands-on side to the conference, and all are invited to 

take part. 

Isabelle Mackay-Sim, BVA (ANU) 

For the full program and presenter/demonstrator details see 

www.australianceramicstriennale.com.au/2015/program 

Somchai Charoen 

Fiona fell 

Carole Epp 


Liz Crowe: Winning Surfaces 

Liz Crowe is a Canberra-based ceramic artist and was the recipient of the inaugural Jane Crick Memorial 

Prize for Handbuilding presented at the 2014 Canberra Potters Society Members Exhibition. The award 

was given to her for a body of work titled Black Bean Pod - Forest Litter which referenced seedpods 

from the black bean tree. These striking pieces are organic handbuilt forms fired using the Obvara Raku 

method, a firing process said to have originated in Belarus around the 12th century and which involves 

dipping the heated bisqued pot into a special yeast-based mixture and then fast cooled in water. Liz 

has created uniquely feathered surface markings in various shades of tan and brown. After polishing, 

the exterior is soft and inviting juxtaposing the toughness of a real seedpod. Jane would have been 

particularly pleased about the firing technique as she was an avid user of low firing practices who loved 

to experiment. 

Surface decoration is important to Liz. Another body of work that she enjoys making uses hard 

carving as a way of drawing and referencing plants. Liz's carving method was further developed and 

enhanced following a workshop at The Pottery Workshop in Jingdezhen, China. Cylindrical wheelthrown 

porcelain vases create a perfect canvas for carved surfaces. Each form is glazed on the inside contrasting 

the carved exterior surface that is left unglazed but polished, quietly highlighting the incised imagery. 

Although the two bodies of work are different, the common thread is the minimal surface treatment 

of the clay that accentuates the essence of plants. 

A report by Sue Hewat 

Ceramics by Liz Crowe: below left Vine , 2014, each, h.13cm, w.6cm 

Below right: Black Bean Pod - Forest Litter, detail; photos: Andrew SIk.orSk.I, Art Atelier 


Claypool is a communal ceramics facility run by a core team of potters who felt the need for such a 

space in Sydney, where studio space is rare and expensive. Their plan was realised in May 2013 when 

they found a venue at Square 1 Studios at Erskineville, an inner suburb of Sydney. 

Claypool has many advantages for its 45 members and 20 drop-ins. It is a fully equipped workspace 

in which clay and glazes are available for members to purchase, along w ith access to firing facilities. 

One of the core team is always on duty to facilitate this. Classes are run on all levels for members and 

outsiders, and there is the opportunity for one-to-one tuition. 

Claypool offers an opportunity for cooperative ven tures and the sharing of ideas and techniques with 

other members, along w ith collaborations with designers and artists of other media. Joint exhibitions 

are held at SQl studios and in public galleries. Claypool participated in the Australian Ceramics Open 

Studios in August 2014 receiving lots of visitors, some of whom have since become part of the Claypool 

community. 

Claypool members range from beginners to established ceramicists producing a variety of objects 

including tableware, jewellery, sculpture, lights and architectural fittings. To date they have had a 

number of international potters join for a limited time, facilitating an exchange of information. 

Over time Claypool has become much busier as evidenced by its buzzing productive environment. 

Currently there is a wait ing list for membership. Go to www.claypool.com.au for more information. 

A report by Jan Downes; https:lljandownesceramics.exposure.col 

Photo: Ella Rubeli

Mollie Bosworth, A Media tion on Light (series), 2013, cyanotype on porcelain; photo: courtesy artist 

Artisan engages with lots of different mediums and fields - from jewellery, ceramics and glass, to 

architecture, design and fashion, all within its craft and design scope. Given this diversity, we have 

developed an interest in the relationships between these fields, and how artists may draw influence and 

inspiration from mediums outside their own. Parallel to this, we've been curious about the artist-driven 

exhibitions that have been popping up in recent years. Museums, for example, have been inviting artists 

into their collections to interpret and curate new displays of them. 

Out of these interests arose the concept for our Chain Reaction exhibition series in which two 

initial artists are each required to nominate another two other artists who work in different mediums 

and whose work inspires their own. These artists then nominate a further two artists each, resulting 

in the selection of fourteen Queensland creatives connected by intriguing threads of influence. This 

year's artists included Graham Bligh, Mollie Bosworth, Kylie Burke, India Collins, Shannon Garson, 

Roland Nancarrow, Adele Outteridge, Lucy-Belle Rayner, Sarah Rayner, Brian Robinson, Adrienne Shaw, 

Christopher Trotter, Wim de Vos and Daniel Wallwork. 

For the recent artist talks at the opening of Chain Reaction Two, we invited one chain of artists 

to speak about their nominations with the artist at the end of the chain, discussing their hypothetical 

nominations should the chain continue. This final artist was ceramicist Shannon Garson, who, to our 

surprise, said she would potentially nominate an artist from the first Chain Reaction and thereby create 

a 'short ci rcuit' in the chain! So while our chain model has been very successful in exploring influences 

across mediums, clearly this network of influence is a fascinating and more complex web. 

A report by Richard Stride, Exhibitions Manager at Gallery Artisan in Fortitude Valley 


Ever heard of a frog cake? For 

those of you who are unfamiliar, 

it's a cake found in many a South 

Australian bakery that, you guessed 

it, looks like a frog. This much-loved 

cake was the focus of the Icon 

of South Australia Frog Cake 

Exhibition. Featured were ceramic 

artists Gerry Wedd, Bruce Nuske, 

Klaus Gutowski, Susan Frost, Maria 

Chatzinikolaki, Sophia Nuske, Helen 

Fuller and Wayne Mcara along with 

notable artists from a range of 

disciplines and artists from the Tutti 

Visual Arts Studio for artists with 

disability. More than a handful of 

celebrities-turned-artist - including 

journalist Annabel Crabb, former 

premier Lynn Arnold, celebrity chef 

Adam Liaw, actor Hugh Sheridan, 

MPs Kate Ellis, Christopher Pyne 

and Jack Snelling, and ABC radio 

personality Ian Henschke - also 

joined in with works of their own. 

Curated by artists Klaus Gutowski 

and David Ellis Moseley, the 

exhibition kicked off on 4 March 

with a special launch in the SAHMRI 

(South Australian Health and 

Medical Research Institute) building, 

also known as the ' cheese grater', 

to raise funds for the SAHMRl's fight 

against mental illness. The exhibition 

was relocated to the Light Square 

Gallery for public viewing. 

A report by Sophia Phillips 

1 Bruce Nuske 2 Helen Fuller 3 Sophia Nuske 4 Susan Frost 


The annual Tasmanian Ceramics Association (TCA) Members' Exhibition in October 2014 was, as usual, 

well attended. Titled Relics it delivered a high standard of work reflecting the diversity and talent of 

the TeA membership. The Sides pace Gallery in the heart of the Arts Precinct in Hobart was the venue. 

There were five awards judged by studio potter Jan Clare and contemporary visual artist Steve Carson. 

Belinda Thomas won the Overall Excellence Award with her piece Thoughts Of You . In her artist 

statement Belinda said, "My work explores the multifarious polarities inherent within the human psyche 

such as the known and unknown, power and vulnerability, implosion and explosion etcetera." Henrietta 

Norris's piece Gaia won the Highly Commended Award for a non-functional ceramic piece. Her artist 

statement explained, "This vessel, in the shape of an imaginary boat and imprinted with man-made 

marks, symbolises a journey where the passage and activities of humans are momentarily reflected in 

the natural environment; changes that through the action of the Earth's powerful forces eventually 

fade." Both awards were sponsored by Derwent Ceramic Supplies. 

Jude Maisch's entry Ming won a Highly Commended Award in the functional ceramic category, 

sponsored by the Tasmanian Ceramic and Pottery Supplies, with a pair of platters which, when placed 

together, formed an image of an ancient vase. John Watson won The Journal of Australian Ceramics 

Award for the most interest ing response to the exhibition theme, as well as the Peoples' Choice Award, 

sponsored by Artery, with his sculpture, Ruined Tin Mine - Isle of Man. He said, "I remember this 

place from my boyhood, a relic of the industrial revolution. Many coastal tin mines sprang up in the 

19th century and like this one the excavations often extended out under the sea-bed, sometimes with 

disastrous consequences." 

A report by Kim Foale 

Photo: Robin Roberts 

THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS APRJl 2015 105

Farewell Ceramics Victoria 1969-2014 

In December 2014, after many unsuccessful years calling for support, Ceramics Victoria announced that 

it must cease operations. President Lyn Baines wrote in an email to members that .. (t)his action has 

been necessitated by a number of factors: 

• CVlne. requires at least 370 financial members to fulfil our Annual Financial obligations. 

Currently our membership is indifferent and remains at the 220 mark. 

• Our traditional fundraising efforts like workshops have not had the desired support to make 

up the shortfall needed. 

• We require a full committee of management with additional volunteers to man sub-committees to 

move forward. Unfortunately we currently suffer from a lack of volunteer assistance; even our recent 

survey only received 17 responses, a very weak result. 

• Our market appears to prefer closer contact and has shifted over the past decade to small local 

groups. 

In a recent conversation, Lyn expressed her thanks to those who tirelessly worked to bolster the 

Association in its last two years. Alongside Lyn, Treasurer Nadita Nadkakni, Secretary Terri Wright, 

Minute Secretary and Copy Editor Judy Searle, Workshop Coordinator Sue McFarland, Herring Island 

Coordinator Peter Clark and General Members Irris Szoeke and Carmen Grostel helped extend the 

Association to 45 years of service and connection to the 

Victoria ceramics community. 

Lyn remains optimistic about ceramics in Victoria. There 

are many regional associations that actively meet and social 

media has proven an excellent way to share the passion for 

the materi al of clay and its process. Ceramics Victoria collected 

270 significant ceramic works. Thankfully, negotiations are 

underway for the City of Whitehorse to be the permanent 

home for the collection. Those readers who will be attending 

the Australian Ceramics Triennial in Canberra can enjoy 

Victorians Stepping Up, a curated exhibition representing 

Ceramics Victoria'S talented membership. 

A report by Robyn Phelan 

http://robynphelan,com.au 

QUtETCONVERSATlONS 

--: 

VAl.ECV1NC 

--: 

106 THE 10URNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS APRIL 201S

It's impossible to select a highlight of POTober, WA's premier 

ceramics event, there were so many. Central Institute of 

Technology (CIT) was again the venue for the Ceramic Arts 

Association of WA's biennial clay festival. Supreme effort, 

planning and teamwork by the organisation produced a very 

satisfying experience to a rapt and appreciative audience. 

Local, national and international potters demonstrated and 

gave talks over three days. There was something for everyone 

including a demonstrators' exhibition and a Potters Market, 

and the weekend concluded with dinner hosted by Fleur 

Schell at The Clay House. 

I never dreamed I'd be watching Jennifer McCurdy 

manipulate a pot into corrugated ribs, contorting as it dried, 

and then carved and meticulously finished into something 

otherworldly, with stories told throughout. Kenji Uranishi 

with a few simple tools, consummate skill and bashful 

humour transformed small slabs of porcelain into a superfine 

handbuilt jug or a trefoil bowl. There was laughter when 

Warrick Palmateer arrived to demo his enormous pots and 

half the room decamped to his table. 

Above: Jennifer marks out her carving lines 

Below: carved porcelain by Jennifer McCurdy 

Photos: Elaine Bradley 

Graced with the presence and generosity of Ruthanne Tudball (UK), Jennifer McCurdy (USA), Cathi 

Jefferson (Canada), Kenji Uranishi (QLD), Ted Secombe (VIC), Chester Nealie (NSW) along with Bela 

Kotai, Mary Wallace and Warrick Palmateer from WA, we experienced many moments of exquisite skill 

and wisdom. 

The run down to Christmas brought open studios and 

markets like Fremantle Art Centre's Bazaar. Sandra Black's 

trip in January to Art Ichol studios and residency in Madhya 

Pradesh, India went well . Fleur Schell is hatching new 

residencies and a big move early in 2015, and Mary Wallace 

revisited Korea. Robyn Varpins showed in Fremantle, and 

Amanda Shelsher exhibited New Works 2015 in February 

at Margaret River Galleries. 

A report by Elaine Bradley 

http://elainebradley.blogspot.com 


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On the Shelf 

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Lustre 

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3. Developing Glazes 

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4. Grafisk (Graphic) Porcelain 

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This short film is about Danish 

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Duration: 14:25 mlns 

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2015 Focus 

& Deadline Dates 

Vol 54 No 2 

Publication: 

8 July 2015 

Focus: Australian 

Ceramics Triennale 

2015 

Deadline for copy 

4 May 2015 

Vol 54 No 3 

Publication: 

20 November 2015 

focus: Colour 

Oeadhne for copy 

7 September 2015

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oxidation/reduction. This probe is ideal to control both gas 

and wood-fired kilns. Type CP oxygen probe - the simple, 

low-cost potters' probe. See www.cof.com.aulAOS or call 

Australian Oxytrol Systems on 03 5446 1530. 

POlTERS EQUIPMENT PTY LTD Quality supplies and 

friendly service; A wide range of clays and colours, wheels, 

slab rollers, pugmiUs, extruders, all sorts of accessories, 

materials, glazes and tools. Shop 13/42 New St, Ringwood 

VIC 3134; T: 03 9870 7533; F: 03 9847 0793 

VENCO PRODUCTS Manufacturers and exporters of high 

quality pottery equipment. Venco manufadure a range of 

pug mills with output capacities, suitable for schools and 

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pottery wheels are world regarded for quality and reliability. 

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WALKER CERAMICS / FEENEYS CLAY / CESCO 

NEWSFLASH: NEW webshop open soonl Our factory outlet 

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au. Our aim is to use, from Australian sources, the best qual. 

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made bodies, glazes and colours for all aspects of ceramic 

production. 2121 Research Drive, Croydon South VIC 3136 

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or 18000ZCLAY; E: sales@Walkerceramics.com.au; orders@ 

walkerceramics.com.au or david@Walkerceramics.com.au 

WW\N.walkerceramics.com.au 

FOR SALE 

GAS KILN: AS NEW CESCO 21 CUBIC FT Twin pilot, 4 

main burner, multiple shelves and props, digital pyrometer, 

stainless canopy and flu. Paid $15,500 on del. Feb 2009; 

fired less than a dozen times. As new condition; plastic· 

sealed and in storage for the past 4 years. Moved properties 

and won't fit new studio. A regretful sale, $8750 neg. 

Contact Nadine on 0417 688 642 or email 

nadine. wilson l@bigpond.com. 

SWEET POTATO CERAMICS is an established pottery 

business in Sydney, specialising in wheel·throwing work· 

shops. The studio has been running for over two years and 

has a large client database, conducting six workshops of 

seven students per week with great potential for expansion. 

All equipment (tnc. kiln) supplied. www.sweetpotato.net.au 

has an online booking system making it easy tor customers 

to book and pay; contad Joanna on 0423 231 555. 

GROUPS 

CERAMIC STUDY GROUP Inc. Est. 1963 We are 

dedicated to supporting ongoing learning for all potters 

through monthly meetings, demonstrations and workshops 

by leaders in our field. CSG membership gives you access 

to our extensive library induding up·to-the minute books, 

periodicals and DVDs. You will also receive 10 issues of our 

information·packed newsletter each year. There is also the 

opportunity to join the CSG woodfiring team at our kiln in 

Oxford Falls. We look forward to hearing from you. Email 

membership@ceramicstudygroup.org.au or visit 

www.ceramicstudygroup.org.au or find us on Facebook. 

MOULD/ MODEL MAKER 

SPECIALIST IN PROTOTYPE AND MOULD-MAKING for 

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OPPORTUNITIES 

JAM FACTORY ASSOCIATE PROGRAM JamFadory 

supports and promotes outstanding design and craftsmanship 

through its widely acclaimed studios. galleries and 

shops. A unique not-far-profit organisation located in the 

Adelaide city centre. JamFadory is supported by the South 

Australian Government and recognised nationally and 

internationally as a centre for excellence. For over 40 years, 

JamFactory has been presenting outstanding exhibitions and 

public programs and nurturing the careers of talented 

artists, crahspeople and designers. Applications are invited 

for the 2015 Associate program in the JamFactory ceramics 

studio. Contact the Creative Director of Ceramics, damonmoon@jamfactory.com.au 

or see www.jamfactory.com.au. 

GAYA CERAMIC ARTS CENTER " Where clay and culture 

come together ... " Our open air, light-filled ceramic studio 

space is built to encourage expansive creativity and the 

sharing of ideas; fully equipped with a wide range of firing 

options - gas fibre, raku, woodfiring anagama and bottle 

kilns. Specialised workshops throughout the year, contInuous 

classes on a weekly basis and a vibrant Resident Artist 

Program fill our calendar with exceptional international 

instructors, students and artists alike. JI. Raya Sayan, Ubud, 

Bali 80571. Indonesia; T: +62 (0)361 8989515n966769; F: 

+62 (0)361 976220; E: gayacac@gayaceramic.com 

INNER CITY CLAYWORKERS GALLERY - Call for Members 

We are a member-run cooperative gallery in Glebe NSW 

dedicated to contemporary ceramics. A part of the ceramic 

community for 32 years, we are looking for new members. 

Emerging artists are particularly encouraged to apply. Please 

send a resume with at least 4 images of recent ceramic work 

to info@dayworkers.com.au, or email for further information; 

enr St Johns Rd & Darghan SI. Glebe NSW 2037 

WINW.clayworkers.com.au 

MUDGEE ARTS EXHIBITION is to be held on 12 June 2015. 

Ceramic artists are invited to enter. Come to Mudgee as part 

of a weekend away. For more information please contact 

Mudgee Arts at lNINW.mudgeearts.com.au. 

PHOTOGRAPHY 

GREG PIPER IMAGE SOLUTIONS Providing ceramic artists 

with digital and tradit ional photographic 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 inaugural manager of 

the photographidmultimedia unit (for eleven years) at the 

Powerhouse Museum in Sydney; Drummoyne NSW 2047; 

T: 029181 1188; M: 0411 107744; 

E: greg@gregpiper.com,au; www.gregpiper.com.au. 

PLINTHS 

PLINTHS MADE TO ORDER Affordable. designed for 

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RESIDENCY 

NORTHCOTE POTTERY SUPPLIES Northcote Pottery 

Supplies invite emerging and established ceramic artists to 

apply for a three-month reSidency in 2016. Selected artists 

will be allocated a private studio space, rent free, at our 

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experiment, produce work or tackle a new project. Applications 

due late 2015; WWVII,northcotepotterysupplies.com.au. 

WORKSHOPS I SEMINARS 

NORTHCOTE POTTERY SUPPLIES Northcote Pottery 

Supplies Educational Program offers a broad range of short 

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3057; T: 03 9387 391 t ; E: info@northcotepotterysupp lies~ 

com.au; WINV'I.northcotepotterysupplies.com.au 

SLOW CLAY CENTRE Slow Clay Centre is a unique 

ceramics education venue founded by Jane Sav"yer. Teachers 

are leading exhibiting ceramics professionals with a strong 

education background . SCC offers an extensive variety of 

practical and theoretical courses and guest artist workshops. 

We provide for beginners to advanced and also professional 

career mentorlng. We don't subscribe to old paradigms 

of Art vs. Craft vs. Design! Our skill -based education is 

grounded within a rich framework of open-ended enquiry. 

13 Keele St. Collingwood VIC 3066; T: 03 9943 7844 

E: info@slowclay.com; V'Nv'W.slowciay.com 

STRATHNAIRN ARTS Woodlire Kiln Building Workshop 

with Fred Olsen from 15- 19 June 2015. Strathnairn Arts. 

ACT, presents a hands-on learning experience building a 

fast-fire, super E woodfired kiln with master woodfirer Fred 

Olsen. Participants will be working alongside Fred for five 

days as he builds, discusses packing and firing, and 

demonstrates working with these small kilns. Course fee: 

$500; more info: \NWW,strathnairn.com .aulfred-olsenmasterclassl 

AUSTRALIAN EDUCATION DIRECTORY 

CERAMIC DESIGN STUDIO - SYDNEY TAFE 

Sutherland College. Gymea Campus 9 & 18-week short 

courses and Diploma of Ceramics & Advanced Diploma of 

Visual Art (Ceramics) - full & part~t i me attendance; Cnr 

The Kingsway & Hotham Road. Gymea NSW; T: 9710 5001 ; 

http://sydneytafe.edu.aulshowcaselceramics-sutherlandgymea; 

https:/Iwwvv.facebook.corrVceramicdesignstudio. 

NATIONAL ART SCHOOL Sydney; Ceramics Courses 

2015--2016; BFA: 3 years fuil-time; BFA Honours: 1 year fulltime; 

MFA: Part-time or fuil-time; Short Courses 2015--2016: 

httpJlnas.edu.aulshortcoursesiterm-two-short-courses; 

Winter School: 29 June - 3 July 2015; Semester 2: 

8 Saturdays in the Wheel Room; 3 Saturdays Glazing and 

Firing. starting 18 July. The Ceramics Department also 

maintains an artist in residence program. international 

exchanges and visiting artists. Contact Merran Esson: 

02 9339 8718; www . nas . edu ~ au 

AUSTRALIAN GALLERY DIRECTORY 

MU CERAMICS STUDIO GALLERY 

Upcoming exhibitions: 18 April - 9 May 2015: A t the Table 

by Katherine Mahoney; 20 June - 18 July 2015: Australia n 

Ceramics by Shannon Garson, Izette Felthun, Clare Unger 

& Dana Lundmark (this exhibition coincides with Australian 

Ceramics Trienna!e: Stepping Up) The Gardener's Cottage, 

Headland Park Artist Precind. 8Ill00a Middle Head Rd. 

Mosman NSW 2088; T: 02 9960 1777; Tues to Sat. 10am - 

4pm; E: mulan@studiomu.com.au; WNVV.studiomu.com.au. 

THE IOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS APRIL 2015 113

Clay Extruder 

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30 MAY 


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TURN TURN TURN 

THE STUDIO CERAMICS 

TRADITION ATTHE 

NATIONAL ART SCHOOL 

5 June - 8 August 2015 

Curated by Glenn Barkley, this exhibition 

explores more than 50 years of the 

renowned ceramics course at the National 

Art School. Featuring work by graduates 

and staff including Stephen Bird, Louise 

Boscacci, Lynda Draper, Merran Esson, 

Patsy Hely, Juz Kil son, Peter Rushforth AM, 

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Deadline for enbies 5.00 pm, Monday 25 May 2015 

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CH I NO 

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A dedicated space for Australian ceramics 

now with a NEW galle I)' space 

40 Burn ie S, Clovell y NSW 2031 

Wed - Fri l oam - 6plll / Sat - Sun lOanl - 3pm 

www.china cla y. com . au 

SLOW CLAY CENTRE 

Workshop Lecture One-day Workshop 

TEA X ZEN CHAWAN FETISH SURFING THE SURFACE 

with ADAM WOJCINSKI with ADAM WOJCINSKI with BEN CARTER and 

on intimate. the everything of teo CAROLE EPP 

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24 MAY. 2 - 5pm 12 JUNE. 6 8pm 19 JULY. 100m - 4pm 

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Bookings available online 

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WEEny CLASSES: Term 2 starts April 20 

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info@slowcloy.com; (03) 9943 7844

[ERflmIH flUSTRflLlfl 

QUALITY WHEELS, MILLS & KILNS 

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To view our full range of equipment please visit our website 

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R.oller 

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ceramic design studio 

www.facebook.com/ceramicdesignstudio 

www.sydneytafe.edu.au/showcase/ceramics-sutherland-gymea 

We offer a range of specialist ceramic studio courses 

VET Fee Help available for Diploma of Ceramics 

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18 Week Wheel & Mould Making Classes 

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The Kingsway & Hotham Road 

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,

The Australian Ceramics Association's 

Biennial Exhibition 2016 

Manly Art Gallery & Musemn 

20 May - 26June 2016 

« All the things they said were wrong, 

oh what I want to be 

Hey, over, under, sideways, down 

Hey, backwards, forwards, square and 'round" 

Curator: Glenn Barkley 

www.thecuratorsdepartment.com 

see p.69 of tlus issue 

Over Under Sideways Down by The Yardbirds 

CALL FOR PROPOSALS 

overundersidewaysdown seeks to explore the currency of ceram ics w ithin the art world and the 

reasons why it is of such interest to young artists. 

Alternatively it seeks to excavate the foundations of this interest and bring together artists, some of 

whom have long careers with ceramics stretching back decades, and others whose engagement w it h it 

has irrevocably changed the way they work, what they make and how they make it. 

It also occurs where there is a broader cultural interest in the artist outsider. The exhibition w ill be 

inclusive of different kinds of practice from the untrained through to the obsessive hobbyist and 

practitioners w ho may feel marginalised, for whatever reason, from the mainst ream . 

All doors are open ... please apply ... 

Send your proposal/rationale (100-150 words), along with 

3- 5 images of related work and a current 1-page Cv. 

Applications are accepted on a USB flash drive or via www.dropbox.com . 

Applications close: 3 August 2015; Artists notified: September 2015 

Exh ibition dates: 20 May - 26 June 2016 

Post USB proposals to Glenn Barkley, TACA, PO Box 274 Waverley NSW 2024 

Share Dropbox proposals (identified by your surname) w ith mail@australianceramics.com . 

Exhibitors must be financial members of The Australian Cera mics Association. 

126 THE JOURNAL Of AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS APRil 201S

Bruce Walford (NZ) Ted Secombe (VIC) 

Nanna Bayer (TAS) (her Shackleton (WA) 

Coli Minogue (IRE) Robert Sanderson (IRE) 

Wendy Hodgson (QLD) and more 

Alex Park Conference Centre 

Alexandra Headlands, Queensland 

Full Range of Attendance Packages Available 

including Onsite Residental 

www.suncoastclayworkers.org.au or 

or ring 0438 450 349 for more details 


mu ceramics studio gallery I studiomu.com.au 

headland park artist precinct I 8/1100a middle head road mosman nsw 2088 I 0299601777 

B~Onging 

Saturday 27 June - 

Saturday 11 July 2015 

embodied commentaries inspired by place 

Over 150 works by members of 


showcasing the creativity and diversity of 

contemporary Australian ceramic practice. 

ANU SoA Foyer Gallery 

Building 105B, School of Art 

Ellery Cres, Acton ACT 2601 

T: +61 (0)2 6125 5841 

http://soa.anu.edu.au/ school-of-arlgallery 

Opening hours: 

Tuesday 10 Friday, 1 0 .30am - 5pm 

Saturday 12noon - 5pm 

Closed Sunday & Monday 


POTTERY 

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Open 6 days: 10am - 5.30pm Monday - Saturday I Thursday until 7pm 

49 - 51 King Street, Newtown NSW 2042 

Phone: 02 9550 4433 I Fax: 02 9550 1996 

Email: lowekerrie@gmail.com I Web: www.kerrielowe.com 

Check out the work of over 100 Australian ceramicists when you visit the gallery. 

Sally Walk Bev Hogg Jo Wood John Dermer Petra Svoboda

The Journal of Australian Ceramics Vol 54 No 1 April 2015

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