The Journal of Australian Ceramics Vol 54 No 1 April 2015

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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
THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS APRil 2015 67