Pottery In Australia Vol 38 No 3 September 1999

-
this life ... a glaze journey
Research and article by WINNIE WEBBER graduate student from Hunter Institute of Technology,
I
have no idea why I
gained 6 kilos for the
final year of my Diploma
in Ceramics at the TAPE
Hunter Street Campus in
Newcastle. For the majority
of 1998 I was engaged in a
busy multi-layered life of
Tech, clay, work and
family and spent most days
huffing and puffing, lifting,
pulling and grunting .... and
still more lifting! Plus
walking .... never ending
treks from the
Handbuilding Room ... to the
Glaze Room ... to the kilns ....
and to the car. I know I
did miles. (mentally, and
on foot). Not to mention
the challenge of cramming
an assortment of hurriedly
wrapped and partially dehydrated chunks of clay, boxes,
bags, buckets, tools, bats, folders and books into an
unsuspecting and groaning station wagon that eventually
wore grooves into the trail I laid working between the
Campus, Newcastle Studio Potters' workshop and the
makeshift studio/ garage of my home. And then there
was the back and forth of unpacking at the other end ... to
do it all again the next day! Its not what I had planned,
not really .....
Having spent some years previously on an affair with
Newcastle West.
woodfiring (in the days
when ferocious orange
flames leaping out of
chimneys was still a thing of
beauty), I knew here, with
my major work, was an
opportunity to rekindle my
dormant pyromania. Thus,
having set my heart and my
mind on Raku I eagerly
commenced glaze research
and kiln building only to
find that Workcover
regulations in regards to
LPG cylinders on campus
made my Raku plans a nonevent
and reaching red-heat
on Town Gas was OK
providing my kiln remained
the size of a tomato tin! So,
off I went to the inner-city
Workshop of ewcastle
Studio Potters where the small courtyard became host to
much enthusiastic Raku experimentation and activity that
somehow (?) culminated with irate neighbours
complaining 'where is my house - I can't see it for the
smoke', the fire brigade arriving to hose us all down and
the EPA said ...(a lot of stufD ... and yes, we would have to
pay them lots of money if we didn't comply. I was
crushed. My major work was now a major fizzier.
I felt consoled by convincing myself that I had
probably saved myself from many hours of radiant
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56 POTTERY IN AUSTRALIA + ISSUE 38/3 SEPTEMBER 1999