Mermaid Charm Bracelet

Mermaid Charm Bracelet, originally uploaded by gooseflesh.

I've just discovered Gooseflesh- the boutique, the blog. This fantastic artist makes objet from found materials, mostly out of crocheting! Amazing!

I've always had a soft spot for crotchet ever since I won second prize for a crocheted beret at the Brisbane Ekka in about 1986. I love funny, hard objects translated into wool-like the Christmas bells you find in country Arts and Crafts stores.

Lovely sketches from Gooseflesh Flickr site

being an artist

Whitney Smith is an American ceramicist and has a fascinating blog called "This Artist's Life" Recently Whitney has been blogging about the progress of a "Five figure order" with all it's trails and tribulations. This is interesting reading for anyone who is, or wants to become a professional artist.


For a long time I felt that being an artist wasn't a "Real" job, and needed to justify my profession to myself and others when I was asked about it. Once I quit the last of my part-time jobs and decided I had to make a weekly wage with art I began to pay attention to all the parts of the artist job that I had previously let slide.

My least favourite part of being an artist is publicity but I realized that without being good at this I would not make it as an artist. So.... I picked my lovely sister's brains about how to present myself to galleries and what direction to take within the esoteric area of art pottery. I learnt how to use Photoshop and paid for professional photos. And did the nerve-wracking horrible business of approaching people I didn't know by e-mail or in person with my photos and seeing if they were interested in my work. Every time I steel myself to walk into a gallery, feeling like a total dag, I remind myself that there are parts of every job that are horrible and being professional means that you become good at all parts of your job.

The top three things I have learnt over the years are....
1. Don't go banging your head against a brick wall or always go through the door that's open. - No matter how good a gallery is or how much you want your work to be there it is no use persevering with things that are a bad fit.

2.Excellent photographs are the best money you will ever spend. -More than anything else it is good photos that have got me more work.

3.Make your work for yourself. I took a while to learn this as time after time I took commissions to make items I really didn't like so I could be in a show or gallery that offered me a spot. Now I only make things that I like, they are better works and easier to make, things go more smoothly when you are inspired.


This is a commission that I recenly loved doing. I based the shape on a 1930's shape that I saw in a photo of Virginia Woolf's house "Charleston".

pastizi and pots in Sydney

I went to Sydney on the weekend.
We packed the kids and descended on my marvellous brother and his one bedroom flat for four days. It was a huge trip but when you are an exhausted parent- artist it is really worth making the effort to do these things. It affirms the fact that there is more to life than toilet training and paying bills.

My favourite parts were pastizi with brother and sister at the Maltese Cafe in Surry Hills.


Wandering around the Harbour in Birchgrove playing our favourite game of "I could live there!" with the stone convict cottages and wooden houses overlooking the water. And ........
seeing the pots of Jane Sawyer and Andrew Halford at Freeland Gallery.


I've written about Jane Sawyer's wonderful thrown terracotta and slip vessels before. In this latest work Sawyer has captured movement in clay. The terracotta slab pots epitomize what it is to be a potter. They are thrown then cut off the base and flattened out. The firing process causes the pots to curl up again at the edges with the memory of their old shape. The finger holes in these pots create an almost violent punctuation, but when you put your fingers through them your whole hand is drawn into the vessel, through the soft, smooth texture of the slip and glaze. This drawing of the hands into the pot then creates an impetus to lift it up. These pots are so clever and funny and beautiful . An abstract drawing of tensions - pulling the wall of the pot up, flattening it out to make a platter, the drawing together of the hands through the finger holes and the final impulsive lift this creates.

The other Sawyer vessels I was very attracted to were the double walled, pillow bowls. I love the use of the hard medium of clay to create something so soft. Once again these pots seem to contain a gentle humor , playing with the viewer/user, inviting them to touch and consider the nature of the material and the relationship of this shape to the human body.

yellow magnolia

yellow magnolia, originally uploaded by shannongarson.

Wednesday,
Winter is finally here,
the magnolias know it

looking glass

Mason Jars, originally uploaded by Tinker*Tailor.

For a few years now I have been collecting glass jars- I guess vintage could be an exaggerated word for them but they are a great thing to collect as they are very cheap and very useful. The most ordinary things take on a strange beauty encased in glass.

(The lovely photo of the Mason Jars are unfortunately not mine, they are from Flickr)