Slow Fashion

Natalie Chanin from US fashion label Alabama Chanin is a woman with a mission. Every statement on her website proclaims her commitment to creating sustainable products. She uses US made fabrics and employs women throughout her local community to embroider them. Natalie Chanin is also involved in community projects highlighting and strengthening the connection between handmade objects, slow food, small manufacturing plants, recycling, history and communication.
Chanin has produced a documentary on the tradition of quilt making in the American South and as a response the the high price of her handmade couture has also published a book and sells kits so that anyone who can learn the skills to make a beautiful, piece of clothing can afford these lovely, lovely things. Read her blog for an insight into the threads that bind artisans to their community and from there to the wider world.
From Alabama to Australia...... Little Green Dress is the label of my friend Genevieve Edmonds. Genvieve employs local sewers and sources her fabrics from manufacturers using sustainable fibres, reclaiming vantage kimonos (amongst other things) for her beautiful, comfortable clothing.
She says
"At Little Green Dress we want to emphasize the value of quality garments made with attention to detail. Our garments shouldn’t be a throwaway commodity but a cherished and defining staple in your wardrobe which has come into existence with integrity and thought for our planet."

the medium is the message

These baskets are by Irish artist Lizzie Farey.


She says of her work

" I have a fascination with living things and natural form. For me, willow has become a medium for an interaction with nature that is deeply personal."

"On the Wing 2"

I feel that Lizzie has summed up my own feelings about nature.



I interact through porcelain, Lizzie interacts through willow. For both of us the medium and the message strengthen each other. That is something that craft has which art often bypasses. Through the craftsmanship and skill in making the medium of the craft artist becomes an intrinsic part of the message making a very strong piece where all the technical an formal elements combine to articulate the message- in this case the mysterious, unknowable beauty of the living world.

sticks and stones

Yesterday I saw part of a great documentary called "Being Here - The Art of Dan Horgan" on Californian gardener, landscape designer, artist Dan Horgan. Horgan responds to the landscape by making cairns and drystone sculptures from local rock, sticks, stones and sand. He creates sensitive, beautiful, ephemeral works. One scene of the documentary showed a beautiful silvery green olive grove planted years earlier. His work is similar to the work of Andy Goldsworthy.


I love the way these two men draw attention to the rugged untamed landscape by creating a man-made object. These sculptures respond so directly to their materials and over time gradually , or violently erode leaving ....the landscape.

Over the years I have been very inspired by Andy Goldsworthy and in fact the "Nest " series of bowls that I wrote about in the previous blog were partly inspired by Goldsworthy's "Midsummer Snowballs"

I loved everything about this project from the collecting of snow in the deepest winter and creating huge snowballs filled with rocks, wool, and sticks through to transporting the huge snowballs to a frozen food factory which was the only place big enough to store them until midsummer! Eventually these snowballs ended up on the streets of London and I love the stories of what happened to them, one got kicked to bits by drunks, one was in the way of stall holders at the Spitalfields markets and was gently lifted from place to place until it disapeared.

Tinker, tailor, potter, designer....

I am in an exhibition called Queensland New Design which opened last night at Craft Queensland in the Valley in Brisbane. As an artist I am really pleased to be part of this exhibition . It is often overlooked that artist are designers. In the art world good design is spoken about in terms of composition, color , line and form. The artist combines all of these elements , refining the concept until, with these simple ingredients the finished piece articulates the idea in the clearest way possible.

“This first-time event marks the great ‘unearthing’ of our State’s design wealth and the future of innovative design in Queensland,” Craft Queensland Executive Director Chetana Andary says. Highlighting new designs and tapping into the hottest local design talent, the QND program is set to showcase eleven ‘best of the best’ hand-made objects from the state’s simmering design scene."

This is the publicity blurb for this event and it is kind of a funny place for my work to be as it highlights design particularly the type of design which heads towards being manufactured in bulk. When I went to the judging for the shortlist one of the judges asked me" if I had considered getting my works manufactured in China." At the time I was so shocked I just said that was not where I saw my practice going but what I really meant was I think it is unethical to get your work manufactured in another country simply because the people there will work for very low wages. It is also environmentally and socially unsustainable to ship work across the world and back again.

Manufacturing my work in the community I live in strengthens the both the community and the artist. I buy my clay from a local business and, should I ever become prosperous enough I will be able to employ local people. I think it is really important for artists to manufacture within their communities, it leads to a greater understanding of what artists do and makes a rich, textured community where productivity leads directly to local products and local profits.


Am I an artist or a designer? A potter or a ceramicist or a ceramist!? What do we call ourselves and how does it define us?

Everyday Sublime

today is australia day, tomorrow is grocery day, originally uploaded by Saffron.

Today I had a lamington for breakfast from one of our local bakeries and it led me to reflect on the old aussie country town bakery and wonder why someone who doesn't care about bread would become a baker. When run by an inspired foodie the Aussie country bakery is truly an inspiring place, cream buns with real cream, steak pies full of rich gravy and actual chunks of meat and lovely, fluffy lamingtons, the cake slightly yellow from the real eggs used in the sponge, fresh dessicated coconut and a juicy layer of chocolate sauce, creating a gooey barrier between the coconut and the sponge. (I've thought a lot about this!) Unfortunately many lamingtons are not like this and seem to be an excuse to use up any stale old sponge cake the baker has lying around.

The lack of a good lamington is symbolic of the lack of good solid , locally made crafted products in every area of our lives. When you take your stale cake lamington home and eat it off your Ikea plate that is not really quite the right size and the glaze is chipping off, drink your tea bag tea out of a manufactured mug whos rim is slightly too thick for comfort and add milk that is at least seven days old and comes from a corporate farm thousands of miles away you are wasting an opportunity to experience what I call the Everyday Sublime. These little moments each day when you can relax should be enhanced by the finest, freshest (and that usually means local and often organic), handmade items you can find. As one of my cash- poor friends once said
"When you are poor you can't afford to be cheap."

Handmade - the heirlooms of the future

I recently heard about "The Compact" an environmental movement that started in San Francisco . In order to combat rampant consumerism Compacters vow that for one year they will not buy anything new.

The Compacter's blog is full of interesting issues about consumerism, from the ethics of having pets to questions of shipping secondhand goods across the country versus buying local. I think these are really hard questions and often wonder how does craft and in particular making pots fit into the ethos of consumerism?


Consumers are my bread and butter- if it wasn't for people wanting beautiful, handmade things I wouldn't be able to pursue my profession and put my rather specialized skills to use. I think all craft guerillas should espouse a craft guerilla version of compacting- buying household goods and presents handmade locally rather than dropping in to Ikea or a department store. If everyone replaced their broken coffee cups with locally produced ware and bought their wedding gifts from local jewellers , local economies would benefit . You would save money on petrol, and add to your local skills and "creative capital".

What can we call the movement to buy local, handmade products and shun foreign imported ones? Rather than "Compacting " I see this movement as an expansion, a connection with real people, not factories, a way to appreciate the time it takes to create the things we use everyday. Thoughtful consumerism.

I love handmade things and mostly try to support those I know and who live locally, but supporting interstate and international handmakers is also important. I think the main thing is to buy infrequently and for posterity. Handmade items are the heirlooms of the future.

Absolutley beautiful handprinted fabric by Australian artist Julie Patterson for her company "Cloth". Based in Sydney.