Latest News..........

LATEST NEWS AND INFORMATION

For those of you who have seen my recent range on Designsponge. The spotty teawares and the other ranges featured in the photoshoot are stocked by the lovey Judith Bickridge at Potier in Melbourne. Sue Clement in her wonderful gallery "Pomme" in Mornington Victoria and Catherine Healy at "Aspects" in Kings Park Western Australia.

NOOSA TRAVELING SCHOLARSHIP

Work from the "Mapping" series has been won the Highly Commended prize at the Noosa Travlleing Scholarship. Awarded annually, the Scholarship provides funds of $2,500 for the purpose of undertaking travel and study that will support career development. The finalist exhibition will be held at the Noosa Regional Gallery from 27 July - 11 September 2011.

Photographing pots

I had the most fun a girl can have with
1. a load of pots

2. a beautiful house

3. a lovely garden

and
4. a stunning retro beauty.

I wanted to take photos of my pots in context as I'd noticed that I tended to use photos of the pots "gallery style" all by themselves on a totally white background. I love pots photographed in this way but it does tend to give them a more gallery feel. This isn't a great fit with interiors magazines or blogs.

I wanted a retro, slightly Australiana theme and to show how much darned fun handmade pots can be when you bunch them all together with your other bits and pieces. So here are some of the results - I'm absolutely thrilled. You can see more here.

The Potter's Task

fresh turnings on my studio floor

It is a perennial problem for artists of all descriptions that not enough people buy original , handmade work. I've heard many, many discussions about this over the years . Potters take a range of views from "The public just don't "get" handmade pots and that is why I'm not selling more. " which could be best described as sour grapes, through to "Maybe ceramics are just not fashionable enough for people to buy and the industry is dead." Neither of these opinions encompasses the complexity of the world we live in and how artists fit into our communities.


Design blogs and magazines are aspirational, most people do not live in tidy houses where gleaming objects lie in tasteful arrangements on vintage Swedish sideboards. The relationship of humans to objects is complex and encompasses personal history, emotions, memory, habits, practical needs, evolving relationships as well as aesthetics. It is rare to find a home where all the objects are chosen to match each other for purely aesthetic reasons. The contemporary ceramicists greatest challenge is to find a place within a life, to become an integral part of the complexity and rich texture of a home. This involves building relationships. Not just personal relationships with those who want to buy and collect your work but also making work that hooks into a person's sub-conscious. Intelligent intriguing objects that the collector longs to see, objects that comfort and provoke emotion.

decorating a " Mapping" bowl

The fact is that being a potter is a low-paid profession, you don't hear many people in other traditionally low paid professions expressing surprise at the fact that they will never become wealthy while working as a waitress or a gardener. Some potters earn a decent amount of money but the pay-off for being a potter is not financial. I am as vulnerable as anyone to discontented envy when perusing design magazines and seeing all kinds of work BUT NO HANDMADE POTS featured in their glossy pages, but my job is to make objects and connect with friends and strangers through these things. The connection is a haptic language* quiet and almost unheard in the babble of fashion and mass-produced objects that fill the world. Starting from my local community and working in wider and wider ripples through friends of friends, strangers on the Internet, talking about my work and showing it to people who might never see it, and making, and making and making. The tiring, inspiring never-ending push and pull of responding and eliciting response with words and pots is the potter's task. If work is not selling then you haven't either found the people who are able to hear you or, through arrogance and fear you and your pots are not even in the conversation.

Judith Rofe, a great supporter and communicator in the world of ceramics recently made the point that:

"People looking for an aesthetically pleasing object for their sideboard - one that they will purchase from the heart and possibly pay more for than they meant to - may not have the opportunity to see Australian pottery in the places they go to. Outlets are few and far between, exhibitions ephemeral, potters with open doors not necessarily well advertised or signposted."

A potter's task is to signpost and advertise the aesthetic, emotional and practical value of handmade pots. It is a conversation which involves the sometimes boring, sometimes painful but always useful act of listening to others opinions and needs and responding to that with a new pot or a solution, or an discussion.

* "Haptic" refers to sense of touch. It is a very useful word for potters but really quite academic and I've often found it a bit scary. Good word to pull out at your next Scrabble game though!

Swamp Cartography The Movie!

I'm pretty excited to present our movie!

Professional Photography

After many tries at
A. Getting my pots to professional photographers
and
B. getting professional photographs
I have come to the conclusion that I should just bite the bullet and learn how to do most of my photos myself.

A tool that is going to be invaluable is my new collapsible light box. I tried it out the other day......

When photographing outside it is important to WEIGH DOWN the lighbox in case of a breeze (I did this with a kiln shelf.)

Now to just get the darned thing down. Look very easy............

Oh yes. I've got ! I've got it! .....just hang on a minute..........


Voila! (fuzzy photos courtesy of timer on camera and slow film setting)

Shannon Garson Porcelain- new website

"Bloodwood" in progress from Swamp Cartography collaboration with Rebecca Ward

Steve from Helped By Design has been re-designing my website. Having a good website has been of enormous value to my practice over the last 10 years. I get many enquiries and comments through my website. As my friend Florence once said to me you have to envision the internet as a web, the more connections you make to and from your website the more fully you are participating.
Porcelain and silver brooch from Swamp Cartography collaboration with Rebecca Ward.

Having a website sitting lonely, unvisited in cyberspace is a very poor use of money and the enormous free potential of the internet. I link the website to this blog, and through Strange Fragments it has been linked to many other blogs. Besides the internet I support my website by using the web address. This is something that many artists neglect.
Print cards with your web address, if you have any articles or photos of your work published in newspapers and magazines include your web address in the captions.
A website is only of value if potential customers can find it........
.........And don't forget to update your photos and information!

Prescription for handmade

My friend has to go into hospital for an operation. I suggested that she take her own teacup with her. As I was having my own cup of tea this morning I wondered why I thought having your own teacup might make you feel better and using a generic hospital cup might make you feel worse.

The only comfort thick, white slightly scratched hospital cups are offer is the fact of their bleached,impersonal, grey-scratched cleanliness. The fact that crockery is very clean is unlikely to offer a patient any comfort, or relief from the fear and pain.

The very feel of a familiar cup in your hand with it's associations of home and loved ones could go long way to quieting fears. This is where handmade cups are at their greatest. In their inherent texturality, the individuality of handmade pots creates connection both between the vessels and the user and between the artist and the user. These associations are driven far from the patient in the sterile, flourescent lighting of the hospital ward. I've often thought potters should band together and provide handmade cups and teapots for recovery rooms for chemotherapy. The chemical process being finished off with a simple ritual of tea or coffee (or even water) in handmade cups marking the transition between being a patient entering the world again as an individual.

Being in hospital is a scary time, alienated from your own body by the processes of modern medicine and by the necessarily sterile atmosphere, bringing your cup from home is a powerful reminder that you are an individual, you fit into the world and are connected to the human race through mysterious and comforting everyday rituals.

The intimate, familiar feeling of your cup at your lips can whisk you out of the hospital and back to your own kitchen. What other small object would have so a powerful and comforting effect?

All tableware made by Australian potter Sandy Lockwood including my own favourite cup pictured with Jane Sawyer teapot and little blue Susie McMeekin milk jug.

Warped

I know I've mentioned this funny thing I'm on called "The Australian Ceramics Discussion List" before, and I know I've mentioned very funny, very wise potter Owen Rye before, but I can't help it. I live in the country and don't get out much, comments from the aforementioned sometimes make my day.

Recent discussions included a query about how to stop clay from warping. This is something that occurs quite a bit in my own work. Porcelain as an excellent "memory" and when thrown thinly and fired at high temperatures finds it's most comfortable position, often far from a perfect circle. I love this quality. When working on the wheel there is a tendency to arrogance, an uptight attitude regarding the amount of control you have over your materials. It's a funny thing that the wheel, this ancient, simple tool should encourage the modern potter to become obsessed with the aesthetics of industrialisation.
The obvious signs of the vagaries of making each piece individually, by hand are a natural part of handmade ware. The perfect circles and absolute uniformity of industrially produced wares are usually the effect of slip-cast ceramics made in a mold. To try and emulate this in the studio with the wheel is hubris and folly.

Here is what Owen Rye has to say about it.........
"I cannot say what causes clay memory - but my way of thinking is that most 'technical' questions are in reality questions about aesthetics - what is desirable and what is not. If imperfection is your aim, as it is mine, then 'memory' providing some distortion must be a good thing, regardless of how it happens. If white knuckle control (to quote Jack Troy) is your aim - then maybe you need to find materials that suit that. I prefer to find what the material wants and let it do that.
Sorry about the digression, no help in explaining clay memory - but a way around it. "

The wallum is wild and secretive

The process of making new art takes almost as long as the process of growing a flower. This is the second generation of the leptopspermums. The surface is very intriguing as the scratchy drawing is inlaid into the surface of the form and the veil of shiny glaze raindrops overlays the form. I'm playing with the idea of the surface of a ceramic piece being so absolute. The glaze drops reflect the light drawing the surrounding environment into the form and the most satisfying interaction of all is picking up these vessels the smoothroughshinysmoothscratchy-ness.

The wallum is a wild, secretive environment, full of detail and wonder I think pieces of work that capture the wallum should try to capture this.

Thirst

I'm working on the scribbly gum for the wallum project. Rebecca made me some metal plates etched with impressions taken from out photos of the wallum. After the yunomi were thrown I re-dampened them by the highly technical process of putting them in a plastic box with a wet plaster slab in the bottom of it overnight and then used the rounded end of a rolling pin to press the bases of the yunomi onto the etchings from the inside.
These are the second incarnation of this design and the third incarnation will be pared back further. I'll keep going until the pure essence of the bush is distilled into the drawing. Until picking up these yunomi captures first the smoky rays of sun touching the tops of the eucalyptus, the cool damp smell of the dew and the "wheeeeeeee- CRACK" of the whip bird's call.
As tea drinking vessels these pots will be handled a lot. From the setting of the table through to the washing up a drinking vessel constantly interacts with the body and brain of the user. It needs to be stimulating yet calming. Sometimes I feel like having a cup of tea is a tiny island of calm in the midst of a chaotic world. It is really important to me that the drinking vessel is the focus of this expanding circle of calm, yet leads the mind to wander in a creative direction. Having a cup of tea is not just for quenching physical thirst.

Wallum porcelain- leptospermum

Leptospernum blossoms are familiar to all lovers of the wallum. Tiny and white these five petalled flowers completely cover the small scratchy bushes that produce them. I made these porcelain works with an scraffitto/inlay technique which in itself is a rather scratchy dry process. The interiors are pure, translucent Southern Ice porcelain covered in a clear glaze. The exterior captures the light with a spotted pattern of clear glaze over the dry drawing.

The final exhibition for Rebecca and my collaboration will include some groups of 10-15 pieces of this leptspernum work ranging form large bowls through to tiny teabowls all covered in the sepia drawings and softly capturing and reflecting light from their spotted surfaces.

Potier- distinctive objects made by hand

I'm so excited to be part of a new store/gallery that has just opened in Melbourne. Lovers of handmade ceramics feast your eyes on this......


Potier is the inspiration of Melbourne ceramics collector Judith Buckridge and represents many of Australia's most exciting makers. Artists Judith has collected in her store include, Bridget Bodenham, Phil Elson, Jane Sawyer, Christopher Plumridge, Sandy Lockwood, Chris Coad and Sophie Milne. I think the motto says it all
"distinctive objects - made by hand."

Here is Judith's statement of intent
"From individually crafted domestic ware to exquisite one-off sculptural pieces, Potier provides the perfect space to experience and buy beautiful and important works of local and national significance.Marianne Huhn

Potier was created to promote the importance of ceramic practice and develop a broader understanding of, and desire to acquire, handmade one-off pieces for everyday use and as collectors' items."

Christopher Plumridge

Revolutionary words in a retail environment. Viva la Revolution!

Silver and Clay

I've been visiting Rebecca's studio. We are into the creation phase of our wallum project and are spending time in each other's studios,learning "cross discipline" skills.

We painted silver and copper with brown, road tar goo and when it was dry, I scratched leptospernum blossoms and leaf silhouettes exposing the metal. The plates were then dipped into and acid bath.
We are working on a couple of ranges of jewellery incorporating metal, porcelain and thread. Here are the porcelain pendants in the background with silver cuttle fish castings of twigs in the foreground.

Brass etched plates ready for some work in the ceramic studio.

Drawing from it with his eyes.....

"It is often said that Leonardo drew so well because he knew about things; it is truer to say that he knew about things because he drew so well." (Kenneth Clark)
I have been working on a HUGE order. It seems as if it has been going for years. by the end of a huge order I am getting drawing fatigue. Every piece has to have the same level of attack and commitment in the mark making and it is hard to maintain this, your hands and mind gets tired.

"The process of drawing is, before all else, the process of putting the visual intelligence into action, the very mechanics of visual thought. Unlike painting and sculpture it is the process by which the artist makes clear to himself, and not to the spectator, what he is doing. It is a soliloquy before it becomes communication." (Michael Ayerton)
It's really worth persevering with this approach though....or else you end up with meaningless marks.

"To 'draw' implies everything the word stands for: to pull or to drag or to draw forth, as from the earth, a vein, or well. (Lance Esplund)"

Emerson wrote the quote below referring to drawing as in "bringing out" I think it can apply equally to the intimate process of discovery in rendering a bird's nest in oxide and underglaze onto a porcelain surface.

“(s)He who is in love is wise and is becoming wiser, sees newly every time (s)he looks at the object beloved, drawing from it with his eyes and his mind those virtues it possesses” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Spotty Cups

a sense of occasion

Australian expatriate potter living in Japan, Euan Craig recently posted a blog on the Japanese tradition of boxing special works . Works of special significance are boxed in paulownia boxes, resistant to fire, and rot and marked with calligraphy denoting the contents and the maker's kanji. The bowl itself is wrapped in yellow tumeric dyed cloth, also marked, and placed inside the box. This subtle and poetic tradition leads to a sense of occasion, and anticipation when the owner of the pieces uses the vessel. Using a pot boxed in this way involves an active decision about which moment calls for the pot.

Although I am a strong advocate of handmade pots for everyday use, there is something special about getting a pot from a cupboard, admiring it as you indulge in the private sensory moment of unpacking, running your hands over the vessel, reacquainting yourself with the curves, foot and maker's marks on the underside. This private moment leads to a sense of celebration when the table is set with the "best china", it is something I remember vividly from childhood. I loved going to the china cabinet and choosing which of the special pieces to use, it smelled dusty and sharp.......and exciting.
The images are all of Euan Craig's teabowls you can see more of these and read his gentle and illuminating explorations of these pieces here

clouds

The other day I went to "stroke correction"(!) swimming class at 6 o'clock in the evening. My strokes sort of worked but I was constantly distracted by the pale, china blue sunset sky and beautiful clouds. For years I've been working on clouds. Porcelain is the perfect medium to capture the ephemeral nature of clouds, but how to get that three dimensional instubstantial beauty? A book I read recently described clouds as "floating lakes". It is true, when there are clouds in the sky there is humidity in the air. I like to think of those huge bodies of water, suspended, defying gravity above us.

11.20 pm Weather Report & Firewheel Tree

I can confidently report that it was raining lightly at 11.20 last night. I was up very late (for a mother of two pirates) firing the kiln. Today I'm unpacking, cleaning and pricing for the Finders Keepers Market.

I'll be exhibiting these pots I've been working on for a while. The Firewheel tree stenocarpus sinuatus is a Queensland rainforest tree flowering through summer. I wanted this design to recall old 1940's Australiana and fabric designs.