2D or not 2D

Opens at 6pm on Wed 5th August at Urban Cow Studio, 11 Frome Street, Adelaide.

Wren its time to start drawing again

Last year I made a clay jigsaw puzzle - just because I could - and put it in the Greenhill exhibition, I had some interesting responses, mostly along the lines of if the pieces were loose and could be played with like a real puzzle people would buy it (because of the complexity of the design I had glued the pieces to a board, it was an exhibition piece after all and who knew people wanted clay jigsaw puzzles?). So after some discussion with my inspired problem solver friend Rose, I have decided to make some smaller puzzles with loose pieces for The Clay Collective exhibition '2D or not 2D'. I'll use the same method of drawing birds, making them in to decals and applying them to the glazed puzzle pieces. Here are the drawings so far...I don't draw as much as I used to but am having a lot of fun with it.

'Exoteric' at Greenhill Galleries

The Clay Collective exhibition 'Exoteric' opened last Sundayat Greenhill Galleries in North Adelaide. All the artists from the group were there as well as lots of lovely visitors so it was great to catch up with everyone. Lots of red dots appeared on the plinths so we were all happy with that! The whole show can be seen on the Greenhill Galleries website but here is a small selection.

Etsy Link

Rose and I had a lovely day at the Stirling market, I had lots of very positive comments about my new designs and made some good sales. I've also set up an Etsy shop this week and linked it to my other business (The Adelaide Gift Company) so that customers can order one or two ceramic pieces rather than a whole gift box, I love all this technology!

Stirling Market

This Sunday (22nd March) I'll be (hopefully) selling some work at the Stirling market which is a held monthly, its in a lovely setting in Druids Avenue, lots of local produce, and art and has a great atmosphere. My friends Rose and Ang regularly have a stall there but as Ang is away this week, I'm going to be her. So I've made a few new colourful designs for the occasion. I'll post some photos of the market next week.

Collaboration with Margaret Dodd

In late 2007 I was contacted by Adelaide artist Margaret Dodd who was planning an exhibtion of her distinctive cars in 2008 in collaboration with other artists and was looking for someone to help her with porcelain casting. In the 1970's and 80's Margaret created sculptures of Holden cars which became famous beyond the world of ceramics as they commented on womens roles and Australian identity, her most iconic work being Bridal Holden which is held in the collection of the South Australian Museum. More recently Margaret has been venturing into 3D animation and modelling and incorporating light into her new works which she wanted to make from cast porcelain. As I had previously made a range of porcelain lights and had plenty of experience with casting fine ceramic forms I was very excited to be involved in the project.


Margaret and I worked together over a period of 4-5 months grappling with the many variables involved in casting large complex forms with a porcelain slip fine enough to be translucent. Thickness and viscosity of the slip, timing of the pour, when to turn the moulds, when to open them, slumping, sagging and surface treatment were all issues we had to deal with as well as the unpredictability of our Adelaide weather. I'm not sure how many cars we made in the end, for each of the original forms made by Margaret a mould was made by a local specialist then cast in several other clay bodies as well as the porcelain. Alongside this process Margaret worked with collaborators Ian Mobbray (on cast glass pieces), Pru Morrison ( who decorated the cars with her wonderful surreal imagery in her colourful terra sigillata) and Mirek Krejci (on the computer animation). The exhibition was held at the Jamfactory, Adelaide in July - September 2008 and then went to the Ray Hughes Gallery in Sydney later that year.

Birds with Bling!

Since I started working from my studio at home I've been thinking about the birds in the garden...mainly because they don't give me much choice, pigeons land on the tin roof and stomp up and down like a marching band. Kookaburras frequently let rip with a laugh that sounds like a personal criticism and magpies compete to sing the loudest in the garden or chase the dogs when they get too close. So as many of our Australian birds have a such audacious personalities that could compete with any Fringe performer it made sense to start some work which talked about this.

I began by making some simplified clay models of Australian birds and then made moulds from them, as mould making is a process that I find far more entertaining in the planning than the execution by the time I'd finished, my initial enthusiasm for the project had subsided...

...about 1 year later... I began to decorate them! I've always loved decoration, especially Arts and Crafts, William Morris, De Morgan, Moorcroft and all that, so I used some of the designs as a starting point and kept going with underglazes, onglaze enamels and lustre until I had blinged them to the max!

Here are some of my first results, I'm working on a second batch now and refining the decoration - I think, I'm not exactly sure where its going yet but at the moment I have an urge to go all the way with additions of feathers and false eyelashes - maybe..