Preparing for Spring

Porcelain brooches

Winter is the best time for developing new work, I find,  when there is a lull in sales and I need something fresh to put out into the world for when spring eventually arrives.

I wanted to make some new small pieces that I can post economically as sending ceramics can be very expensive, so I developed some drawings of animals that I can print onto clay and add then colour to. They have ended up as a collection of mostly domestic creatures, probably because I spend so much time working from home at this time of year I have unconsciously reflected my surroundings, although I don't actually have a cat...or an alpaca for that matter!

I have been combining the prints with some scraffitto, sponge printing and brushwork on other forms.

I'm also making a lot of tea pots which are selling well and have added this design to tie in with the humming bird design.

Australian Womens Weekly Tea Sets

These tea sets were inspired by images from my collection of 1950's Australian Womens Weeklys. They are on display at Murray Bridge Regional Gallery as an artist of the month feature, more of the series will be available in Urban Cow, Adelaide in October

Unsprung and Under Water

The 1st of September is the first day of spring in Australia and I'm not quite sure why as pretty much everywhere else the change of season follows the equinox and therefore falls on the 21st. But it seems that nature knows best because it doesn't feel ready for spring just yet. The cherry blossoms have started to pop and the wattle is in frothy splendour but it just won't stop raining! I think we have broken some records for August this year, the wettest or coldest or both since... well, since the last time....and we will be grateful that the dams and tanks are full in a couple of months time when it is 40 degrees and we can't remember the last time it rained.

Meanwhile, in the studio, I have a new toy, after years of trying various print making methods with limited success and more recently having a frustrating time with detailed decoration aggravating my tendonitis I felt that I could finally justify the purchase of a Gocco machine (you can follow the link for a detailed explanation of the process) but basically this little orange box is allows me to create screen prints from any image that I draw, photograph or scan and creates endless possibilities for decoration. It has taken a bit of trial and error to work out what type of images work best and how many I can fit on a screen to be economical without compromising the images but I have some first results which I'm quite pleased with, here unfired...

....and one from the first kiln load

I'm really enjoying the retro look that these have so I'm looking forward to scanning some images from a 1950's collection of Australian Womens Weekly Magazines that I have been trying to find an application for for ages

Lastly, I just have to show off my new wombats, the photos aren't great but hopefully you can get the idea, when I put the eyes on they just made me smile, which is always a lovely surprise! I've just put some for sale in The Urban Cow and I'm hoping they will be as popular as the little birds...Bilbys next.

GPS or Tea leaves?

New work for this month includes these 'pathway' mugs, I was thinking about how many decisions and choices we make every day, most we don't even notice, some make grocery shopping a nightmare but just as many are about the type of people we are, or think we are and where we want to go in life. I started to imagine having a morning cupppa that helped make some of those decisions for the day, perhaps I should make some for those smaller choices as well...cereal or toast...car or train...heels or flats...

I also finished those vases, these

2 worked well

...this one looks good from the outside, however inside is a different story, it's covered in what I can best describe as 'boils'! I must have not let the slip settle enough before I poured it, another hard lesson learned!

I've been making brooches for a long time but have recently though that I would develop some more jewelery designs, partly because it gives me access to different markets, I can sell more through places like Etsy as the postage costs are not as high as for pots, and of course there is always space in the kiln for small pieces so firing costs are minimal. These dragonfly brooches are the first step down that road and I have lots of ideas for pendants as well, so watch this space!

Etsy and Old Birds

I've decided to give Etsy another go, and I'll probably try Madeit (an Australian verson) as well, my current marketing plan involves getting my work seen in as many places as possible (is this targeted or scattergun marketing?). I've also worked out how to add the Etsy widget to this blog!

We've recently put up a bird feeder on the deck and had lots of visits from Galahs, Lorikeets and Cockatoos, including this one who seems to have escaped from a home for very senior birds, poor old fella, at least he had a good feed whilst he was here.

... here's his younger and better looking friend.