Porcelain Origami

I have been making some work for a small exhibition at Urban Cow Gallery, each month they feature a different artist in their jewelery cabinet and I'm in there during March. This particular show is a bit different for me, mainly because I'm not a jeweler. However I often make ceramic brooches and even pendants sometimes but this opportunity has allowed me to do several of the creative things that I enjoy most...i.e trying a new material, challenging my skills and thinking outside my comfort zone. The material in question is a form of porcelain called Keraflex, it comes in 1.0 and 0.5 mm A4 sheets, yes its superfine and as the name suggests, flexible. I ordered their trial pack and when it arrived by mail my husband couldn't understand why I was excited about my new clay when all I had in my hand was a large envelope, even when I showed him the sheets he gave me a very sceptical look, and suggested that I may have fallen for some kind of scam targeting gullible potters and all I had bought was 4 very expensive sheets of blank paper. Undeterred I set to work on seeing what I could do with this 'paper'. I was quite timid at first and simply cut shapes and layered them but as got used to it and became more confident I found that I could cut fine detail, bend, roll and even fold it, in the end was happily making origami shapes from it.

Here are some images of the unfired work, I did try a few pieces in my last Cone 6 (1220 C) firing and sure enough they fire up into superfine porcelain, however the manufacturers recommend that it be fired to Cone 10 (1300 C) for optimum strength and vitrification, so I've just loaded them into the kiln and am hoping that she doesn't object too much to going to that temperature. I plan to put a clear glaze on some of the pieces to bring out the colours so will refire them to C6.

and of course I'll post some new images when they're done!

'Tis the season...to sell, sell, sell!

Whew its been a busy couple of months! I've had my head down making work for the summer/festive season but at last I think I have enough stock for the markets and some for the shops too. I love doing the summer markets, its a great opportunity to meet lots of lovely people and get some direct feed back on my work, there's always a great atmosphere, great food and often great music too, and if the weather is fine all the better. Last weekend was the Mount Barker Waldorf School Spring Fair which was a great start to the season even though I managed to lose the beautiful bunting that I had made to attract people to my stall. This weekend its the Whitmore Square Artists Fair in Adelaide and at the beginning of December I'm doing the Art at the Hart 2 day Artists Fair and Celtica Festival at Port Adelaide with Ang and Rose, we're sharing a big stall and doing throwing demos too so I'm really looking forward to that, last year was a great success with beautiful weather and an added bonus of a perfect view of the dolphins frolicking in the Port river.

A couple of weeks ago my friend Erin challenged all the potters she knows to a 'throwathon' which meant we all had to throw as many pots as we could on one particular day, it was a great idea as it got everyone very motivated and boosted out Christmas stock nicely. I managed 70 pieces but came no where close to Erin who threw over 140! ( But I did run out of clay).

I have developed some new lines this year which are proving popular already so I've decided to concentrate on them next year (and not get to distracted by trying new things!), I'm going to set up a new website that features my new cups, then I'll link it to my other website (theadelaidegiftcompany.com.au) so that customers have the option to purchase from either or combine items from both as a special gift.

The best piece of advice I've heard this year is that one should never say, " I hope to...' or 'plan to...' or 'try to...' do something but instead say 'I'm going to..' So now I'm going to get a glass of wine!

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.

SALA on Sale

SALA Festivals annual art sale 'SALA on Sale' is on this weekend

Sunday 22nd August 10am - 4pm

Art for sale - street market - entertainment

at King William Road, Hyde Park, Adelaide

For one day only!

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!

Chicken Teacup Disaster

Firstly here's a sneak peak at the work I'm entering in the South Australian Ceramics Award show which will be held at the Adelaide Central Gallery from the 2nd to 24th July. It showcases many of the fabulous talented South Australian ceramic artists we have here and will be judged this year by Gerry Wedd. This work is inspired by all the festivals and events we have here in Adelaide every March.

Otherwise its been a slow month in the studio, I've been suffering from that frustrating condition called Potters Elbow (sometimes mistakenly referred to as Tennis Elbow) I won't bore you with the details but it makes decorating very painful, as a result I have lots of work made but unfinished. I have however been working on some new forms including these vases...

...and as my little bird forms are proving very popular at the moment I've added little a wombat and bilby to my range of Australian fauna. I've made the moulds and have begun casting the wombat, I can't wait to start decorating them

I also managed to very carefully make some tea cups and put handles on them and they were all ready to be decorated when disaster struck...

one of our the chooks accidentally got locked in the studio overnight (and yes I was the person responsible for putting them away that night but it was dark and I didn't count my chickens). She must have put the radio on and had a little party in there because when I discovered her she had danced all over the freshly made cups!

I managed to rescue all but 5 of them and they're all safely in the kiln now which is firing up right now so I'll have lot of newly decorated forms next time!

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.