Care | selected group exhibition at CraftACT

From Oct to Dec 2020, a small selection of my sparrows will be on show at CraftACT: Design + Craft Centre in Canberra, Australia.

In 2015, I investigated the disappearance of sparrows in my hometown Canberra. Five years on and after the bushfires raged across Australia and the Sapphire Coast in New South Wales, I felt compelled to revisit this series. Sitting in my studio, I refined the patterns and pierced more holes to emphasize the fragility of birdlife consumed at a rate unseen before. Now, more than ever, we need to care for our wildlife. This poem is for them.

shape the clay / small bird form

make the mould / a nest for the body

pour two slips / create one whole

slow the drying process / Nana’s hankie shelters the bird

pencil on design / bring it to life with marking

pierce with care / patterns reveals you

two firings / fully formed now

sanding and polishing, completed / light and fragile sparrow

Open Studio | Design Canberra Festival 19

I’m participating again in the Open Studios as part of Design Canberra Festival 2019. I’ve been doing this for a few years now and love meeting new and familiar faces as they see my studio and arts practice slowly grow. I’ve also been a bit busy with a gallery that I run so visitors will have an extra bonus of seeing Canberra’s (possibly Australia’s) smallest gallery – GOST. We have a beautiful garden that surrounds the studio/gallery. I’ll have new porcelain decorations in time for Christmas, along with my new colours in the pollen jewellery range, my popular birds and little dishes. So, pop on in as I’ll be open 11am to 4pm Saturday 9 November 19 along with many other studios on the Northside of Canberra.

Decisions … decisions … in the studio

29 February 2013

Decal-tests-ready-for-final-firing
Decal-tests-ready-for-final-firing

Okay…time to admit I’ve somehow got myself into a little mess.  Not in a bad way, but with making so many tests, I can’t keep up with my manic creations!  It’s one thing to create your ideas and think yes, I have a possible body of work, its totally another to work out which process, glaze for the clay, high fire or low fire, can I do stains on top of glazes, can I have some work bisque and others glaze in my final work (as Jacob says ‘that’s a loaded question’!), and so on.

I’m half way through my residency and feel anxious, as I need to make some decisions and trust what I create may or may not be the final work. I may go home to Canberra, use Southern Ice Clay as part of the work and test the stains/glazes created in Denmark to see how they compare to the Danish clay/low/high firings. What clay do I take home and do I take it as a bag or break it down to save on freight? How will I make my yellow tiles as I only made one mould? (generally you use one mould for white clay and another mould for coloured clay). See.  Are you confused now?  Its not easy being an artist 😉

But all is good…I’ve made progress and its all been a learning curve.  So, what have I done?

Mould making with Ryan

Between him and Lee – these are the mould making gurus – they do it for a living as well as there artistic practice and know what they are doing.  While Ryan is in the plaster room he watches (rather grimaces politely) at the way I’m setting up my blocks for the plaster making.  He kindly offers to help me and I literally jump down his throat.  Yes! Yes! Damsel in distress!! Actually, I promise him a couple of beers and we make a deal pretty quickly.

So here are a few photos of the mould making taking place.  Basically I need to make a model in clay and then pour the plaster in to make the opposite – my tile. This sounds easy but took ½ a day and a lot of agonizing on my part.

Experimenting with glaze

I was very lucky to have two intensive glaze classes at university with Gail Nichols – (http://www.craftact.org.au/portfolios/artist.php?id=298 ) – who is highly regarded for her approach to soda firing. She advised us how to record making glazes and while I did this diligently in the classroom…I’m all over the place here in Denmark when it comes to grams/weight.  Did I measure 0.1 or 1, did I add 0.1 + 0.1? It’s critical to know what you are doing and I regret I didn’t bring Gail’s template she gave us to record correctly.  However, I’m determined to keep trying. I got some results on Saturday and while happy with the majority, I will admit there was one colour that was not very nice.  Just imagine yellow/brown and nappies – I don’t need to go any further!

Glaze-tests (don't look too closely at my records....arrrgh!)
Glaze-tests (don’t look too closely at my records)

Screenprint-tree-on-3-tonal-glazes
Screenprint-tree-tonal-glazes

Decal tests

This has been a slow process, as I have to do three firings.  I hope to finish the test firing this Friday.  Lee and I are sharing a kiln and again…another beer in exchange for advice…gotta love it! Post-note: the decal tests came out Sunday and I’m happy with the results.  While some minor blistering…overall the effect is fine.  Its interesting but there has been debate here about using still, mineral water or tap water when placing decals in water to then place on the ceramic.  Apparently, different places have different levels of certain chemicals – chlorine, calcium and so on.

Trying-to-be-organised-for-decal-applications
Trying-to-be-organised-for-decal-applications

Decal-tests-ready-for-final-firing
Decal-tests-ready-for-final-firing

In between all of this I am on a secret mission.  I’m quietly doing a little project on the side.  It’s a little something ceramic, for each of the artists/technicians, as a reminder of their time at Guldagergaard. Cross fingers please, as I navigate my way through Danish websites, sourcing white silk cord, tie-pins/brooch clasp and glass beads.  Oooh! Are you curious?  It may be the beginning of a new line of work so watch my website for updates.

Finally, Kym from Louisiana, USA and I made the group dinner last night. We braced ourselves and wore three layers of clothing to walk through a snow blizzard to get to Netto (the local supermarket). We made margherita, vegetable, zucchini & mushroom pizzas and salad with celery, apple, pistachios and lemon/dill mayonnaise.  All made from scratch and with love!  Another great meal at the G and moi (the manic woman behind the camera!) forgot to take photos!  We were too busy serving up and rewarding ourselves with red wine!! So here are some photos from another dinner…

Group-dinner
Group-dinner

Anne-and-Leah-at-dinner
Anne-and-Leah-at-dinner