Fresh from the Kiln

One of my favourite moments of being a potter is opening the kiln, especially when I have created brand new work that's never been seen before. I stayed up half the night on Tuesday monitoring a kiln (which seems to be a regular occurrence these days), but it was all worth it yesterday when I opened the kiln to a perfect firing! It was filled with a mixture of work, including brand new exhibition pieces, wedding platter orders for the Urban Cow, general production work and some very sweet pieces that my 7-year-old niece Emily made while she stayed with us.

340 Grams Exhibition

340 Grams is an exhibition for members of the Australian Ceramic Association and will be presented during Clay Energy, Gulgong (28th April - 2 May, 2010). The brief was to take 340g of wet clay (the weight of a normal issue of The Journal of Australian Ceramics) and make it into a bowl or sculpture.

I decided to represent South Australia with our state's floral emblem (very patriotic) - Sturt's Desert Pea. It is such an unusual plant and, unless you're into flora, many people interstate have never heard of it before.

I also made this stack of tiny bottles (just for fun):


Each bottle was wheel thrown and joined together while still wet. I decorated it using underglaze stains, decals and gold luster.

Going back to the topic of South Australia - here is wedding platter (detail) I just finished with another unique SA icon - the Balfours' Frog Cake. They use to be a childhood favourite of mine, but they're a bit sweet these days! I really enjoyed painting this one.

Last, but not least, I gave my niece Emily a handful of clay and told her to make whatever she liked. This is what she came up with (a portrait of her auntie):



Love it!