Community effort = part one and part two, the rest etc is up to us

As you know if you follow my blog, I belong to a local pottery group.

We have an exhibition at a local gallery and to create more interest invited the public along for two Sundays to help to make a ceramic sculpture...

Week One we had some great helpers to make with the soft clay...

we supplied the clay and some bisque fired moulds.  Some of our members threw cylinders on the wheel or rolled slabs to make cylinders and cut out shapes ...

Week Two (today) and we supplied underglaze colours for those attending to paint them for us.

What a great job!  

The rest of the work of firing and glazing will be done by members of our group.

at the gallery

I'll be at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Arts Centre often over the next few days...

Friday and Saturday mornings I'll be on gallery duty and then on Sunday it will be Open Studio again...
come and help us making a totem style garden sculpture or buy some pottery supplies from Blackwattle Pottery Supplies who will be there with their products...


this is my entry at the gallery... up on the shelf... perhaps I need to think on how to make my pieces a bit larger?

on the shelf next to me the duck is by Denise Mc Donald of DM Pottery, the two lidded vessels in the centre are by Bob Wood with the one on the right winning the section.  The three green vessels are by Rosemary Backhouse.  Not sure who the raku pots on the left are by...

"2045" at exhibition

This is my entry in the 49th Port Hacking Potters Competition.

It is my response to global warming... Titled "2045" the globe and base are wheel thrown, the pig is hand formed and I have used various glazes to depict the possible effects global warming will have on the planet.

"2045" by Anna Ryland. Wheel thrown and handformed with multiple glazes. Stoneware clay and glazes. 16.5cmH x 12cmW (2016).

"2045" by Anna Ryland. Wheel thrown and handformed with multiple glazes. Stoneware clay and glazes. 16.5cmH x 12cmW (2016).

you are invited..

this Saturday at 2pm will be official opening and prize presentations for the
49th National Pottery Competition run by the Port Hacking Potters Group.

I've been one of the organisers and it is all starting to come together with entries from Queensland, South Australia and Victoria in addition to lots of local NSW entries.

If you are in Sydney do try to come along...

If not to the opening then in the following weeks - it runs to the 27th September with the show being pulled down on the 28th September.

Saturday Shelfie - 10 September

this is my #SaturdayShelfie for today...

I picked these up from the class I've been doing at a local community centre, just for fun...

Its a hand building class but the teacher was happy for me to help fill the kiln with some wheel thrown pieces.  I used the same clay which is a white raku and will put the bottles aside for a raku firing I hope to do next winter.

the little pieces in the foreground are a marquette for a garden sculpture that is a community activity coming up soon.. I'll post about that soon

The blue pig is hopefully for a sculpture mini installation...

Have a great weekend everyone

Made the List for August

A big thank you to Pottery Making Information for including this blog again on their
Clay Blogs for August.

They do a great list each month of interesting clay related blogs and video clips...

Here is the link to see those listed for August including myself and a couple of other Aussie clay bloggers: http://www.potterymakinginfo.com/news/

Sunday Selections - Spring

#Sunday Selections was originally brought to us by Kim, of Frogpondsrock, as an ongoing meme where participants could post previously unused photos languishing in their files.
  
The meme is now continued by River at Drifting through life.  The rules are so simple as to be almost non-existent.  Post some photos under the title Sunday Selections and link back to River.  Clicking on any of the photos will make them embiggen.

Spring is springing here in the bush 'burbs of Sydney..


This little orchid is beginning to open - It wasn't doing so well in the garden so I planted it in a terracotta pot and put it in the shade and now it is rewarding me...

Of course the longer days of sunshine mean more weeds are growing too so I've spent the morning weeding a section of garden.

this pink grevillea is indigenous to our area

Running Postman (Kennedia-rubicunda) is a creeper from this area and is flowering in a local garden

so enjoy the Spring weather and happy Father's Day to all the Aussie Dads.

Sunday Selections - Spring

#Sunday Selections was originally brought to us by Kim, of Frogpondsrock, as an ongoing meme where participants could post previously unused photos languishing in their files.
  
The meme is now continued by River at Drifting through life.  The rules are so simple as to be almost non-existent.  Post some photos under the title Sunday Selections and link back to River.  Clicking on any of the photos will make them embiggen.

Spring is springing here in the bush 'burbs of Sydney..


This little orchid is beginning to open - It wasn't doing so well in the garden so I planted it in a terracotta pot and put it in the shade and now it is rewarding me...

Of course the longer days of sunshine mean more weeds are growing too so I've spent the morning weeding a section of garden.

this pink grevillea is indigenous to our area

Running Postman (Kennedia-rubicunda) is a creeper from this area and is flowering in a local garden

so enjoy the Spring weather and happy Father's Day to all the Aussie Dads.

Now on Instagram - took ages

I've finally joined up with Instagram after a few false starts..

Over there I go by the tag @potterybyanna

for some reason it wouldn't let me use annasceramics...

So if you are already on Instagram let me know and we can follow each other there too.

At the moment I'm using this image as my avatar:

see you around...

Handbuilding versus the wheel

For the last few weeks I have been doing some handbuilding at a local community college (see previous two posts) and quite enjoying getting to know some new clay buddies...

However, when I got home last Saturday I had a yearning to throw some pots..

The clay is a new batch and quite wet which is good as it is a grogged clay (it has bits in it) which can be rough on your hands but this was OK.

The first pot was very cooperative, I lost the next one after trying to turn it into something that lump of clay did not want to be..

The third go was good and I have a nice shaped bottle underway...
Now if only I can trim them before they dry too much.  That is the struggle with clay all the time but with wheel throwing the timing to trim the pot is crucial...  too wet and it will be messy, too dry and you will blunt your tool and take much too long trimming or the tool will just bounce off and you will have to give up.

If these work I'll be putting them aside for a raku firing in the future.