Another sale at Limelight

It is nice to know that two of these little vessels have found a new home. They are 'carved' using the water etching technique..  I plan on doing more with this technique and getting more detail into my designs.

Limelight Gallery is in the city between Central railway and Ultimo TAFE.

Have you checked over at Sunday Ceramics for more clay bloggers?

Melbourne Teapot Show 2014

I've sent my teapots off to the Melbourne Teapot Show for this year's exhibition at the Studio @ Flinders Gallery..

a sneak peak..

hope they arrive safely and that they find a new home...

Heritage Festival = busy day

As the outgoing President of Port Hacking Potters Group I had a busy day yesterday helping to setup a stall at one venue and an information table at another...

The stall venue was interesting one might say..  close to the chapel of the Woronora Cemetery which opened the place up for a medieval enactment group and the spinners and weavers , us plus some other general stalls.

The weather was lovely but we were on the quiet side of the building and saw very few visitors...

the information table was worthwhile though and we will give it some consideration next year.

 We did enjoy the music of the Burwood Scottish Pipe Band as they went past.


No new pots this week  to show you...  I have two platters glazed but not yet fired and three little bottles in a bisque firing at the Arts Centre... they could be out this week I hope..

I did sell a couple of brooches.. like these

remember to check out Sunday Ceramics for more about those that make with clay..

Sunday Ceramics - well its one more day

My friend Kim Foale has generously put up a link for us clay bloggers called Sunday Ceramics and somehow these last couple of weeks I have not quite got there so I'm hoping to slip this post in a day late.

Really when I'm late blogging it generally means I'm busy with my clay in one form or another.

So since I last posted I've been part of a stall with Port Hacking Potters and considering it rained we didn't do too badly..

it was at the Bundeena Art of Living Festival and we caught the edge of a storm so we had some slightly wet gear to take home.

Then I visited our local museum - some fun pieces on display

While many of the ceramics on display were of British origins I am fairly sure these Flying Kookaburras would be Australian made..  I might have to go back and check..

The worst of the summer heat has passed and we have had some rain (as mentioned above) which has brought out some early autumn flowers.  Pity the weeds also like those conditions. I don't know the name of this creeper but it puts on a nice show at this time of year.

My experimental tea bowls are out of the kiln - stoneware clay, black underglaze rings and a Chun glaze which makes the underglaze appear to be dark blue.  I quite like these and hope to use that combination again.

And today it was packing up my teapots for the Melbourne Teapot Show at the Studio @ Flinders Gallery.
I do hope they are well received.

Pop over to Sunday Ceramics and see some more clayers blog post links or join me on Facebook.

experimental text

I tried out my rubber stamp alphabet set this week..

The 'Y' needed some help and I found the clay needs to be firming up before they work well.

See you over on Sunday Ceramics or on Facebook.

Did not need bigger hammer

I unpacked the kiln this afternoon and for a while I thought I was going to need a bigger hammer or in this case, mallet!




Why you ask? Well I fired two of my three teapots with the lids on and one with the lid separately and my pottery friends will now know why I needed a mallet..










yes that is right, a tiny little bit of glaze was on the underside of the lid and that is all it takes for a lid to stick!

 Fortunately, with a little persuasion, some boiling water and a firm tap the lid is now free and I will have three teapots to send down to The Studio @ Flinders Melbourne Teapot Show in a week or two..

You might also notice that there are a lot of shelf props in this firing..  a little trick to get the firing even when you don't have enough pots to make a tight pack...

For more pottery studio doings check out Sunday Ceramics here
or Facebook pages such as Mud Colony or Blog Chicks (look for Show and Tell Monday post)

And you can keep up to date with my own Facebook page Anna's Ceramics 

Thanks for stopping by and leave a comment if you like , see you next time..

heading for a glaze firing

again a short post, not that I think you are missing any special writing from me... :) I'm guessing its the images that catch your attention... so here you are...

these are heading for the kiln on Friday, fingers toes and eyes crossed for a result because with ceramics/pottery  things happen ...

one less teabowl....

porcelain bottle with ceramic pencil drawing, spoons, plain and tissue print..

ready to be transported

pendants and brooches,  two lost in production :( very fragile before being fired then they are very strong

a little retail therapy to have some fun with down the track...  the markers fire on glazed ware in the kitchen oven the pack says... the stamps are rubber but I hope strong enough to stamp into soft clay...

I'll let you know next week how it went when I uncross my fingers, toes and eyes :)

more pottery over on Sunday Ceramics or my Facebook page..

Experimenting with teabowls

A short post this week..my other life has been rather busy..

I am experimenting with making tea bowls (a teacup with no handle) to match up with my teapots.

throwing tea bowls

before making a set I need to find a shape I am happy with...

decorating tea bowls

these two are being bisque fired and then I will decide on shape and size and make a set.

The teapots they are to go with are already bisque fired and will be glazed later in the week.  I share a kiln and will have to find some more pieces to go in to fill the kiln..

Oh, and I've also been putting together some pendants and other jewellery.. will post pics of those next week..

You can follow me on Facebook here,

or check out other potters on the Sunday Ceramics link here.

Visiting Sydney Chinese New Year exhibitions

Today I've been in the city to visit two exhibitions put on in conjunction with the celebrations of the Chinese New Year, which this year is the Year of the Horse.

First we went to see "Crossing Boundaries" at the Sydney Town Hall which is a Celebration of Contemporary Asian Australian Art.

It is a really interesting exhibition..

My main reason for going was to see "LandMind" by Somchai Charoen - here are some images

"Landmind" 2014 by Somchai Charoen

Detail (with my foot for size reference) "Landmind" 2014 by Somchai Charoen

as you might guess these are about the problem of land mines that are hidden in the plants that grow back over a mined area, disguising their hidden terror for decades after the end of the conflict for which they were planted and inflicting horrific trauma on people innocently going about their lives. "Every 15 minutes someone is a victim of a land mine". 

Near by was this globe projection titled "Like a horse.. 2013" by Pamela See.

It is thought the sparrow was introduced to Europe from Central Asia because the followed the horses for easy pickings of the grain the horses ate. The statement also speaks of the ebb and flow of the sparrow in various countries - was it a pest controller or a pest itself.


Here is a detail of a figure made using peanut shells which his father enjoys eating.. its not until you look closely that you realise how this was made - what a time consuming work.. and so neat..

Oey Oen Hok - my father 2013 by Karina Wikamto

We then caught the bus down to Circular Quay and had some lunch in an Irish Pub - my man likes his guinness..

Having refreshed ourselves we walked up the road to the gallery run by members of Craft NSW

There is a wonderful display of Sue Frazers ceramic horses which is part of the show "Art and The Horse" which runs until 16 February 2014.

Sue has around 20 different horses in this show. Each one is different in colour, pattern and personality.  They are well worth a visit and would make a great gift for any of your horse loving friends.

I'll be linking over on Sunday Ceramics or you can follow me on Facebook - here.

Australia Day teapots

I've started making teapots in the hope I will have some ready for the Melbourne Teapot Show in a few months time...

Before I could start I had to cleanup my little room which with tongue in cheek I call my studio.

 

and to avoid breathing in any clay dust, mop it out..

Then I needed to prepare some clay,  I found lots little bags of leftovers while doing the tidy up..

so I bashed the clay inside the bags with a mallet and then put them into a bucket with water

then it is dryed out in a plaster mold

then the wedging starts to get rid of those air pockets

once the clay is ready I can start to throw the teapot bodies.

and the lids

and the spouts

and then pull some handles and all the while managing how quickly each piece drys, enough to hold its shape but not too dry that it cracks or can't be manipulated into shape as each piece is joined to make a teapot.

Today is Australia Day so I thought I would share some images of the place where Captain Cook thought the first English settlement would be... he was wrong..  Captain Arthur Phillip decided that Botany Bay was not a deep enough harbour for future use and went further north and found Sydney Cove and made the settlement there.  We still acknowledge Botany Bay or the promontory where Cook landed, Kurnell, as the first landing.  These images were taken last winter when we visited the park at Kurnell.

Kurnell

The bay is used as a commercial site for off loading oil tankers one side and the airport runway on the other side, along with a container terminal on the other point.

walking through the park you would not realise you were  so close to the largest city in Australia

Hope you had a nice day.

You can see more blog posts over on Kim Foales blog linkup, Sunday Ceramics...

or check in during the week with me on Facebook - here.