More organic forms

My studio mate Jo lent me this great book by Clayton Ball on building ceramics minus the wheel. It was written in the 1960's which makes it over 40 years old. The aesthetics of those days were quite different: texture was big and chunky organic forms were in. Quite a contrast to the more delicate and symmetrical forms usually made of porcelain and thrown on a wheel.

I love both types of ceramics but without a wheel, Ball's wonderfully gutsy forms certainly captured my imagination. If something was going to be hand-made, it would never be symmetrical so why even try? Embracing the quirks of hand made objects and exaggerating these imperfections in fact, lent the end product an undeniable charm.

As an experiment, I built this vase? sculpture? using newspaper as the stuffing following Ball's instructions faithfully. When texturing the clay, I first used a banksia with it's wonderful curves and indents. However the imprint looked too much like pubic hair and when it got too close to the leg, it all looked too much like male genitalia for comfort!

My hubby thinks it looks like Shrek and Doreen said "Fiona? Is that you? Have you grown an extra ear?"

More gumnut inspired ceramics

Here is a pix of my pot with flower frog lid. It is very idiosyncratic and inspired by mushrooms and lunar craters. This specimen is not yet bisque fired.


I made a smaller frog which I won't make a pot for. Too hard...


Also made another pot that has gumnuts on top. However the lid won't be a frog as it's very difficult to get the holes through the stem to be large enough to fit flowers through.


I plan to glaze the nuts a bright green with the inside a dark burgundy. The pot itself I think will be a celadon green and it's inside burgundy.

Gum nuts inspiration

A few weeks ago, I noticed that the flowering gums are in bloom and looking great. But with the recent rain and gales they have been blown away leaving the sculptural forms of their nuts behind. A walk around the neighborhood (secateur in hand) lent me the opportunity of collecting and examining a number of different gumnuts.


Aren't they beautiful? I am using these as inspiration for my pottery. Although not posted too often here, I've been busy thinking about and making clay models and pots. There is considerable time lag with ceramics as there is a need to bisque fire and then glaze before a second firing. Also all that waiting in between to gather sufficient numbers to fire. However I shall take some photos of works in progress next opportunity and post it here.

A Commission

Those of you who follow my blog will know of the avenue of autumn leaves http://mengwoo.blogspot.com/2010/06/plane-trees-in-autumn.html that I painted last year. Whilst at our house, my brother-in-law Jeff and his wife Toom admired the painting but I had no idea they were interested in purchasing it. The painting was exhibited last year and they were just about to purchase it a few minutes into the opening, when a red dot was placed next to it. "What does that mean?" Toom asked the gallery owner. "That means that it's been sold!" he explained.


Having missed out, Jeff decided to commission me to paint another just like it. Now, a commission is a commission, right? Artists can't afford to turn these away, can they? Yet, my personality is such that doing anything once is fine (there's the bits about trying something new, finding something different to explore and improve on) but painting the same subject twice? I fobbed them off with the line that I've to have autumn trees before I can paint them.... which gave me another 6 months to think about it. Well, autumn was definitely here in Sydney. In fact, the wind has blown all the leaves off now as officially, we are in winter. So I've run out of time, and had to knuckle down and produce! Thankfully, it is easier the second time around. I plan to give the painting to Jeff as a present for his next birthday. He tells me he has a space awaiting (6 months of a blank wall..... I do feel a bit sorry and hope this will be an adequate compensation).