farewell Mudcolony

Last Mudcolony Blog Post.
Its been a few months since I last wrote a blog. I have been fairly busy with my normal job so my time is spent experimenting , trialing different clays, glazes and different printing techniques. So I have not had much spare time to blog. Must make a new year resolution to keep the blog up to date. Any way it has been great being part of Mudcolony and Adriana you have done a great job over the last 2 years. I am sure we will keep up to date with each other through links with Facebook. Anyway today I participated in a sale at Cronulla with the Port Hacking Potters. We had a great day weather was great unlike our last sale where it rained and was postponed.

Another mud colony blogger Anna Ryland in front of the stall.

Side view.
we all had good sales.
Thats it from me but before you go hope on over to http://mudcolony.blogspot.com.au/ and see what everyone else is up to for this farewell post

Keanes Open Day at Brookvale Ceramics Department
Drove up to Brookvale Tafe Ceramics Department on Saturday to attend the Keanes Ceramic open day.
Brookvale is a Northern suburb of Sydney about an hours drive from where I live [ i live on the southside of Sydney] Nice drive up traffic not so bad.

Keanes Ceramics has been organising this event for the last 3 years. The presenters this year were Merran Esson- Hand building, Cameron Williams large wheel throwing, Malcom Greenwood- working with porcelain, Bruce WcWhinny- tradition japanese throwing methods and Sue Buckle-  hand building.
Keanes is a clay supplier located on the central coast so they had clay and pottery supplies for sale.
It was a great day learnt a few things and brought lots of goodies to add to the endless supplies of tools . As i say you can never have too many tools.

 Bruce McWhinny Bowl very simple Slip applied then brushed with a brush made from grass, reeds or straw from a straw broom. He then will glaze in the traditional oribe way.

Cameron William demonstration throwing big pots the clay he was throwing was about 10 kg he had it centred in about 1minute. Cameron has been presenting at these events for years and is very popular with the audience it is usually standing room only.
That is it from me this week so why not pop over to Mud Colony and see what everyone else is up to.

Workshop with Dr Susan Hayes
Last Saturday week I attended a workshop at N.S.W Potteries supply on 3D laboratory in forensic antatomy. The workshop dealt with reconstructing the muscles, subcutaneous tissue, eyes and skin on a skull using clay. Dr Susan Hayes is a renowned and experienced expert in the world of forensic science and anthropology. She teaches workshops in both reconstruction through drawing and clay.
The work shop was well attended we all worked on half a skull. The class was full on a lot of work to cover in one day.
Here are some pics of the day

 This is the head I did with my partner . my side is on the right I don't think we did bad.

 

All the heads  not bad but they don't all look alike and they were all the same skull.

We used paper clay dark for the muscles white for the skin and subcutaneous tissue and thin sleds of white for the skin.

Mudcolony is asking us all if we have any favourite pots. I learnt years ago not to get attached because when did they were doomed to death. Either dropping it, kids breaking it or something melts on it in the kiln. So no favourites.  So why don't you hop over to http://mudcolony.blogspot.com.au/ and see what everybody else is doing also see what their favourite piece is

Exhibition

Journeys an Exhibition by Rosalie Duligal , Fionia Grace Mcdonald  and Rhonda Morris
While everyone was away at Clay Push [ half  their luck] I was involved with an exhibition with 2 other artists at a little gallery at Woolloomooloo called Studio W doubleyou.
The works included paintings, ceramics, photography  and sewing. Lovely opening night plus we also had an afternoon tea on the Saturday.
Here are some pictures of the work and gallery.

 Rosalie Duligal's work

 Fiona's Work

                                                             Above my pots
                                               Below view of the first floor my pots on the plinths

                                                       View of the upstairs floor

 Studio W was a lovely little gallery lots of space. No commission. But very little passing trade but as I say it was an exhibition not a sale had a great time would do it again.
Thats all from me this week so hop over to http://mudcolony.blogspot.com.au/  and see what everyone else is up.
PS Happy Mothers day to all the mums old and new out there.

 All bowled out
My bowls for the empty bowl project in which the Port Hacking Potters are involved with are bisqued, just need a light sand and glaze applied then fired. Did a couple extra as you never know how they will turn out. Warped, u/g patchy, cracks, etc etc the list goes on.                               

 

Should fire them in a couple of weeks.

That's it from me this week but hop on over to Mud Colony and so what all the other clever potter's are doing.

Finally back to the blog.

It has been a few weeks. Have managed to do a few thing in the studio like bisque firing and glazing.

I have had my daughter and 2 grandson from Japan for the last couple of weeks which along with work has kept me quite busy. So hear is a quick update with what I have been doing.

My two grandson Justin and Liam at the Royal Easter show. I was there with the Port Hacking Potters group demonstrating.

 went to Bunnings to-day and brought some wood to make some stands for pots for an exhibition in a couple of weeks. PVC pipes to use as moulds for some cylinders for an ? exhibition next year .

Need to start packing the kiln for a bisque

Waiting for pots to dry for turning and putting to- gether and decorating .

Hope I can turn to-morrow as back to work on Sunday Just as well for garbage bags keeps the pots nice until I can get back to them.

I am sure I am not the only busy one why do not pop over to htttp://www.mudcolony.blogspot.com and see what all the other talented people from Mudcolony are doing

Day out with the Port Hacking Potters

Nice day at the Festival of Living at Bundeena. A group of us from the Port Hacking Potters group had a stall at this yearly festival. Sold some pots . We all did and had a good time as well. Here are some pics

Our stall with Fran and Anna

Lovely gum trees to shade us

Music to listen too

Police and Fire Brigade to keep us safe.

Thats it from me so why don't you pop over towww.mudcolony.blogspot.com to see what everyone else is up too.

Favourite Things.
Not much time in the studio this week just finishing of pieces so I can load the kiln for a bisque. Off top view a gallery in Kings Cross tomorrow for an exhibition a group of us plan to have in May. More on that next week. Any way I though I would put some pics up of 2 little bud vases I put in a wood firing in August last year. They were in the throat of the kiln were they get a lot of ash plus they also stick to the wading but this adds to the effect. The only thing I did was fluting and a flashing slip at the leather hard stage.
I put some of my favourite roses in them to jazz them up.

Thats it from me this week . Thanks for stopping by. While you are here why don't you visit the other lovely potters from http://mudcolony.blogspot.com.au/

in the studio this week.
hi there bloggers this is what I have been up to this week.

Screen printing. slowly getting better with this the key is the printing medium at the right thickness.
Trial and error story of my life in clay.

Little bisque moulds. Got the idea from one of my favourite site Ceramic Art Daily. You make any shape you want. Put little handles on them. Bisque fire. Cut out another slab any shape . Let it dry slightly not leather hard. Put on thick piece of foam then push you mould into the clay.
End result is this.

 

You can use any shape you like, edges can be even or uneven, decorate how ever you like add feet  or not. I made the moulds from raku clay but you can make from what ever clay you have. Easy peasy.
Will glaze with a clear glaze with colorants added. Will put pics up when glaze fired. Thats it from me so why don't you pop over to http://mudcolony.com.au/ and see what the other potters are up to.

We are back for another year.

The time off from blogging with Mudcolony went really fast. I hope everyone had a good Christmas and a Happy new year. I had the Christmas New Year weeks off from work first time in a least 20 years. I was great feeling what it is like to be normal. I played in my studio, cleaned it mainly. The last couple of weeks I have been bisque and glaze firing it do during the hols as weather far to hot in Sydney. Would not like to start a bush fire as we have alot of bush around us.
Did glaze testing some look promising. Experiment with cakestands been there before so modifying a few things.

The good old reliable mug. Practicing printing.

The cakestand  reverted to a skirt on it as had warping issues a couple of years ago. Still needs work but am getting there finally.

Mishima and screen print.

The majolica glaze the worked really well . Tried it on a slightly bigger piece than a test tile . I will test further look promising with cobalt brush work.

That it from me so pop over to http://mudcolony.blogspot.com.au and see what everybody else is up to.