Fab day at Everleigh Artisans Market with TACA

 What a great day we had!! 

Maybe not a lot in sales but the atmosphere of friendliness and social camaraderie amoungst The Australian Ceramics Association potters was fantastic. 

The weather was warm, the works of so many talented artists had to be seen to be believed and the atmosphere was one of relaxed professionalism.  Wonderful to participate, thanks TACA!

The fabulous Ashley from The Australian Ceramics Association stopped by to have a little squizz at all the stalls..............actually we all did!!
20 or so potters could not help but wander around checking out the brilliant work available at the 10 stalls set aside for the ceramics promotion.

Look at this!!!   The ingenious Macquarie Potters made all sorts of pottery tools from all sorts of absolute junk!! This stall was my favourite until the very last photo was taken ....but definitely my favourite pottery stall. I love the fact that that they made such useful things out of such useless crap......ballpoint pen cases and bent wire become pottery turning tools, bamboo skewers and tiny glass test tubes become clay burnishing tools, old flags become clay roll out mats, etc.....clever, clever, clever!!

 Our generous and very talented friend Anna made some really beautiful cards as companion sales products to my ceramics.....they are elegant, stylish and very well made. Lucky me!





Our friendly 'neighbour' Louise Hart....woman of a genuinely sensual dolomite glaze!  I kept rubbing the pots because their surface have such a smooth 'soft' satin appeal but alas... no genie!

Young fresh-faced Katy from Queensland demonstrating her exquisite feather designs on the little porcelain tea bowls she so expertly makes. Armed with 2 sable brushes and the tiniest little colour kit I've ever seen, she painted light, delicate colourful little feathers on one or 2 sides of each pot....it was mesmerising to watch and well out of my league!

I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THESE!!!  Not a potter but an exceptional textile artist. Saw these as I was walking back from lunch and could not believe my eyes!!  Life-size techno-objects made of felt!!  Typewriter -complete with lettered keys, sewing machine with dials and a keyboard/synthesizer!! The typewriter!!!!!!!!! that was my favourite.....the little knobby keys!  but with a No Touch sign on them meant I couldn't do the very thing I most wanted to do......my fingers itched.  Santa...pay attention!

Definitely want to be there again next year!!

Wild Ones Designer Markets Oct.12

Loved the Hazelhurst Art Gallery yesterday - sales were slow but the atmosphere in the Market and the surrounding grounds was great.

A huge festival was going on in the surrounding streets so there was a constant flow of people looking at all the designer wares all day and there was heaps to see -so many gorgeous products to see - paper, textiles, some fabulous jewellery (liked Silvermonk's style!) and some

stunning ceramics (besides my own of course!)

Be back there again 24th Feb. 2013
.....looking forward to it, have some new products to introduce.

Port Hacking Potters competition photos

The Port Hacking Potters have uploaded all their photos of the winners of the Port hacking Potters 47th National Competion 2012  on their blogsite.Yes......am very pleased as it was my very first competition and my entry is the winner of Category 4 'Paperclay' ....and it still makes me smile!!!!   Am hoping to get to Cronulla in December and join my new 'favourite' group as a member.  

I have not been part of a ceramics group for a while and I liked the discussions and education that being around other potters can bring. 

The photo below shows my son and I looking at one of the winning entries. 


The link below goes through to the PHP blogsite for all the photos and group information.


http://www.porthackingpotters.blogspot.com.au/p/port-hacking-potters-47th-national.html

Samples for upcoming Markets

 Putting together the treasures I'm hoping to take along to the designer market stalls I have applied for over the next couple of months.

Have a stall space with TACA at Everleigh Artisans Market for 4th Nov. selling predominantly ceramic objects, though am sure the rings will be fun as well.

Have also put in applications with the new Wild Ones Markets at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery at Gymea for 28th Oct. and the Powerhouse Museum's Young Bloods Designer Markets for 7-9th Nov.

Don't have enough stock yet to successfully do all 3 but am not sure I'll be accpted to all 3 anyway. There is a selection process and applying doesn't mean automatic acceptance.

Have also just applied for a local makers market on 25th Nov.at the lawn bowls club in my street. Why? To sell off any remaining stock for Christmas and also to sell some of the more 'affordable' work I have at a different market to a different audience than the others.

Some of the earthenware bowls are good but don't fit in with the upmarket audience I'm looking at with the other venues and I also have quite a bit of the non-precious jewellery I was making before that could go to a new home.

Am in bit of a panic of course...the usual artist anxiety before an 'event' but will be good. Looking forward to them.

Port Hacking Potters 47th Competition 2012

Have been anxious about it for a couple of weeks now....the idea of entering a piece into an arts competition and finding out how people, and judges!, would respond to something that is 100% my own inspiration

So, last Thursday 20th, jumped in and entered one of my ceramic pieces in the Port Hacking Potters 47th National  Pottery Competition and OMG!!! I won my category!  
I was quite shocked for a few minutes there.

I entered one of my really fine porcelain/fibreglass/paperclay small 'object' pieces and the judge Greg Daly (yes, he of the very lush glazed and gold/silver foil bowls) said some lovely things while handing me a $250 materials voucher and shaking my hand.
How wonderful is that! 

Very surprised, very delighted, bit spaced out.....really does show how the unexpected can happen if we just take a chance!

Success with Markets but slow on my own!

 Well, the first Glebe Makers Market on 2 Sept. 2012 which I collaborated as my not-for-profit organisation, Starving Artists Inc. with Glebe Community Garden and GAPP went off very well.

The turn out was great, the treasures for sale were varied and lovely and the weather was stunning, what more could you ask?....some of my own sales, that's what.  What a slow day I had!

People stopped to look and I had great feedback about the porcelain jewellery I put out for sale - it's quite light and based on musical instraments. The shapes are made of porcelain with blue decal transfers on them of flowers or those wonderfully mad-eyed owls and, for the community nature of this Market I kept the price down by swapping sterling silver chain for waxed cotton with non-precious metal findings.

The photo above shows my son Dane holding the stall for me while I wandered around taking photos.   The hat?? The cow hat is the mascot 'head' for one of my community projects called COWBelles Community Craft for all those Creative Older Women out there who have such wonderful skills to share and the hat makes Dane part of it, though he doesn't seem all that certain of it in the photo!.

My other community arts project called P-plate Project 4 people, pets & plants also had a stall devoted to a pot plant fundraising collaboration to raise money for the project to run well. All the glorious little slip-cast, hand -painted pots sold out!! A whole nw batch will be ready for the Christmas market in December.

Also in my own work I'm getting ready for the Everleigh Markets stall that I'll have in November and I have heaps to do to get ready for it...not the least is to make more porcelain/silver jewellery in musical shapes! Looking forward to it - hope the weather co-operates with warm sunshine again.!

CCD work as part of the ArtStart year

As part of my year with Australia Councils ArtStart Grant I included my CCD work as part of my arts career development.
(For those unfamiliar with it : CCD = Cultural & Community Development...aka...community arts)

I've been running community arts projects since 2006.

The first 3 were with the Salvation Army in Sydney's Surry Hills, 2 with disadvantaged people and one for women in crisis.

End of June I completed one in the inner-Sydney suburb of Glebe for older women with issues of isolation and disadvantage and have 3 for this financial year. 2 again in Glebe and one in Rozelle. I know, very ambitious!!

The first Glebe one is called the P-plate Project: pots for people, pets & plants and held in the lovely Glebe Community Garden. The Rozelle project is delivered for Aftercare Mental Health Service in the glorious grounds at Rozelle Hospital.  Must say, this year's projects are by far in the prettiest settings I've ever worked in!

This photo is of the Glebe Community Garden where the P-plate group meets. We have a collaborative project with the community gardeners to make little pots for the seedlings which will be sold at the first Glebe Local Makers Market to be held 2nd Sept. which is my 2nd project in Glebe this year.






The people from Aftercare are a little shy and prefered not to have a photo taken but I will get photos of their work when it's ready for their exhibition day on 17th Oct.

I mostly enjoy this type of work - I like the mix of creativity and social responsiblity and I grow to really like most of the people involved as well. I have only had difficulty with a couple of managers 'over-managing' and strangling the fun out of being there. In the last project 2 women really wanted the project and what it offered but gossiped and gossiped and gossiped about people so much, that the group thinned out from 20-23 regulars down to 5.

 I have left those 2 in charge of that craft group now and moved onto the 2 ceramic craft groups and the organisation of the community makers market......yes, I am always busy!!

Recognising that not everyone wants to be a potter in these kinds of groups is essential and that people enjoy 'just playing' with clay. The person teahing at Aftercare before me was a 'potter' and so taught traditional technique and I am told by both staff and participants that some of the processes were quite tedious.

I teach clay as  'community engagement', which is to say that I aim to get fast results with easy-to do hand building techniques (basically, treat clay exactly like bread dough!) so we all get fast results and congratulate ourselves on our clevernes!!!  My  group participants respond very well and it does make me happy too see them achieveing and happy with their work - this is the all important win-win scenario that I aim for in my CCD work - I guess it's why I like doing them so much.

If curious about the projects go to:    https://www.facebook.com/pages/P-plate-Project/


or   https://www.facebook.com/pages/COWBelles-Community-Craft/



To left is the flyer for the communiy makers market day coming up.

If the weather is kind then will be another lovely day in the beautiful Glebe Community Gareden!!