Silver

Flick through the January edition of Silver, Perth's fashion and lifestyle mag, and on page 69 you will come across a rather enormous photo of me. Then a six page spread with photos taken in my studio and an article about my work. All very exciting! Silver is in your local newsagent now and only costs $5.95. It is a lovely mag edited (and mostly written) by Kristen Watts. I feel most privileged to be featured - thanks Kristen.

Somerville Beauties

These beautiful plates were made by my year 10 Art students.
They were made with BRT clay and have a layer of white slip, then coloured slips with a clear glaze. They drew flowers from life as inspiration for their designs.

I hope their mums love them as much I do :)

Bazaar 09

Two entries in one day! I thought last week was busy, but at least I still had time to blog about it! This week has been so crammed full of studio time that if it wasn't for my husband and daughter helping around the house, things would be in a bad way around here! I managed to finish the reports for school, produce another 200 Christmas decorations, have my hair cut, attend the playgroup committee wind up, finish the Ardross tiles, grout the pre-primary tiles (with some mums from school), glaze and fire the pre-primary angels, re-number work for bazaar (thanks to mum), set up for Bazaar, spend Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Bazaar, string up 200 decorations (up to 1am Friday night with David), throw, turn and handle 39 mugs and and and... Anyway here are some photos of the bazaar set up.

Fleur Schell setting up the Christmas tree.

Alana McVeigh setting up part of the stall.

Rachel Zimmerman setting up her paper cut outs and dolls.

The SODA stall at Fremantle bazaar.

We had a great weekend. Thank you to all our wonderful customers.

crazy mugs

The things you do...

I have been feeling guilty over the last year because lots of my dear friends have been asking me to make mugs. So finally I have, but it's been so crazy around here that the only time I seem to have to make them has been very early in the morning and the middle of the night - told you - crazy!


Tonight I put them in the kiln (slightly wet, might I add) crossed my fingers and turned it on. I have to fit in a bisque and glaze firing before my studio open on Sunday.

Here they are whispering to each other that they are too wet to be in the kiln yet....

Angel's Watching Over Me

It was the Perth Upmarket today. (Sorry forgot to take camera!). Mum and I were very busy. Thanks to all our lovely customers. The Pre Primary Angels came out of the kin this evening.

This is my James' angel and a couple of other kid's too.

Market day tomorrow

This morning I am pricing and packing for the Perth Upmarket.

Lucky for me there are great stickers you can print prices on, it saves lots of time.

See you tomorrow :)

Perth Upmarket 10am - 4pm @ Perth Town Hall Sunday 29th November

Clay Class Christmas Magic

Last night was the pick up of work for the Christmas clay classes. We decided to make an evening of it and celebrate the end of the year with a glass (or two) of wine and nibbles. It was magic to see everyone's work finished and fun to sort through all the decorations.

Danica made these beautiful little slip cast bowls this term.

This is Tanya's table decoration. It was still in the kiln having a make over last night. I promised to put it up on my blog so everyone could see it :)

These are the PP Christmas angels glazed but not fired. Too cute.

I am running classes again next year. Interested???

Colours of the studio

Too few sleeps to count before the Perth Upmarket.

I just have to thread up the decorations, unload the last kiln, price and pack. And clean the studio...

Here is a taste of some of the colours for the Upmarket.

These are coloured porcelain decorations $9 each. I hand colour the porcelain my self - it's hard work.

Stacks of plates. They make lovely cake plates or dip platters.

Looking in from my window...

Studio update

This is the line up for the second last firing before the Perth Upmarket this coming Sunday.

It always amazes me to see all the work spread out on the table for glazing to find that it all fits in the kiln. I not only squeezed in all these bowls and plates, but truck loads of Christmas decorations - they fit in the cracks.

I had a big scare last week when my kiln showed a reading of EEEE and not working! Thanks to the guys at Kiln West they had it fixed that day XXXX. Phew! I mean, why couldn't it break next week?


Here is my little Eve with her precious bowls (don't worry they are all seconds with cracks in the rims). She doesn't ever break them as she is very careful. They get filled with bits and bobs from the studio, lined up in colours along with endless chatter about how "Mummy gave me pink bowl" She announced that the studio was hers too, not too sure about that one, Eve. I reserve the right to kick out any overbearing children when I am stressed!

Kiln opening

First thing this morning I opened up the kiln. It is always nerve wracking, but even more so when it's not my work in the kiln. So far so good, lots of pinging noises, so I left it to cool a bit more...

This is a shelf of Clay Class decorations. I think each person made 20 - 40 decorations. Lots get lost in the glazing stage as they are very fragile.

This is a shot of Wendy's little slip cast dip bowls, aren't the pretty?

Not the best photo, but these are the table decorations. Meaghan's is in the front. The idea is they have a lit tea-light candle in them on you Christmas table.

OOh, gotta go, mayhem here...

Teacher's Tiles

Yesterday, the girls and I spent the afternoon with the staff from Ardross Primary school.


They were painting their design on a tile for the school Heritage Mural.

Here are some of the finished products. They did very well, after the usual banter about not being artistic, they all out did themselves.

The swan with a football (not sure of the heritage link here) is the Principal's tile. I'm pretty sure the art teacher may have helped him...

Their brief was to design a tile that had relevance to their personal heritage. As many people couldn't be there others copied their designs or hand print onto the tile. The lion share of the work was done by Cath Bishop. Cath was the instigator of this project. It has been a wonderful project with lots of discussion and research on heritage. Thanks, Cath.

I think the group was surprised to hold so many budding artists. Well done everyone.

Christmas decorations

With just over a week to go before the Perth Upmarket, I have been very busy making, making , making!


Here is a little sneak peek at some of my Christmas decorations. I have made lots of polished porcelain (this means they are individually sanded post-firing to make them extra silky to touch) peace doves.



I am also in the process of making red and green glazed doves and stars. They are $7 and $8 each, depending on size.

You can find me (and my wonderful mum!) outside under the Marquees at the Perth Upmarket. Sunday 29th November 10am - 4pm.
See you there...

Stop Press, Stop Press!

Hot out of the kiln, these are my new works.

My mum, Nancy, took these lovely photos. I think she must have had fun as she took almost 200 photos!

You can see (and buy) these plates and bowls at the Perth Upmarket on Sunday 29th November 10am - 4pm at the Perth Town Hall. I am outside under the marquees.

Pre-primary ceramics

My friend Alison helped me glue the pre-primary tiles on to board this morning. They now need grouting and a frame around them. The kids painted self portraits - too cute!

Yesterday my little girls and I spent all morning in my son's class making Christmas Angels. It took a lot longer than I had planned, but oh what joy, how adorable are they? I really hope their mum and dads enjoy them as mush as the kids enjoyed making them.

Only a few more weeks until the next Upmarket, so much to do, so much to do!!!

Sneaky sneak peek

Oooh, here is the very first of my new designs for the next Perth Upmarket. Freshly decorated and not even dry enough to glaze and fire....

Ok, back to work.

Almost there

I have almost finished the school component of the Ardross Primary School tile mural. Just one more session next term to grab the last few kids who were away during their painting session.

Now is the task of drying and glazing the painted tiles.

The tiles I have fired look wonderful.


I can't wait to see it all finished. About 400 tiles in bright glossy colours.

Here are some of the tiles painted over the last few weeks.

The ones above are national sports and the ones below are national musical instruments and dance.

We have x-ray animals influenced by indigenous paintings.

This is the glazing table with flags, leaf prints and national costumes.

Inside the kiln...

All finished, looking pretty special!

Just have to glaze about 250 more...