ELAINE BRADLEY

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Ceramics in Western Australia

Several WA potters have work in this show, so I will be making a beeline for it this week, but I hear the opening was GREAT!

If you are interested in knowing what happens in Western Australian Ceramics, just ask me. I am editor of PYRE, the bi-monthly newsletter for Ceramic Arts Association of WA (CAAWA). I could send you the latest Feb Edition 3MB PDF and you would realise what a dynamic and busy little lot we are here, so much so, I haven't blogged in ages!

Elaine Bradley at lalab@iinet.net.au

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Patricia's Pretties

I have a pal, Patricia Fernandes, a potter I kept bumping at clay events, and soon we became friends. We talk 'technical', troubleshooting things that aren't panning out in our work, materials, firings etc. She has been developing her distinctive brand of porcelain brooches and decorative items utilising ornamental elements from her family's culture and contemporary methods of working. The girl has drive, and it seems to be paying off. She has a humourous, honey'd tongue, as you will see on her website http://www.patriciafernandes.com.au/ and blog http://prettiesallinarow.blogspot.com/

Patricia's 'Pretties' as she calls them, are made from Southern Ice - the whitest porcelain you can get in Australia, which she imprints using antique Indian wooden and brass textile printing blocks. These coloured using ceramic stain and fires to 1280C to translucency. I am lucky enough to own two of her brooches, they zing up any outfit using magnets to attach them to clothing without leaving any holes or marks. Patricia is also developing a small range of household wares, each as pretty as the next. This weekend she will be at the Perth UpMarket, at UWA in Nedlands, a remarkable artisan market showcasing the enormous range of design talent in Western Australia. University of Western Australia, Winthrop Hall. Sunday 28th November 2010, open from 10am-4pm. Free entry, easy access and plenty of free parking. http://www.perthupmarket.com.au/retailers.html

This isn't meant to read as an infomercial, but anyone wanting to break from commercialism and support the local creative industry should do their Christmas shopping at the UpMarkets, especially at Patricia's stall. The food at the UpMarkets is always way above the norm too.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

POTober in Perth - GERRY WEDD

The weekend is over, the school hols are over, and reviewing my stash of photos from CAAWA's FABULOUS POTober - I have a lot to share in the coming posts. CAAWA is the Ceramic Arts Association of Western Australia. They are on Facebook, so check that out too.

Gerry Wedd attended POTober in Perth last weekend as a demonstrator. http://weddwould.blogspot.com/ I met him as he unpacked work for the Showcase Exhibition in the smaller Gallery attached to the Central Institute of Technology (formerly TAFE Central). He was unwrapping large handbuilt elements of The Willow Pattern, with cobalt decorations, and looking despondent but still, kind of sanguine about what he beheld.

They had suffered in transit - blowing the chances of folk in Perth acquiring a Wedd work - at least this time round. He mended and displayed them, but marked them as sold, rather than sell damaged work - and I witnessed many buyers walk away from his plinths a tad wretched at being pipped by other sellers (they thought).

Gerry gets blogged quite a bit, here is one link - though it is not fully representational of the range of his work http://www.boardcollector.com/2008/04/gerry-wedd.html

In my work I spend extra time removing evidence of my fingerprints from the porcelain surface. Here, in a weeping willow tree, Gerry's fingerprints are integral to the feeling of the piece, followed later by sensitive brushwork in cobalt carbonate.

Gradually, and slowly, Gerry built up layers of paperclay spheres to echo the trees of the English Willow Pattern. Art imitating craft, imitating art. A few years ago my friend Ceramist Anna Chicos assisted Gerry at the Gulgong ceramics event, now I see why she enjoyed that so much.