Mud Colony

What do you call a bunch of potters who blog?  MUD COLONY - great title.
The idea behind the Mud Colony was for Potters/Ceramic Artists-anyone really who works with clay, to add a link to your blog post describing what your up to in your studio ... easy peasy...and post a link back to HERE. Remember its not an advertising space...its a 'building community' space, so a little chat about Mud Colony and what your doing in your studio space is what its all about !! You can add to the Mud Colony until Saturday night..
Meanwhile, though I am barely getting into the studio due to the extreme heat, I will share an update on some recent work, drying as we speak ... I liked the tool marks so much, I decided to leave them there.  Elaine

A good life!

So far this year has been pretty good, stifling climate aside.  For my lot this is the season of birthdays and anniversaries, they all cluster round the end of and beginning of the year, then we suffer a long drought.  This week we had my birthday, something I'd normally shrug off but it is an undeniable significant one.  I have finally embraced being able to say the F word and it isnt Forty!! It is 50, somehow easier for me use in its numerical form rather than the actual word Fif... no, can't do it. I am not a party girl, a quiet, quality dinner out works for me.  

We dined on Tuesday at Indiana, Cottesloe Beach.  I mention this for out of towners like my family in Europe so they know what I get up to.  Indiana is an iconic building right over the beach, facing onto the exquisite Indian Ocean.  The service and food were great, I'd requested a good table at one of the end windows, we enjoyed the glowing sunset, observed Perth families swimming and cavorting below us on the beach getting respite from a stonking hot day and as the GANGgajang song says 'laugh and think this is Australia'. Click Australia to hear the song.

MARIANNE HALLBERG, SWEDEN

I came upon the work of Swedish ceramic artist Marianne Hallberg through a mention on Graham Hay's FaceBook page .  I love this work, playful and quirky, seemingly 'simple' but, really, NOT.  

Australia day, Darl!

It is hard to beat the lethargy in 41C here in Fremantle, we are enduring a heatwave but that is no excuse for not blogging.  Procrastination and busyiness took hold of me again and I have now firmly kicked their asses ... I hope.  I was updating my status on Facebook just now when it dawned on me, darn this should be on my blog.  So .. here it is .. and a promise of more blogging and bleating from here on, but perhaps not always on clay, insights of our homelife may creep plus it is too darn hot to get any work done at this time of year.

'We saw the Fremantle Australia Day skyshow from the beach at Arthur's Head Fremantle, just past the J Shed (a three minutes walk from my Freo studio) see Joel's blog http://freoview.wordpress.com/tag/greg-james/. Greg James THE man who puts all that iconic bronze sculpture around Fremantle let us park outside his studio door for '20 mins' which became much more when I met, nearly tripped over them in the dark actually, my pals Jenny Dawson (potter) and Peter Zuvela (photographer and much more) of the J Shed.  
We had a long chat in the darkness after the brilliant skyshow. Henry, Oscar and Gaelan had sat on the steps with the water lapping at our feet, surrounded by people quietly enjoying the fireworks zooming from a pontoon only about 100m out in the bay. It was like having our own personal fireworks show right over our heads. Fantastic!!'  Now, I could include a photo of the beach or the fireworks here, but I feel sure my (legions of) readers have seen such like before.  On selecting an image to share with you I realised my son's new ipod syncs it's photos to my laptop so here is Gaelan getting to grips with his specs made from drinking straws and tubes, much more fun don't you think??  The art in the background is by Mitjili Napurulla - a similar piece is in the Art Gallery of WA.  My what good taste I have.  

This is the last day of 2011 and I will be happy to wake tomorrow with a sense of new beginnings.  I will not wake with a sore head, as people often like to, fair go to them, no, I want to face 2012 with a clear head and some good energy and start as I mean to go on.  I won't even bleat about my failure to blog as often as I'd wished.  Life has been busy and fulfilling, people are what matter, enough said, right??
I may get some posting done today though, given the leisurely pace of this hot and sunny day, lying about with the iPad and a cold lunch seems a good option, before I sweep and hose down my studio in readiness for the new, bigger and better kiln. I am about to pop out to buy myself a couple of Adirondack style deck chairs to sit outside the studio, soak up the evening warmth, with a G and T in hand, smell the roses (and so what if they need a good prune) and be happy with my lot in life.
I have a STACK of work planned for next year, lots of artist in residencies and teaching opportunities, lots of firm work planned. Lucky me.  One such plan which is underway is to make a large body of work of forms from the same mould - a big hemisphere 45 cm wide - how many variables can I design in the next year?  Very many is what I anticipate.  Crikey I might even get round to blogging about them!