You learn something new every (Tuesday)

I am up to my third Maiolica lesson at La Maiolica in Fremantle with Cate Cosi and Amanda and it gives me two hours of the simple pleasure of trying something new and feeling free enough to think of it as 'play' and not as a challenge.  Click on the links above to get the history of Maiolica, you won't be sorry.  Like most new skills, it is not as easy as it looks.  Here is my bowl ...  Gigi threw it in Italian terracotta, Amanda and Cate are the decorating experts.  Mine is on the top left in each of these two photos, my husband has already 'bagsed' it for his brekky bowl because he likes cheerful things. 

For those who don't know, Maiolica (aka Majolica - I just stuck a 'j' in there but the Majorcan's did it first) is tin-glazed terracotta earthenware, usually with painted coloured brushwork.  Cate and her husband Gigi run the very successful “La Majolica” pottery in Fremantle, specialising in traditional Italian designs based on how it is done on the Amalfi coast, where Gigi was born. Cate has been decorating Majolica ware for many years with Amanda's assistance and Gigi does the throwing on a wheel that'd strike most as very odd.  See above where Amanda's left hand is on a plastic covered pot (ignore the plate in front of her), well that is where the wheel head is, offset by most people's standards and you'd think, a chiropractor's nightmare. I am told it is really comfortable and that you can rest against the wall while you throw.  

I've long, long been interested in Maiolica, the late, great Matthias Ostermann taught a workshop here in Perth in about 2004, he was amazing!  I have his book and also the great DVD by Linda Arbuckle on the subject.  I mention these in case you aren't as fortunate as I am with La Maiolica nearby.  

When you see something demonstrated by someone truly skilled the whole exercise seems to flow easily, the easy handling of the item, the flowing brushstrokes, the seemingly absentminded stirring and dipping into the colour all belie hundreds of hours of practice and lessons learnt.  This is why learning from such practitioners is a joy.  I've been wanting to do this for at least 20 years.  

Amanda and Cate decorate on adjustable banding wheels set on the floor. They explained about working with the right height, your comfort while you work and supporting your hands, types of brushes, care of brushes, and about mixing and applying the colour ...  how to flip over the ware without chipping off the powdery unfired glaze.  

Cate showing us how to practice 'banding' with water onto plain terracotta pots to get the feel of applying the colour to the glazed but unfired tin-glazed bowls.  The addition of 5-10% tin oxide to a clear earthenware glaze forms a lovely white opaque glaze onto which the colours, stains + fritt can be painted. Sounds easy, right?  La Maiolica import their materials for consistency and wow what colours can be achieved.  

We painted tiles in week one to illustrate the impact of one, two, then three brushstrokes over each other.  They colours are known by their Italian names as they, the clay and glaze are imported from Italy.  Here is mine below, before and after firing.

For week two we painted bowls based on this pattern but were free to use our own palettes and embellish 

Notice the wooden batt covered in bubblewrap (bubbles inside) to give a cushioned surface to protect the glazed work - which is still unfired remember...

 and here Cate is marking outlines for the painted bands with a solid graphite pencil, 
then banding with pigment and brush

Cate had the bands (stripes) painted on in the blink of an eye and the ends met - unlike mine :>D

then she marks out the areas for applying and building up the pattern.  

She places a wooden batt over the bowl, sandwiching it and flipping it over to decorate the interior.

Week three - a floral pattern, at this point we students are getting a bit cocky and 'gung-ho', ready to take on anything because it is a very enjoyable skill to learn.  Amanda told me how although she'd been to art school, her training at La Maiolica took place over years by gradually building up one skill after another.  Given what they produce at La Maiolica, I am not surprised at all.  The work there is full of colour, life and joy and beautifully executed.  

above and below, creating the flowers and baroque swirly fronds which divide the space but unify the design too

then the bowl is inverted to complete the banding on the rim and a central motif 

We got talking about this book, which I will order on The Book Depository asap, unless you, my dear readers, have a better source.  It sounds like my kind of reading and I believe there was a TV programme on Colour too which tied in so I might ask at our local Jumbo Video to see if they have the TV programme on DVD.  Happy Days to you all!

OK, that took a lot of uploading time, it was practically a magazine article.  Let's see what all the other potters are doing at http://mudcolony.blogspot.com.au

PLEASE NOTE:All text in this blog posting is copyright of Elaine Bradley, Ceramic Artist, Western Australia unless quoting from another source.  All photographs in this blog posting are copyright of Elaine Bradley unless otherwise stated.  No responsibility can be taken for external links.  Please report any errors in crediting photographs, sources or facts to the author in order to allow her to rectify the matter.  Your response or feedback is welcome.

Buckets

How do you label your buckets of clay and glaze?  I write on mine in permanent marker on the lid and on the side and tie a test ring with name and cone on it onto the handle.  Sometimes I even put a laminated recipe inside the bucket to be sure to be sure.  Tape dries up and falls off due to the heat and effects of UV.  Sometimes the marker fades or wipes off.

I was cleaning buckets yesterday and used this method of cleaning off the marker (or 'texta' to australians).  I wipe the writing off with a cloth and some methylated spirit or even insect repellant - note the Aeroguard bottle in pic.  I don't always have Metho around but always have the insect repellant.  It makes me wonder though, if it dissolves the Texta on contact - what might it be doing to our bodies when we spray it on?

I found a new source for buckets in a local restaurant - I may have to become a more frequent patron though .... mmm I'm not sure how economical this might be, one breakfast out might score me say eight buckets if I am lucky.  OK I am convinced, madness not to try, right?

Are you going to click on Mud Colony blog to see what all my clay pals are up to?

The ubiquitous FACEBOOK

I have a page on FACEBOOK.  I still haven't got my website up and going yet, I hope to get some new work made first  but meanwhile see you on FB occasionally perhaps    https://www.facebook.com/pages/Elaine-Bradley-Ceramic-Artist/185089588213875

Not 'Dutch courage' Dutch help!

Once Upon A Time .... (this will be a continuing story)

following a curious ad on a noticeboard in a little country supemarket this potter bought a very nice Heinz Welte German made kiln from an elderly dutch potter deep, deep in the Wheatbelt of Western Australia.  The lady's house, with its own airstrip, as ye do, was nestled almost invisibly in the countryside and so far from the local township we actually got lost for hours trying to find the main road again.  The kiln sits in my garage waiting to be relocated to a permanent spot and Henry uses it as a temporary shelf for various cans and tools.  Nobody else wanted her stuff - her entire studio full of ceramic materials and tools - nobody wanted to travel that far down so many twisty winding roads, to even have a peep.  Too hard!  It is near a place we visit often so we just happened to be nearby occasionally.  Health issues had turned her from potting to painting and she would have to return to Europe shortly because Australia didn't want her or her husband anymore because his job was not permanent and due to their age, although they'd lived here productively for years.  It is savage but true.  I bought a good few other items, but it was clear that the rest would go into the skip if nobody else turned up.  A month later, we hired a van from our neighbours, recently moved here from India, to pick up the kiln. Juliette (the lovely old lady) actually gave me almost all of her materials and bits because she felt they'd be properly used and appreciated - and that is the point of this post as you will see.  The Indian neighbours hadn't seen deep Aussie country like this before and were enthralled.  This is some of what I got ...

Now, here I am knee deep, literally, in the annual clear out of my little garden studio. Dead spiders are trapped and dehydrated on their own webs, rendering them unthreatening collateral damage of the hot summer.  Leathery dried, shrunken skinks and their abandoned eggs no longer upset me much, they get chucked on the garden beds as a kind of cathartic, karmic compost.  I haven't seen any of our blue tongue lizards yet this summer but a recent slithering movement under the lemon tree then under the avocado tree may have been a bluey.  I just hope it wasn't a rat or - Oh GAWD, a snake. That is what would most likely get me to reconsider Australia as my home.   We Dublin girls aren't all that tough you know.  

I am still unpacking all that Juliette gave me, figuring out what it is, and where it should go.  Bless her methodical and thorough ways, it was all packed carefully so it wouldn't budge or get damaged, the cardboard and polystyrene boxes are all labelled - in Dutch.  There's the rub as Shakespeare once wrote.  As you see from the photos, a tiny fraction of what I have, they are in Dutch and I cannot read, speak or even curse in Dutch.  I have one potter I can ask but if you can help, please do.  I have heaps more!  I have tried Google translate but it was not too helpful or relevant.

Juliette told me her Grandfather (or great grandfather) had been a very accomplished potter/artist, and I have a few things with his name on them so they must be very old.  I wouldn't be surprised if some of the things she passed on to me had been his once.  So you can see why it is a bit special and not just a 'good score'.  

Now where was I?

According to Blogger I have made 149 posts to this blog since I started with 15 drafts awaiting completion.  That's pretty typical I think, I love starting things, it is the process that counts and I don't always finish stuff despite my best intentions.  So where was I?  I was in Bali in early November for a few weeks of well deserved family holiday time.  I don't love Bali, I like the people but I detest the main hubs for holidaymakers such as Kuta where cheap hotels and markets are crammed together and it is all about Bintang tshirts and knockoff DVDs and Converse Trainers etc. not to mention the current trend of METHANOL LACED DRINKS in bars - the kind that KILL PEOPLE.  Given that tourism is such a massive income source for Bali you'd think they'd be more mindful.
We had a gorgeous hotel room in Nusa Dua, spent a lot of time together chilling out and the best part was the elephant ride, Gaelan and I shared one and rode behind the rest of the family on other elephants, hence quite a few of my photos are of pachyderm's rear ends.  How can you not be moved by being close to an elephant, they feel so ancient and deeply vulnerable.  These ones were well taken care of and well trained,  friendly and gentle and their keepers were keen to ensure visitors got a great experience at the park.

As for the mosquitos who attacked my ankles one evening by the pool as I sipped my first Mojito - I hope Karma has a good plan for them as I copped a nasty virus which remains with me even in January 2013.  If you noticed my absence (and I know one or two have) that is why I have been quiet.  I am flattened by this virus and gradually re--emerging.  My liver is inflamed and I have all the energy of an inert object like say a large Henry Moore bronze only not quite as lovely.

I have watched as potter friends went through the weeks of prechristmas push participating in open studios and markets while I sat at home making and selling nothing and able to do very little.  On the plus side my sons are getting easier to persuade to make dinner for the family and I feel really good knowing they are getting so capable in the kitchen.  Sigh.