ceramics

Ten days…

by frogpondsrock on November 16, 2011

in ceramics,Veronica

In ten days time my daughter Veronica is getting married. I have been to the edge of hysteria and back a couple of times in the past few days, but as always it has been the mental picture of Tim Brooke Taylor running around shouting, “I am a teapot” that has saved me.

I am a potter after all and I know a thing or two about teapots. Fiddly bloody things they are. Tea pots require precision and patience, two virtues that I am not overendowed with at all, and when one’s only daughter is getting married in ten days time there is never room for hysterics. Mild panic and hyperventilation I can deal with, but hysteria will never do.

I had grand plans of making stacks and stacks of plates for Veronica’s wedding, lovingly crafted and beautifully glazed. I had visions of friends and family eating cake  and commenting on how lovely it was to eat from handmade plates.  Of course whilst not wanting stealing the limelight from the bride, I nonetheless discretely basked in the glow that was my due as Mother of the bride and erstwhile creator of fabulous plates.

It was a lovely daydream, I was even wearing a fabulous hat with purple roses.

But of course time is fluid in my world and suddenly all the time I had to make those glorious plates had vanished in the twinkle of an eye and my deadline was looming. It was November the first and I of course was plateless as well as hatless.

So I set to work and made some plates for my girl. Not the hundreds that I had seen in my dreams, but enough for a lucky few to admire from a distance, if they make it out of the kiln in time.

The kiln is cooling down as we speak and I should be able to open it tomorrow. If the Kiln Gods are smiling on me, all the wedding ware should emerge unscathed and uncracked and I can get down to the serious business of glazing the bloody things.

The deadline is now, rather tight.

 

{ 16 comments }

Fired up

by frogpondsrock on November 11, 2011

in ceramics,plastic pollution,potential insanity

An alternate title could be, “Killer Cigarette Lighters Used in Artwork” or “Nothing is Disposable Really”

But I will stick with “Fired Up” because it is the title of the show.

I have been asked to participate in a group ceramic show in the north west of the state in early March next year, the title of this show is “Fired Up.”  The Curator has asked us to produce, up to ten pieces of work that will demonstrate what gets us fired up, what we are passionate about.

I have known about this show for quite some time now but I have been deliberately only skirting the edges of the idea, as I had four exhibitions all falling in the latter part of 2012 as well as a wedding (15 days people) to occupy my thoughts.

The last time I dived headfirst into something I swam alone with my memories for weeks. I obsessed, I picked mental scabs, I cried a lot and you my dear internets were subjected to an awful lot of posts on the subject.

I think that is why I have been holding back from fully committing with my heart as well as my head to the Fired Up project, as I am a little bit frightened of where the obsessions will lead me this time.

Today I formally begin the process of really thinking about the work I will make for “Fired Up”and I have yet to tell my husband. “The Spouse” also suffers when I am in the throes of an obsession, as I am emotionally absent when I start to swim with the creative sharks and I am only half focused on the real world. It isn’t until the work is done that I start to come back to myself and realise how hard I have been to live with. My minimalistic approach to housework flies out the door and I make more mess than usual in the house. This time though I will try and be tidier and not leave piles of things everywhere.

These cigarette lighters came out of the stomachs of Laysan Albatross Chicks on Kure Atoll, Hawaii in June 2009. The Laysan Albatross Chicks died just before they were ready to make their first flight out to sea.

I am not sure what I am going to be making yet but these lighters will feature prominently.

Thoughts about disposable lifestyles, disposable people, how our laziness is killing us, all these things are in my head but nothing is concrete yet. I am still at the stage where I am tossing around ideas to do with ceramic lighters, dead albatross bowls, ceramic balls similar to the dragon eggs bound together with brightly coloured rope.

I dont know yet.

But.

Today I have started and I have some serious work ahead of me. I only wish I could afford a cleaner.

{ 13 comments }

Things I know #3

by frogpondsrock on October 14, 2011

in Arty stuff..,blogging,ceramics,Dead Bird Bowls,headfuck,plastic pollution,real life

I am joining in with Shae’s things I know meme again this week because I know a lot of things and this is one way for me to share them without sounding like a know it all.

I know that reading Shae’s blog post this morning where she declares that she is farticus made me smile. No woman, I AM FARTICUS!

I know that small things often have a very big impact.

I commented on a post written by Eden Riley the other week and Eden sent me the shell she had photographed. This tiny tiny shell only a bit bigger than my thumbnail will soon have inspired a whole series of work.I pinched this photo from Eden’s blog.

When I am absentmindedly doodling, or when I let myself be transported to the quiet space within, these swirls in the shell are a recurring feature in my art work. Whether they are lines drawn in the clay with a wet finger, while I am thinking of other things or pen marks on the back of an envelope drawn while I am on hold to centrelink. These marks are always there just below the surface. I asked Eden for the shell because I liked the tiny blue swirl on the flat side and thought to use that as decoration in a pot. The  ridges and swirls on the underside of the shell were an unexpected bonus and I felt slightly disjointed for a while as I thought about beauty and destruction. I felt very strongly that the Earth Mother was saying, “See Kimmy, here I am again, listen to me,you need to make work of the earth.

I am trying not to listen to the planet as it screams at me to make more work, as it takes me such a long time to recover.I have held myself back from making any earth pots as the energy it takes is enormous. I am faffing about making bread and butter items for the shop, instead of dead bird bowls. I am more concerned with paying my rent than paying my dues and I have deliberately kept my shoes on to minimise the humming in my soul as the birds keep on dying.

This next series of photos illustrate what I mean. The post is here if you want to read about it Blood and Ashes, Oil and Despair. I couldn’t get the birds out of my head. The dead birds nagged at me until I made the work. And it took me weeks to recover from the making.

I know I started this post out on a humourous note declaring that, “No Shae, I AM Farticus!” and then I went to a darker place. It was as unexpected a journey to me my dear internets, as it was to you. I had just planned to touch lightly on the surface issue of friendships and small things making large differences when, “Bam” the birds ambushed me.

And so, here we are together again internet, just you and I on the cusp of another journey. I think I would like you to hold my hand please.

{ 23 comments }

The Hand holding worked. Thankyou my lovelies.

by frogpondsrock on September 28, 2011

in Arty stuff..,blogging,ceramics,film making

When I wrote my post asking you to hold my hand I received heaps of wonderful comments, facebook messages and private emails giving me advice and support.

Thankyou my lovelies, my hand was well held.

Driving into the city yesterday I was incredibly nervous but I didn’t pull a spectacular u-turn in the middle of the highway and race home and hide under my bed. Even though that is exactly what I felt like doing.

As I walked into EdZone my heart was racing, my mouth was dry and I was as red as a beetroot. I may or may not have babbled a little bit in my nervousness, I am sure I looked flustered. The staff were lovely and a seriously strong coffee sorted me out.

The young people were receptive to my ideas, they grinned at me when I said the help button on the computer was there for a reason. They enjoyed the selection of videos I showed them and I also managed to introduce a bag of plastic pollution into the conversation. I am confident that I will be able to help them make a film and I am really looking forward to next weeks session. Now the hard work really begins but I have accomplished the most difficult part and that is taking the first step.

In other news, on Friday I am going to be travelling down to the small country town of Cygnet, where I will be “Artist in Residence” at a playgroup for the morning.The”Artist in Residence” title came from the playgroup coordinator and who am I to argue with such an impressive title.

I am going to help a group of aboriginal and non aboriginal children and their parents make some rainbow serpents out of clay.

There could be up to thirty pre-school aged children at playgroup on Friday and I am seriously looking forward to this. It will be chaotic and messy and exhausting but I will be working with my best friend and small children.

I will be in my element.

{ 17 comments }

Sunday Selections #31 (with spiders)

by frogpondsrock on August 7, 2011

in blogging,ceramics,Fun,photography,sunday selections

I have included two photos of spiders in this weeks selections. They are halfway down the page so if you are phobic there is still time to click away now without seeing the spider shots.

You can thank me later.

I feel lost if I don’t have my camera with me, I have this nagging unsettled feeling that something isn’t quite right.

In the months after my mother died I lost interest in capturing any images at all and I put the camera way. It has been a slow journey back to the joyful delight that taking a kick arse image gives me.

As a ceramist I fire in oxidation and reduction. I throw, slip cast and hand build my work. I make chunky dark pots from a gravel filled clay body that will tear your hands to pieces if you are not careful and I also make delicate white slip cast cups. These contrasting styles of working make me happy

My photography is proving to be the same eclectic mix of images. I absolutely adore the sparse images I captured the other week with their blurry dreamlike quality. I also love the crisp focused photos that I take as well. I am quite interested to see where I am going with my image making and invite you to come on the journey with me.

So without further ado here are the images, closely followed by the weekly blurb. And just in case you had forgotten there are spiders ahead.

The Blurb.

I take a lot of photos and most of them are just sitting around in folders on my desktop not doing anything. I thought that a dedicated post once a week would be a good way to share some of these photos that  otherwise wouldn’t be seen by anyone other than me.

I am also remarkably absent minded and I put photos into folders and think  that I will publish them later on and then then I never do.

So I  have started a photo meme that anyone can join in and play as well. The rules are so simple as to be virtually non existent.

Just add your name and URL to the Mr Linky.

Publish your photos on your blog using the “Sunday Selections” title.

Link back here to me.

Easy Peasy.

 

 

 

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