Pan Gallery 001.

TOP Pan Gallery: first show 001. 30th May, 2008. MIDDLE Chris Sanders (guest speaker) gives an insightfull talk. ABOVE The three vessels I have in the show. I'll miss them.

altered vessels.

Some more altered vessels fresh from the kiln Wednesday morning.

Pan Gallery opening, tonight!.

Off to Melbourne today to deliver new pieces for Pan Gallery's inaugural exhibition 001First Show. Very excited! Please pop into Pan Gallery if you can.

Pan Gallery 142-144 Weston St Brunswick East,

Victoria. Australia.

Monday to Friday 9-5 Saturday 9-4.

Altered vessels.

My two new favourite pieces. That is untill todays firing has finished, because all the pieces I'm putting in the kiln today are my fave's too. I'm having fun with my porcelain again!

Whipstick State Forest.

click the photo to enlarge.

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On Wednesday the sun made an appearance through the clouds. So I had to go for a drive through the forest to see what it looks like after a wash. It had rained three days out of the last four. Quite something given +8 years drought, more than a days rain is an event. The Whipstick State Forest is a box-ironbark and mallee "scrub" woodlands. It's truly beautiful, but one has to watch where they are going, from 1852 a gold rush left many unmarked shafts. Last year a trail biker found one and was badly injured when his bike landed on top of him at the bottom of the shaft, can't say I was upset. Those trail bike riders do so much damage.
I think I'll get a compass, and go for a further look next week!

Celedon glaze.

from this post on, most images can be enlarged by clicking on them.

TOP Test bowls, a subtle Celedon glaze on a local Stoneware clay body. ABOVE The same glaze and clay body, but the glaze is applied twice as thick.

Further testing this Celedon glaze, I've decided subtle is best. For the following reasons.
To get the saturated blue the glaze needs to be thick, and this means some pooling of the glaze. The thick glaze tends to be more fluid when melting, this is most likely the case also for a thinner glaze, but it's just not as obvious. as you can see inside the cup there is less of the vibrant blue at the top. The thickness on the handle is a result of the glaze application.
This vivid blue is also not typical of my other work, and though colour is something I have done in the past, technicolour is not a road I want to go down.

Pan Gallery's inaugural exhibition.

Pan Gallery's inaugural exhibition 001First Show presents new works from sixteen Victorian artists. Of which I'm one. Please do come to the opening, or drop in as many times during the show as it takes for you to buy numerous pieces. LOL.

First Show: A group exhibition of new works in ceramics.
31 May to 26 June
Opening Friday 30 May 6-8pm
RSVP by email to npsupplies@bigpond.com

Artists - alistair whyte andrew widdis anne-marie plevier barbara van oost chris plumridge claire blake jenny boyd judith robertskatie jacobs kerrie lightbody kevin boyd lene kuhl jakobsen lilach mileikowski phil elson sandra bowkett wendy reeve

Guest Speaker - Chris Sanders

Inside out magazine.

Inside Out - May/June 2008.
http://digital.insideout.com.au/insideout/20080506/?pg=19

Celedon bowl.

Tuesdays reduction firing. This is the same glaze as on the celedon tea cup. I've applied the glaze thicker, and adjusted the kiln draft flow. And you can clearly see a difference.
The clay body did not get good reduction though, so it's a khaki not a neutral grey. Even though I made a special effort to bring reduction on early (800 deg. c.)when the clay is still porous.
I will work on that again, as I much prefer the clay body be a mid grey.

A mix from yesterdays firing.

An overview of pieces from yesterdays oxidation firing.

Slip glaze on bowl.

248mm x 41mm.

This was really hard to photograph. And I think it's probably a piece that you need to see in person, to get a feel for the colour in the glaze dribble and lightness of the porcelain. But anyway, I've posted because I love it so much!

Cup and matching saucer.

Well, this is the plate that goes with the cups.

It's been a cold morning here in central Victoria. I think now that it's the afternoon, I can find some strength to go and do some work in the studio. then light the fire to fend off a cold evening.

Vanilla cups.

Well I've been useing this style of cup for my coffee since early summer. And I really like them, so I think it's time to release them to the larger world. I'm useless with names though, and everyone always wants a catchy name. Help me name them! Something better than "vanilla cup".

Celedon tea cup.

From Tuesdays reduction firing. The stoneware clay for this cup was dug from a local disused clay pit. So it's as carbon friendly as a reduction fired, celedon glaze cup gets.

A reduction fire is one that burns all the available oxygen, usually done in a gas kiln, but also a wood fire kiln etc.. As apposed to an oxidation firing, usually done in an electric kiln, my kiln of choice as you don't need to fiddle with it all day. Just set the computer to adjust/increase the electricity as required.
A reduction firing limits the amount of oxygen and in doing so results in some unburnt fuel, creating smoke/carbon.
So, I figure my locally sourced clay has less transport created carbon, but carbon created in an inefficient firing. Hence my finished work is sort of carbon neutral. If anyone overseas wants to buy my work, I promise to plant some trees.