From Flames to Flowers

The Southern Highlands Arts Trail and Open Studios Pottery sale is on again this weekend and the next. This also coincides with the Australian Ceramics Assn Open Studios on the 2nd weekend in November. So we will be open for both weekends, the 4th/5th and the 11th/12th of November.

We have done our last few firings and are cleaning out the pottery, scrubbing, mopping and polishing. For this Open Studio sale  I have been concentrating on being as sustainable as possible in our process. Almost everything is fired using our electric kilns and our solar electricity. This is quite a change for me. I usually work in reduction atmosphere, and will again. However, to keep everything as sustainable and light footed as possible. I have decided to only fire in the electric kiln using our extensive solar power and Tesla batteries during these hotter and more fire prone months. I am slowly slipping into a cycle of making and firing reduction wood kiln firings in the cooler months for the July sale using our own bush fire scorched and dead trees as fuel, and then solar electric firing for the November sale when wood firing is too dangerous.

This means that there will be a big difference in the work for each sale. The chunky, rough, fire flashed bodies and unglazed surfaces of the wood kiln, vs the softer, glazed all over and brightly painted glazed work from the sunshine fired work. Both are sustainable and very low carbon the way that we have organised it. I aim to be carbon neutral where ever possible.

The last few firings that I have done for this show were lustre firings to add a bit of extra colour and shine, plus a little bit of pure gold here and there for some added ‘bling’. I never used to decorate very much, relying almost totally on my locally collected rock glazed celadons and guan glazes, combined with wood firing for the soft and subtle understated effects. However, since the fire and the almost total change in my life and circumstances, I’ve taken an interest in painting and colour. 

This change was slow and complex, but aided along by some very good trauma therapy and the fact that I was gifted and box full of china paints and lustres from a local potter who passed away recently. I’m continuing with my theme of ‘from flames to flowers’ leitmotif.

I worked through 3 slightly different colour palettes from yellow/green hues, to two tone blues, through to purple mauves.

I like them all but perhaps I will keep one of the yellow green cups for the kitchen for our own use.

I’ve also made some breakfast bowls and coffee mugs in different shapes, tall narrow and short and wide.

I think that I might have reached peak flower now!

As part of the sale weekend prepping and general spring clean I cleaned and re-oiled the big hand made wood slab table. I milled it from our own pine tree that was burnt in the fire It looks brand new again now.

We have almost completed all the paving around the pottery now, and the flowers are blooming along the garden in front of the pottery along the driveway.