The Sherwood Neighbourhood Centre Introduces: Western Suburbs Clayworkers Newsletter January/February 2017

A word from our new president Hi all, Welcome back. Now that 2106 is beginning for WSC with our refurbished “done and dusted” I hope everyone is studio space. I’m in the process of rejuvenated after the break and ready my kitchen with a similar colour to trade the handful of chocolates for called “Tame green”. This may prove handfuls of clay. I know I’m fired up. I to be a superfluous task as another hope everyone likes the occasional bad prediction for 2017 is that: “A massive pun too. death planet – Nibiru – is about to So I have put myself back in the smash into our planet, killing us all! hot-seat for this year as the group’s And there’s an alarmingly specific date benevolent autocrat. I would like predicted for the ‘rogue planet’ making to thank this year’s committee for its fatal rendezvous with our planet: stepping up to the task of running December 2017”, according to a Western Suburbs Clayworkers and prediction on Zetatalks that was quoted also thank the previous dedicated by the free U.K. tabloid newspaper crew for all their effort in creating a “Metro”. Hopefully the actual day won’t successful 2016 last year. That means be until after our Christmas party. It’d some people get thanked twice and be a shame to miss out on that. deservedly so. We’d like to make the revamped The Pantone colour of the year for studio the centre of activity as soon as 2017 is called “Greenery” (Pantone possible. Any suggestions and ideas for 15-0343) and their website informs us things you’d like to do are welcomed that it’s “A refreshing and revitalizing and we’ll try to accommodate them. shade, Greenery is symbolic of new Looking forward to seeing you all soon, beginnings.” This year will be a new Anthony.

This month's video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPJ2hN1hfnY contacts President Western Suburbs Clayworkers Anthony Durrington 38 Thallon Street Sherwood 4075 Secretary Email Newsletter David Bartholomew Rachael Torepe [email protected] [email protected] Welcome back Frank -one ofourbest throwers! January bits Anthony's cast stones a servingbowl foraweddinggift-ready to bisque. and abovehis firstcommission4plates, 4bowlsand At leftDavid's2potsinFeeney's DarkStoneware SATURDAY 25FEBRUARY201710am-5.30pm SUNDAY 26FEBRUARY201710am-5.30pm Warrandyte PotteryExpo2017 OPPOSITE THEPUBINYARRAST WARRANDYTE RIVERBANK MELWAYS: 23E11

Show + Tell Failed pots and what not to do! Mini-workshop 01-02-17 in the studio

From the top The inside of the bowl has a slip applied - cracking may have occurred in the glaze firing due to this weak point on the base of the pot. The Raku pot has an underglaze applied under a clear and the areas are starting to spall off like a naked Raku.

From the top From the top Gai had some mid-fire pieces with underglaze and a clear glaze over it. 2 sides to Anthony's bowl - glaze too The green underglaze and the clear The result was difficult to photograph thick and hasn't adhered to the pot glaze have not fitted together well? but had small bloats and pin-holes. well - looks great but has a few sharp The centre pot has a dust spot on the The clay body has been blamed for points. lid and perhaps a grease mark on the this! The bottom pot is terracotta where the body where the glaze has not taken. underglaze has slipped where the pot The bottom pot has a dramatic fail - If you have any other was too wet to absorb the moisture in perhaps too wet when bisqued or has thoughts on these failures let the slip. an air pocket in the base us know! Diane's artist profile

My name is Diane Weingott and I have been ‘potting’ for many years, starting with a Certificate of Ceramics at South Brisbane TAFE. I am a very straight-forward, uncomplicated potter. My pottery has no hidden meanings or symbolism. I thoroughly enjoy the tactile quality of clay as it evolves from an undeveloped lump to an item I have envisioned the moment I first laid my hands around it. The smooth rounded curves of a well-thrown piece that both pleases the eye and entices one to touch it, is my main objective and delight when it is achieved. My pottery is made to use; to know someone is enjoying the feel and look of my creation on a daily basis, or even kept away at the back of the cupboard to be brought out on special events to hold the feast of the day, is a great joy to me. I feel a little bit of me is interwoven with the clay, the PS Diane won third place in our What Have You Done for decoration and the glazes used on each pot. 2017 - congratulations again! I look forward to getting to know all the potters in the Western Suburbs Clayworkers and enjoying some inspirational times mucking about in mud.

The 2017 webpage An alternate use for your electric kiln

Go to: wsclayworkers.org.au

Send us photos of your work to upload Did anyone else see this on the ABC program Back Roads. It is a small country town, Cygnet in to our web page for our members to Tasmania. A lot of the locals are involved in artistic see - http://wsclayworkers.org.au/wsc-work.html or alternate activities. http://wsclayworkers.org.au/what-have-you-done.html Everyone seems to have more than one job; so why Also find popular recipes by request not use your kiln for an alternate as well! Find these and more on the web page now! [email protected] What’s On in & Around Brissy: Andrew Baker Art Dealer Jan Murphy Gallery 26 Brookes Street, Bowen Hills 4006. 486 Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley 4006. (07) 3252-2292, 0412-990-356. (07) 3254-1855. [email protected] [email protected] www.andrew-baker.com www.janmurphygallery.com.au Wed-Sat 10.00 to 5.00, or by appt. Director: Jan Murphy. , photographs, prints and by leading Tues-Sat 10.00 to 5.00 or by appt. contemporary Australian, Melanesian and Polynesian Feb 25 to March 25 Dog Days. artists. Jugglers Art Space Inc.

BrisAsia Festival – Folds of Belonging 103 Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley 4006. Festivals, + Exhibition www.brisbane.qld.gov.au (07) 3252-2552. To Feb 19 Folds of Belonging. An exhibition displaying [email protected] contemporary works by internationally celebrated artists www.jugglers.org.au – Fahd Burki (Pakistan), Motoyuki Daifu (Japan), Rirkrit Facebook: jugglersartspace Tiravanija (Thailand/USA), Shilpa Gupta (India) and Mon-Fri 10.00 to 4.00. collective Slavs and Tatars (Eurasia) in the City’s Vibrant An artist run organisation committed to supporting Laneways Outdoor Gallery sites – King George Square Car artists in Brisbane. Park, Eagle Lane, Hutton Lane and Fish Lane, 24-hours a day. Folds of Belonging is produced in association with Mitchell Fine Art Brisbane City Council on occasion of the 2017 BrisAsia 86 Arthur Street, Fortitude Valley 4006. Festival. Curated by Tess Maunder. (07) 3254-2297. [email protected] FireWorks Gallery www.mitchellfineartgallery.com 52a Doggett Street, Newstead 4006. Mon-Fri 10.00 to 5.30, Sat 10.00 to 5.00. (07) 3216-1250. Feb 8 to March 4 Director’s Choice. [email protected] www.fireworksgallery.com.au Philip Bacon Galleries Tues-Fri 10.00 to 6.00, Sat 10.00 to 4.00. 2 Arthur Street, Fortitude Valley 4006. Jan 31 to Feb 25 Along the Lines group exhibition. (07) 3358-3555. [email protected] Institute of Modern Art www.philipbacongalleries.com.au 420 Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley 4006. Tues-Sat 10.00 to 5.00. (07) 3252-5750 Philip Bacon Galleries is the largest and most established Fax 3252-5072. dealing gallery in Brisbane. [email protected] We have a large selection of important 19th-century, 20th- www.ima.org.au century and contemporary paintings and sculptures in Free entry. stock. Tues-Sat 12.00 to 6.00, Thurs until 8.00. Feb 7 to March 4 Creatures: Great and Small paintings, Feb 11 to March 11 Fiona Tan. watercolours, lithographs, drawings and by Australian artists from the 1880s until now. Jan Manton Art Contemporary Australian + International Art Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of 1/93 Fortescue Street, Spring Hill 4000. Modern Art (QAGOMA) (07) 3831-3060, 0419-657-768. Stanley Place, Cultural Precinct, South Bank Brisbane [email protected] 4101. www.janmantonart.com (07) 3840-7303 Director: Jan Manton. Fax 3844-8865. Wed-Fri by appt, Sat 10.00 to 4.00 no appt required. www.qagoma.qld.gov.au Jan Manton Art has a changing program of leading and Free entry, unless otherwise stated. emerging contemporary artists. Daily 10.00 to 5.00. Feb 22 to March 18 Alchemy by Gatya Kelly. Also, still/ silent by Carl Warner. GOMA: Suzanne To Feb 12 Childrenís Art Centre: The Gabori Sisters: O’Connell Gathering by the Sea. Gallery To April 16 A World View: The Tim Fairfax AC Gift. 93 James Street, New Farm 4005. To April 17 Sugar Spin: you, me, art and everything – (07) 3358-5811, 0400-920-022 QAGOMA’s major summer show. Also, Children’s Art Fax 3358-5813. Centre: Mirror Mirror by Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir (aka [email protected] Shoppy), and Enchanted spaces by Nusra Latif Qureshi. www.suzanneoconnell.com and Awards To May 7 Rainbow Bridge from ‘We Miss You Magic Land’ Member of ACGA. 2011 by Pip & Pop. Wed-Sat 11.00 to 4.00 or by appt. To May 14 Untitled by Anish Kapoor. Specialising in contemporary Australian To July 30 Lucent: Aboriginal and Pacific Works from the Indigenous art.

Collection. Representing leading Aboriginal artists; works Festivals, Exhibitions include paintings, fibre and wood carvings. QUT Art Museum Feb 11 to March 11 Old People by William 2 George Street, QUT Gardens Point Campus (next to the Nyaparu Gardiner a solo exhibition. In City Botanic Gardens), Brisbane 4000. association with Spinifex Hill Artists. (07) 3138-5370. [email protected] The University of Queensland www.artmuseum.qut.edu.au Art Museum Free entry. James and Mary Emelia Mayne Centre (Building Tues-Fri 10.00 to 4.00, Sat-Sun 12.00 to 4.00. 11), Visit website for programs and events. University Drive, The University of Queensland, St Lucia To March 5 GLASS: art, design, architecture. 4067. (07) 3365-3046. Redland Art Gallery [email protected] Capalaba www.artmuseum.uq.edu.au Capalaba Place, Noeleen Street, Capalaba 4157. Daily 10.00 to 4.00. (07) 3829-8899. To Feb 26 Creative Accounting – Australian and [email protected] international contemporary artists explore ideas around artgallery.redland.qld.gov.au money, economic systems, perceived value, and the Free admission. aesthetics of currency. Mon-Wed, Fri 8.30 to 5.00, Thurs 8.30 to 7.30, Sat 9.00 UTS Art Collection. Courtesy the artists to 4.00. To April 2 Denise Green: Beyond and Between – A Feb 4 to March 14, 14 x 14: Volunteer selected works Painter’s Journey – surveys over 40 years of the prominent from the RAG Collection. Australian born and New York based artist’s practice. Cleveland Webb Gallery Cnr Middle and Bloomfield streets, Cleveland 4163. Queensland College of Art, Griffith University (07) 3829-8899. Level 2 Webb Centre, 226 Grey Street, South Bank 4101. [email protected] [email protected] artgallery.redland.qld.gov.au www.griffith.edu.au/qcagalleries Free admission. Tues-Sat 10.00 to 4.00. Mon-Fri 9.00 to 4.00, Sun 9.00 to 2.00. Feb 9 to 25 (opening and announcement Fri Feb 10, Feb 5 to March 19 Take a seat: Corinne Colombo, and 6-8pm) The Elaine Bermingham National Watercolour Prize Lamentation: Karike Ashworth. in Landscape Painting. Gold Coast

Anthea Polson Art Mon-Fri 10.00 to 5.00, Sat and public hols Shop 120 Marina Mirage, 74 Seaworld Drive, Main Beach 11.00 to 5.00, Sun 8.30 to 5.00. 4217. Feb 18 to April 9 Signs of the Time – a (07) 5561-1166. Gold Coast exclusive exhibition of world- renowned, national and local urban artists [email protected] and Awards www.antheapolsonart.com.au from the Collection of Ken McGregor and work Director: Anthea Polson. commissioned by Gold Coast City Gallery. Daily 10.00 to 6.00. The exhibition features works from urban art Feb 25 to March 11 Portraits From An Ordinary Life by megastars including; and Bambi and Veronica Cay. national and local urban artists including Sarah Beetson, Beastman and HA HA. Festivals, Exhibitions Gold Coast City Gallery To March 31 UnSeenGC Summer 16-17 – The Arts Centre Gold Coast, 135 Bundall Road, Surfers a dLux Media Arts touring exhibition. The Paradise 4217. exhibition is a mobile 3D augmented reality (AR) (07) 5588 4000. art experience, designed to introduce the Gold [email protected] Coast community and our city’s visitors to some www.theartscentregc.com.au/gallery of the world’s best in AR art. Free entry. Sunshine Coast

Australian Woodfire Ceramics Jan 27 to Feb 26 Taste of Art. Conference Friends Noosa Regional Gallery presents its sixth annual Smoke on the Water 2017 group show exclusively organised for its creative members. Cooroy, Sunshine Coast, Queensland Taste of Art presents our rich and diverse local creative June 28-July 1,2017 voices from artists to hobbyists alike. The Australian Woodfire Ceramics Conference, Smoke on Stevens Street Gallery the Wafer 2017, is an international event for woodfired and 2 Stevens Street, Yandina 4561. other ceramic arts. 0448-051-710. Under balmy Sunshine Coast skies, help celebrate [email protected] the triennial gathering of the tribe, its stalwarts and www.stevensstreetgallery.com.au newcomers. Tues-Sat 9.00 to 2.00. Feb 1 to March 29 Sculpture Now featuring sculpture web: smokeonthewater2017.com.au from some of Australia’s leading sculptors – Mike Nicholls, email: [email protected] Christabel Wigley, Mark Howson, Emma Davies, Marc Noosa Regional Gallery Pascal and Graeme Altman. Level 1, 9 Pelican Street (PO Box 141), Riverside, Tewantin 4565. (07) 5329-6145. [email protected] www.noosaregionalgallery.com Director: Nina Shadforth. Tue-Fri 10.00 to 4.00, Sat-Sun 10.00 to 3.00 closed Mondays, public holidays and during exhibition changeovers. The Son of a Potter Gerry Wedd was born in McLaren Vale, South Australia, in 1957. He pots and surfs in Port Eliott, South Australia. He completed an MVA (ceramics) in 2009. In 1998 he won the Sidney Myer Fund International Ceramics Award and in 2009 his work was in the Havana Bienal. WHAT HABITS DO YOU EMPLOY TO KEEP YOUR CREATIVITY FRESH? Funnily enough it’s this idea of repetition and making and making and making. Often making the same things over and over. I don’t worry about freshness or a new creative direction, it will happen if I just keep working. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOU? Erratic. Driven and lazy. Easily intrigued. WHAT PART OF THE PROCESS DO YOU LOVE THE MOST? There is a moment through any of the processes where I am not quite sure where things are going, but I’m excited rather than scared. It can be in the middle of decorating something where you lose yourself slightly and all of a sudden you feel like you’ve hit this particular point where everything is singing. That can even happen if I’m dipping a large plate. You have this split second realization that you know how to do something. WHAT DO YOU LOVE BEST ABOUT YOUR STUDIO? The light. My studio would be a joke in potters’ circles. It doesn’t have a door. It was an old shed that was on the property and I’ve never closed it in. In the winter I will occasionally put some blinds down and I will have a heater. In the summer when it gets too hot I will drag the table out under an olive tree and work. But it’s the light. I’ve had photographers come here and they will look around the whole place for somewhere to take a photograph and we will end up back in my studio. IF I WANTED TO BECOME A FULL TIME POTTER WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE? I think there are two clear paths. One of them is to obviously learn the skills to a point at which you can sell things and you find out what the market is and in a very methodical way you aim towards that market. You go to the galleries, you go to the shops. Or you take those skills and interests and let them embed themselves in what you are making. Then you will make things that are of you, that I think tend to be the things people are interested in. It’s all time and it’s all making. http://thepotterscast.com/80 This article and images are taken unashamedly from the Potters Cast webpage. I first saw Gerry on the ABC documentary - Mambo: Art Irritates Life. Scratching the Surface: A Guide to Sgraffito The word sgraffito is derived from the Italian word graffito, a drawing There will be some edges that can be felt, and glazes will break away or inscription made on a wall or other surface (graffito also gave us from these edges, but the glaze will fill in to make it smoother than the word ). Graffito is past participal of sgraffire, which means when cut. Small nicks and cuts can be patched, but the spray overlaps “to scratch.” So the word sgraffito basically means to scratch and are very hard to color match, so it is best to avoid mistakes! When create a graphic or an image. In ceramics, sgraffito is a technique of almost bone dry, use 0000-grade steel wool to lightly smooth some of ornamentation in which a surface layer is incised to reveal a ground of the cuts and to remove small bits of color. contrasting color. Cross-hatching is another way of exposing the white of the porcelain I use sgraffito to get a clean line without masking or rulers, and I do and is done with a serrated-edge tool (figure 7). I add black dots of more cutting than scraping. I use a handmade tool that is thin and cuts engobe using a squeeze bottle. When all the carving is done, the piece smoothly. I cut when the piece is stiff leather hard, which makes straight is air-dried then bisque fired, then a clear satin matt or a shiny glaze is lines possible. If the piece is bone dry, the cut will be jagged and brittle. sprayed on the front and solid color glazes on the back. If the piece is too soft, the tool raises the edge of the cut and makes a Detail of trimming tool with ferrel removed and watch-spring cutter higher ragged edge. formed to desired contour. Fig.1, Fig.2, Fig.3 spraying underglaze/engobes If your clay has grog in it, or anything coarser than fine sand, you won’t Tools get a smooth cut. I use a rubber-tipped air tool and a soft cosmetic My sgraffito tool tips are made from the main spring of a pocket watch. brush to blow or brush off the cuttings. The cut pieces are still moist The spring metal is thin and strong, doesn’t have to be sharpened and enough to stick if you touch them to the surface, so they should be keeps the same feel as it wears away. To make the tip, cut a piece of removed frequently. You can use a thin coat of wax resist to protect spring, heat it with a small torch and bend it to the shape you want. light-colored areas from dark cuttings. The wax resist will burn off in the A small rounded point is used for the line cutting tips, and a broader bisque. rounder tip for large cuts. Glue the tip with Elmers glue into the brass ferrel of the trimming tool and allow it to harden. Lightly heating the CAUTION - Overspray is hazardous. The engobe spray contains ferrel softens the glue and the ferrel can be removed and another tip silica, which can be harmful if inhaled. glued into the tool. For ribs, cut them with tin snips from sheets of metal and flatten the edges, making two square edges for scraping (do not Wear a mask, and make sure your booth has an exhaust system. sharpen the edges). You can also cut serrated-edge ribs with the snips. Fig.4 Place the platter on a foam rubber chuck on the wheel and create the center spiral as the wheel turns. Anther great story from ceramics arts daily an endless I use an automotive-detail-type spray gun to apply engobes and glazes. It has a smaller fan size than the full-size gun, has good volume and is source for tips and ideas much faster than an airbrush. It’s a high volume/low pressure (HVLP) gun and it produces less overspray. I use a large HLVP spray gun for the cover glazes because of its high volume. I use a matt and a shiny glaze to cover the engobes on the face of the pieces and these two glazes are what I call “color friendly.” To get as many colors as possible, they have to work with the chrome-tin colors, i.e., the reds, pinks and purples. The molecular recipe has to have three times more calcium than boron for these to work. They have that ratio and will produce the right color with all my engobes. I do use barium for what it does for the colors and for the matt. The potential problem with it has to do with the heavy metals and the possibility of leaching. From what I can find out, if a glaze has less than 15% barium in the Fig. 1 Fig. 2 percentage composition, it will not promote leaching. From the tests I have done, the glazes that I now use do not promote leaching when used over the engobes. I do use a liner glaze for liquid containers and I don’t use the solid color glazes on eating surfaces. Fig.5 Move the platter to a banding wheel and work freehand. I spray very wet, as if I’m pouring on a small stream of the glaze or engobe on the piece. The engobe sets quickly because the leather-hard piece can absorb some water, but too much engobe and the piece can Fig. 3 Fig. 4 collapse. If the engobe is too thick, it makes the color and the glaze crawl. Set the fan for a tall oval and overlap the spray by 50% with the piece on a banding wheel turning smoothly through the spray. Practice spraying with paper plates so you can cover the plate smoothly with no bare spots or dusty areas. The four colors of this color set are Black, French Green, Chartreuse and Crimson and are applied from dark to light (figures 1–2). The spray adds water to the piece and it must dry to the leather hard state before it can be carved. When dry enough, store the pieces on cloth on top of plastic, and and place cloth over them to prevent condensation from the Fig. 5 Fig. 6 plastic marring the color (figure 3). Fig.6 Scrape off large areas last using the flat side of a rib. First I create the center spiral and circle using a foam rubber chuck on the wheel (figure 4). All the other lines are done freehand on a banding wheel (figure 5). The scraping of the larger white spaces is done last, when the piece is even harder. I try to take off only the layer of color (figure 6). I use the the tool tip to make a sort of ditch that you can scrape to or from to make the larger white areas. I use the flat side of a rib to make the larger cuts. Fig. 7 Tools Fig.7 Cross-hatching is done with a serrated tool. 2017 CAQ Toolkits Don't forget as a member group of CAQ, WSC has the right to enrol 2 of our members at any CAQ event at member rates

TOOLKIT 1 Anna-Marie Wallace - Made of Australia Topic: Running a successful ceramic manufacturing business.

FEBRUARY Place: RQAS, 162 Petrie Terrace, Brisbane. When: Sunday 19 February at 1.30 pm. $30 M $55 N-M

TOOLKIT 2 Stephen Clark – ahagoodthinking Topic: Preparation for a successful grant application. Place: RQAS, 162 Petrie Terrace, Brisbane. When: Sunday 19 March at 10.00 am. $25 M $45 N-M MARCH AGM Australian Woodfire Place: RQAS, 162 Petrie Terrace, Brisbane. Ceramics Conference When: Sunday 19 March at 1.30 pm.

TOOLKIT 3 Su Brown Wallace Rockhole Project and Crowd Funding. MAY Place: BVAC, 140 Weller Road, Tarragindi. When: Sunday 21 May at 1.30 pm. $30 M $55 N-M

TOOLKIT 4 Raku Firing Day Place: BIA, 14 Grafton Street, Windsor. When: Sunday 18 June 9.30 – 4.00 pm. $65 M $85 N-M

Smoke on the Water International Woodfirers’ Conference Place: Cooroy, Sunshine Coast. When: 28 June – 1 July JUNE - JULY

Exhibition Early Influential Woodfirers of our Region Place: St James Hall, Cooroy When: 28 June – 1 July. Ceramic Arts Queensland 2017 Ceramic TOOLKIT 5 The Ian Currie Memorial Glaze Workshop Speaker: Greg Daly Place: BIA, 14 Grafton Street, Windsor. When: Sunday 6 August 9.00 – 4.00 pm. $100 M $130 N-M

AUGUST ANNUAL MEMBERS EXHIBITION & SILICEOUS AWARD Place: BIA Metcalfe Gallery, 14 Grafton Street, Windsor. When: 3– 16 August 9.00 – 4.00 pm. Opening: Saturday 5 August 6.00 pm – Award announcement.

TOOLKIT 6 Complex Mould Making Place: BIA Ceramic Studio, 14 Grafton Street, Windsor. When: TBC $100 M $130 N-M

Christmas Gathering - Artist in Residence Reports Place: BVAC, 140 Weller Road, Tarragindi When: Sunday 26 November 1.30 pm. NOVEMBER Go to the Ceramic Arts Queensland webpage for more info - https://ceramicartsqld.org.au potterysuppliesonline.com.au

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