louisefulton

summer rain

2012-01-30T15:55:00.000-08:00

I reconfigured these sculptures based on leaf profiles and they look like fallopian tubes and uterus. The work was in our exhibition, 'Swallowing Clouds'.

Fairytales in fairyland update

2012-01-10T22:52:00.000-08:00

A review by Jeanti St Clair was posted on the local ABC site.
"The idea that fairytales can thrive in rural suburbia is an added theme that emerges for Dave Funnell, Rindi Salamon and Louise Fulton. Fulton has produced a series of 3D ceramic maps of Australia to portray different perspectives on the nation's development from the federation era reliance upon the wool industry to today's mining boom, from the anglisised suburb to multiculturalism."

work in progress

2011-10-30T21:48:00.000-07:00

Making work for Tweed River Art Gallery show for March 2012. There will be a series of wall mounted clouds with Chinese cloud pattern in white slip. And another series of stylised dragon fangs which will have a red glaze highlighting embossing on the clay.

fairytales in fairyland

2011-09-03T16:02:00.000-07:00

Pictured at Grafton Regional Gallery are works from my Fantasia Australis series. 'Endless summer', 'Spice mix', 'New Arcadia' and 'On the sheeps back' are four of the seven in the series. The text for the series follows.

Once upon a time, there was a place called Australis which flowed with cheap milk and there was more than enough of everything. Even the honey bees were top notch and exported first class to California almond orchards. Australis had golden migrants on 457 visas. They happily worked unpaid overtime to support the nation. Balmy tropical waters lapped the coast. The people of Australis developed deep tans. Meanwhile a villain silently went about bleaching their coral. Australis dug up 28% of the world's coal exports. It was hard work but necessary in their quest for a prosperous future. Big Red held the key to Australis's transformation. The promise was peace and security along with a quarter acre of feasting and fornication. Australis was a suburban paradise, a utopian poetic idyll, a safe haven free from infection, an unspoiled harmonious wilderness. Australis was gifted with people from many nations. They had many restaurants and cafes and lived together happily ever after.

Cataract Gorge

2011-08-07T23:45:00.000-07:00

Kings Bridge Cottage at Cataract Gorge was built in Arts and Crafts style. It is a stunning setting for the artist in residence program auspiced through Launceston City Council. I spent most of the time working on drawings for the Hobart show 'The Strandline'. I also made some preparatory designs for my next series of ceramic wall sculptures based on casuarina trees.

Strandline opening night

2011-07-29T22:53:00.001-07:00

Deborah, Rebecca and Louise Fulton at opening night of The Strandline- a tale of two sisters. Rebecca, the third sister, opened the show with a charming speech.

kiln props

2011-06-17T03:44:00.001-07:00

Come hell or high water

2011-06-09T14:09:00.001-07:00

The Strandline-a tale of two sisters

2011-06-06T02:30:00.000-07:00

Only 21 sleeps before I drive down to Tasmania for the artist residency at Kings Bridge Gorge Cottage in Launceston. The kiln has been working overtime firing work for our exhibition opening on Friday 22nd July at Salamanca Arts Centre. I have compiled a CD for the opening which includes music on a maritime theme. It includes music from Master and Commander, Hornblower series, the Onedin Line Katchaturian theme, you get the idea. I made a candle holder for the opening table decoration from some driftwood I found on Lighthouse Beach.

studio time

2011-05-22T23:02:00.000-07:00

I sent off my finished artwork to Grafton Art Gallery a couple of weeks ago under considerable time pressure. I used a plaster mold to help make the basic shapes for Fairytales in fairyland. I made seven versions of mythical Australia. This one is 'On the sheeps back' (each sheep is stamped with 457, referring to Australian 457 guest worker visas). The show opens in July along with local artists like Katka Adams and Avital Sheffer.

garden shards

2011-04-12T02:30:00.000-07:00

Archeologists of the future will have rich pickings in my patch of soil. I keep chucking stuff out when it doesn't quite make the grade. This piece had problems with the glaze shelling off.

Salamanca Arts Centre

2011-03-26T18:16:00.000-07:00

My sister Deborah and I have booked Sidespace Gallery at Salamanca Arts Centre for a pop-up show in July. We have swapped some ceramic and timber pieces through the mail to work on collaboratively. I'm working on two small figures suspended on driftwood which incorporate Deb's 'Port Jackson shark egg' corkscrew-like pieces. I have also started preliminary drawings which use rotalaria, twins and apes.

pandanus musings

2011-03-12T18:00:00.000-08:00

Waiting for results from the kiln firing. Took some photos for publicity for Hobart. And a photo of the livingroom with the afternoon sun.

summervale residency

2011-02-25T22:22:00.001-08:00

What a great experience it was at the Summervale residency, auspiced by Cudgegong Gallery. Wide blue skies, fields full of wild flowers, the long dusty Barney's Reef road to walk along.

high water mark

2011-02-16T01:47:00.000-08:00

I'm going hunting for driftwood at Ballina beach this week to use in sculptures. I'm having an exhibition in July with my sister based on the theme of the strandline. We spent many weekends with our grandparents at the beach as children so it is a fitting subject for a joint show.

summervale cottage

2010-11-23T01:31:00.001-08:00

I've been artist-in-residence for Cudgegong Gallery for the past month. I have been staying in an old shearer's quarters spending time with merinos, galahs, a large brown snake and the rest of the usual wildlife on a sheep property. The first week was like a monastic experience because I couldn't get Radio National and the self-doubting thoughts inside my head were deafening. I started with drawing ideas for a new series of wall sculptures, then went on to making them in clay. Lots of art magazines available in the cottage library so I have also been reading and writing.
I found a small monograph about Janet Lawrence at the op-shop. I remember the disappointment I felt as a sixteen year old when I studied chemistry instead of art because I thought that it was a family tradition that I had to uphold. Science informs my artwork so it was okay in the bigger scheme of things. I'll post an image of some drawings when I get home next week.

winter cauldron

2010-10-06T18:18:00.000-07:00

Louise Fulton, Cauldron 2010
I could see a driver stopped on Eltham road on a small bridge in front of an animal. As I slowed down to pass, I realised it was a very large freshwater crayfish that he was guiding back into the creek. It was waving its claws. The driver was risking his life for something he could buy at the local fish and chip shop.
This vessel 'Cauldron' has a deep black and green matt glaze inside. The sprigs on the side are based on Chinese thunder and fire symbols. The vessel is part on our 'Swallowing clouds' exhibition.

profile

2010-09-30T19:17:00.000-07:00

This is one of a series of wall pieces from my current exhibition. It is based on leaf profiles for botanical taxonomy. I used a magnesium crawl glaze, a milky opaque glaze as well as black iron oxide lace stencil. The clay was mixed with coffee grounds to get the mottled brown effect on the surfaces.

two baby lomans

2010-09-29T00:59:00.000-07:00

I found a large egg in the banana grove a while back. It must of been there when the local roaming peacock and peahen were laying. I attempted to shake it to see if it was viable. It exploded in my hand. Our three metre python has wintered over on the hay bale on the verandah. We introduced two black pullets, names: Nubia and Kali. They are still pretty reticent to go into the coup.
I've been making preparations for my artist-in-residence at Cudgegong Gallery. I'll be staying in a cottage in the Gulgong countryside for a month making some new ceramic moulds and designing some patterns for linocuts and stencils.

porcelain workshop

2010-09-22T20:40:00.000-07:00

We had a busy afternoon in Ballina last Saturday demonstrating decorative techniques in porcelain. Ruth Park showed how to carve porcelain at leatherhard stage and Sue Fraser demonstrated modelling and tissue transfer of oxide designs. I showed how to use linocuts for embossing and sprigs for surface decoration.

swallowing clouds

2010-09-01T04:23:00.000-07:00

Our group show in Ballina opens this Saturday 4th September. Still waiting on the catalogue printrun but everything else has come together. Ruth has ordered 3 kilos of baclava just in case the scones, jam and cream isn't enough.
The sculpture is from a series of four twins. Ovulation induction with IVF often leads to multiple pregnancy. I was reading about a surgeon who was performing selective termination on siamese twins in utero. He published a paper about aborting the conjoined twins while preserving the other foetus.

won ton wrapping

2010-08-19T18:02:00.000-07:00

I've been working into the wee hours getting work ready for our next group show with Sue Fraser and Ruth Park at Northern Rivers Community Gallery. Nothing seems to be coming out of the kiln quite how I imagined. The decals on the siamese twins have burnt off and the rich red of terracotta has turned into kak brown. Fingers crossed for the next kiln load.

Aphrodite has been patiently sitting on an empty nest for two weeks now. With no rooster in sight, it's going to be a long wait. She gets up each morning when I give the chickens some special treats from the kitchen but then it's back to brooding.

objects of the dead

2010-06-16T23:55:00.000-07:00

I made a sculpture for Julie Barratt's 'Hankie Project' which opens tomorrow night at the gallery. Some of the hankies in the show are full of pathos, some charming, some chilling. You can see it at objectsofthedead.blogspot.com I made a deep upholstered work in black with a spirit level attached to represent the carpenters in my family.

pale pink camellias

2010-06-09T04:07:00.000-07:00

I stopped outside the cemetery yesterday and picked some pale pink camellias from the roadside hedge. Their perfume was subtle but filled the car. They are sitting on my kitchen bench now in one of my female vases. This is a drawing from a series based on twins and evolution.

chicken footprints

2010-05-18T02:00:00.000-07:00

I walked into my studio this afternoon and knew immediately that one of my chickens was out. I followed the footprints coming out of the wet pile of clay that I had left slaking down on the concrete floor. The footprints went under the car, over the vacuum cleaner, and around the veranda back to the chicken coop and straight to Parvati, the undeniable culprit with white feet. What body language can you read in a chicken's face?
This work is called 'Blanketed'. When I was making it, I was thinking about the incredible diversity of life on earth and how each species is so precious.

going, going, gulgong

2010-04-26T13:33:00.000-07:00

Heading off this morning to Clay Energy Gulgong. The drive should take about eleven hours. I'm looking forward to a coffee already. It's been six years since I've been to Gulgong and I would really love to sit in a window seat in Janet Mansfield's library again. What a treat. I'm taking this large 60cm platter for the participants show. It's an image of Darwin touching Man complete with slimy protazoa from the benthos.

burringbar chicane

2010-04-15T01:08:00.000-07:00

We whizzed up and down the hills around Murwillumbah after visiting Marc Renshaw and Karlee Rawkins show at Tweed River Art Gallery, slowing down only for the speed camera. My favourite work was Karlee's 'Pelting', a tiger, tiger burning bright orange and black stripes. I have this thing for hot orange, I have a burnt orange shirt for golf, and various other shades of orange for various other occasions.
I finished a new series of wall pieces recently. I used coffee grounds in the clay to lighten the weight. The clay was nauseatingly smelly for a few weeks, it then grew maggots and I had to use gloves when I pressed it into the plaster moulds. The iron in the coffee migrated towards the surface of the clay, leaving an efflorescene on the surface. You can see on the work, the mark of the ceramic barista.

snakey business

2010-02-10T00:39:00.000-08:00

I went down to let the chickens out before my morning swim last week and found a two metre carpet python perched along the bracing timber inside the chicken pen. It had jammed its head into the wire and was having trouble getting out. I let the chickens out of the henhouse and got a very long stick and managed to free it. For the next couple of days, the chickens looked left and right and then left again before leaving the coop. But they don't have long memories so they run in and out now without worrying.

I've been making some more press moulds for wall sculptures. They are based on vegetative forms and cell division. Not quite ready to photograph but I have a picture from work I made last year.

plumeria

2009-12-02T00:51:00.000-08:00

I was offered some frangipani flowers to fill a large vessel at my marquee stall at Rivafest. Their heady perfume reminds me of Papua New Guinean house gardens and the rough and ready PNG way of weeding by pulling out absolutely everything then putting the useful plants back in. I pick a frangipani flower most mornings after letting out the chooks then put it on the kitchen bench until it goes brown.
I went to the opening of Quotidian and Quixotic Gallery last night and saw some work by one of favourite artists, Gloria Petyarre. She has such wonderful design sense.
Here's another work from my recent show in Darwin.

november pineapples

2009-11-23T13:22:00.000-08:00

I remember an old canecutter mate called Vic who said that pineapples picked in November usually have rot in them. I always think of Vic when I cut a rotten one open. Someone said he had tertiary stage syphilis and that accounted for his odd manner.
I've been invited to have an artisan's marquee at Ballina's Rivafest next weekend. I'm busily making some smaller work for sale. This is an image of some more work from my Darwin residency.

golf withdrawal

2009-10-28T15:15:00.000-07:00

I couldn't play golf yesterday because it was raining and I've got withdrawal syndrome. But I also had my first day at Barratt Galleries as a volunteer. I first met Julie Barratt at a writing workshop at Linnaeas Estate last year.
I'm making some pate a papier shapes for two new paintings which I'm hoping to finish for the Stanthorpe Regional Art Gallery show in late November. Here is another image from my show in Darwin.

home time

2009-10-13T00:48:00.000-07:00

For full details of my Arafuran adventures go to the Craft Australia website. We arrived back home to healthy chickens although both Athena and Aphrodite had gone broody. Some time in the chicken penitentiary is the only cure for them. We have a pair of scrub turkeys making a mound nearby in the rainforest for company for them.

opening

2009-09-19T19:52:00.000-07:00

This is the charming speech given by Tim Berra at the opening of my solo show in Darwin.

Good Afternoon Fellow Primates
Welcome to this wonderful exhibition of Louise Fulton's work at the intersection of art and science. These two areas of human activity rarely communicate but tonight, we see how science can inspire an artist. Louise has embedded biological themes into her creactions. To appreciate her work requires a degree of scientific literacy, an important attribute for any citizen. This is especially timely during the 200th anniversary of the birth of one of the most important scientists who ever lived, Charles Darwin. This man may have had the greatest idea ever had by the human mind, the theory of evolution by means of natural selection. It fundamentally changed how humans view their place in nature and created a paradigm shift in science. If you would like to hear more about the life of Darwin, after whom this fair city is named, I hope you wil attend my keynote address at the the Darwin Symposium on Tuesday. Meanwhile soak yourself in images of microorganisms, the juxtaposition of bonobo and human bodies and footprints, Darwin's hat and other wonders to delight the mind.

going balmy

2009-09-18T21:03:00.000-07:00

Parap market this morning had a delicious haze of sesame oil, chicken fat and incence wafting between the stalls. We tried lotus seed crepes and wild rice with palm sugar and coconut. Adrielle was selling her sweet little ocarinas by tempting the strolling crowd like the Pied Piper.
My art exhibition opened last night with a speech by Tim Berra, Emeritus Professor in Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology. He opened by saying "Good evening fellow primates" then said lots of nice things about the show.

feeling territorial

2009-09-14T19:05:00.000-07:00

I went sailing on a 38 foot boat in Darwin harbour on Sunday. There was a young Irish electrician on board who was a first time sailor. He had red swollen feet and scabs on his lips from burns from falling asleep for two hours in the sun the other day. He got boned up on the lingo such as rope may be called a sheet or shroud or halyard or painter or hawser or bowline or rig or tackle.
The Territory Craft gallery is mine. Andrea bumped out on Sunday arvo and I have started to set up my show.

Dyad - an unnatural selection

2009-09-09T19:51:00.000-07:00

My residency at Territory Craft studios coincides with the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s publication of ‘On the Origin of Species’. Charles Darwin was the first person to provide a rational explanation of our human origins, our relationship to the great apes and descent from a common ancestor. My exhibition which opens next Friday has diverse objects celebrating the evolution of creating art and comprises work which met the rigours of survival of the fittest in an unfamiliar environment.
Travelling across the continent via the mining towns of Cloncurry and Mount Isa, I had time to review my internal and external landscape. What does distance from home and my studio bring to thinking and making in a new environment? Does a physical change bring a change in internal creative dialogue and therefore adaptation?
These questions were addressed during my residency as I trialled new ceramic techniques, coped with the zero humidity of the dry season and its effect on greenware and smashed work that failed to adapt to the vagaries of the kilns. I was hoping that the Darwin residency would generate work that had favourable variations which could be preserved. In the end I produced numerous offspring in an evolutionary process of making that led to the natural selection of new species of art forms. The dry season environment in particular determined which forms survived and which unfavourable variations were removed.
The ceramics and mixed media work showing at Territory Craft offers a broad repertoire of ideas and techniques. It consists of pairs or ’dyads’ of objects. I use a variety of scientific source material including micro-organisms which I recombine into repeat patterns which focus on the intrinsic beauty of biological imagery. Pattern and structure helps us comprehend science and the concept of natural variation. In particular, propagation and mitosis carries contemporary resonance in the field of virology with the current problems surrounding H1N1 and Hendra virus. These themes are a recurring motif in the art work in both form and surface decoration. I have also modelled and drawn apes and man/Darwin onto the ceramic forms and 2-D work. I'll have some more images for you in the next few days.

double trouble

2009-08-24T19:22:00.000-07:00

I had coffee at 5pm. At midnight I was watching a horrific movie about a drug cartel/satanic sect in Mexico based on a real life story. This morning I was feeling decidedly anxious about everthing. I opened the extra big kiln to find work both under and over fired, depending on the shelf location. Some work is excellent considering it had to be fired four times to get the right effect. I'm going to reglaze some large platters today using stencils and a matt glaze.

fire in the hold

2009-08-08T23:44:00.000-07:00

I found a ladder made from reo this morning hanging from a frond in a dense palm grove. I couldn't see any fruit in the palm, was it a leftover from a building site or a mini-ladder for midgets? I arrived at the studio to find an error message on the glaze firing computer screen. It maxed out at 847 degrees and called a halt. This was a disappointment because I had finally fought off my procrastination about glazing and loaded the kiln yesterday. More procrastination today talking with Jasmine Jan and surfing online. However I am progressing with some mixed media work involving bronze wire nests and ceramic protazoan shapes.

beat the drum

2009-08-02T23:19:00.000-07:00

I stood with the crowd listening to the DSO percussionists drum up a feast of sound yesterday at the museum. Four men clapped, shooshed and slapped their bodies to a tango beat in one set. It reminded me of the Spanish flamenco dancer in Granada, all machismo and flying sweat. It was the highlight of the day. I went to the studio to find two large protazoan shaped sculptures had irreversibly cracked from drying too quickly. Waking at three o'clock this morning and reading a book on evolution, I had an inspiration to sculpt a monkey climbing over them, so that's what I've been working on today.

monkey business

2009-07-28T17:46:00.000-07:00

Overheard at the markets - She said to him "Do you want to go down to Mindil Beach to watch the sunset?'. He replied "No, I saw it last week".

I did some publicity shots yesterday using work in progress.

taro custard

2009-07-27T19:03:00.000-07:00

Parap market has the best taro custards baked in banana leaf, slightly sweet, slightly salty, smooth and creamy, they just slip down. I saw a cockatoo this morning carry off a green passionfruit growing on the neighbour's front fence. I then found a wallet on the median strip of Lee Point Road complete with credit cards, but sans money. I rang the owner when I got home, his wife became breathless at the thought that someone had found it and had to turn the phone over to her husband. He wanted to give me fifty dollars as reward. I had an internal moral tussle when he kept on insisting I take it, but couldn't.
My art exhibition scheduled for Sept "Dyad, an unnatural selection" will be pairs of objects using Charles Darwin, small organism shapes and great apes as source material. I finished a pair of protazoan shaped sculptures yesterday using BRT clay and a linocut for surface detail.

territorial chair

2009-07-17T23:34:00.000-07:00

My copper red stoneware bowl slipped from the dodgy dishrack this morning and crashed onto the tiled floor, such a pity as it has been my travelling companion for the past few weeks. I've been sitting in the Territory Craft gallery all day working on my protazoan lino cut while people wander in looking lost and asking where the Northern Territory museum is. I have to explain why I'm using lino cuts for ceramic work and then I redirect them through to the museum. I unloaded the kiln this afternoon with only one breakage due to a concave kiln shelf. Ceramics is a life of hits and misses.

arafura dreaming

2009-07-13T20:53:00.000-07:00

I've been waking each night as I turn over on the blow-up mattress which threatens to turf me onto the floor each time I move. I can hear the sound of scrub hens fighting in the garden and the night plovers and eagles whirling above. There is the unmistakable sound of a peacock calling in a yard nearby. The sun doesn't rise until 7am and there is a strange mixture of mist and smoke from the big fire at Berry Springs hugging the ground. I'm making paper clay so I sit in bed methodically shredding toilet paper into a bucket between my legs. I'm thinking that my flat mates are probably wondering what is the strange noise coming from my bedroom in the wee hours of the night.

Today in the studios of Territory Craft I finally made something with clay. Up to now I've be plaster casting and linocutting in preparation for ceramic work. I slab rolled the clay and made two protazoan inspired clocks.

studio report

2009-07-02T17:11:00.000-07:00

My studio at Territory Craft is surrounded by venetian windows with the humid Arafura winds blowing through to ventilate the space. The smell is of damp clay. I have banished my leather sandals which have become foetid with fungus. I am working on some moulds for platters and clocks today. I'm also doing some design work for a repeating pattern using protazoan shapes.

winton library

2009-06-24T19:49:00.000-07:00

So many dead kangaroos on the road between Toowoomba and Winton. I'm keeping the smell out by keeping the windows closed, I've got my earplugs in and music up loud. How many times can you listen to Tina Turner on a 6 day voyage? I try to sing along but the earplugs makes my voice sound like a rusty bucket.

Winton library has internet access, what a great service for my travelling log.

on the road again...

2009-06-21T19:19:00.000-07:00

One sleep to go before the big dry calls me north to Darwin. Cruising down the highway in my gray Echo (I'm imagining it's a pink Cadillac). Looking for the best coffee shops and bakeries and op-shops along the road. My friend Sue asked me if I had some photos of my paintings on my blog. I suppose it was a bit of an oversight on my part so here is one of my favourites.

embroidery

2009-06-15T04:05:00.000-07:00

I stood in the kitchen of an old women today who was wearing a grey-green tracksuit top with fake printed embroidery. The design was beautiful with blossoms and long feathered lyrebirds. She had cut the neck out because it was too uncomfortably tight. There was beauty and poignancy in the moment as I thought about lost embroidery skills.

I made a range of vases with damascene like embossing called Chatelaine suite. I was looking for a minimalist form with an intensely decorated surface.

weekend cholesterol fix

2009-06-13T02:53:00.000-07:00

"There's an interesting taste in this lasagna" he said. " Well, it's got chilli, coconut milk and coriander in it" she said. It looked authentically Italian which was amazing considering the difficulty she was having mastering the vagaries of the new Smeg oven.

Yes, it's the weekend and time to throw the vegetarian menu out and eat meat. I thought we had some mince in the freezer but no. Lentils to the rescue, I made a cross-cultural lasagna with some left over green curry of lentils. You may not believe me but it was delicious.

I put in the mechanism for a moon clock today. The face is similar to my 'Contentment' vases.

tick tock tick tock

2009-06-10T03:44:00.000-07:00

Awake at 3 am, I'm thinking of how uncomfortable it might be to sleep angled into the back of the Echo with my head up against the back hatch and my feet wedged next the driver's seat door. I have a camp foam mat which is probably inadequate to the task of cushioning me from the spare wheel housing. Motel rooms at Longreach, Camoweal and Three Ways are looking good in comparison.

Some new ceramic jewellery pieces look good so I will incorporate them into necklaces this weekend.

Territory calling

2009-06-06T19:58:00.000-07:00

Only 16 more sleeps before I set off on my road trip to Darwin and the Territory Craft Studio residency. I've just put some glaze tests into the kiln so I can finalise what to pack into my mini Toyota Tardis. Hot weather clothing is sitting in piles on the spare bed and equipment and tools on the floor. I'm trying to anticipate the minutiae that I might need for three months. Will I need a tent because I heard that all the seasonal workers lob into Darwin at this time of year?

Athena, Parvati and Lakshmi all escaped again yesterday from an unknown location along the perimeter fence. It turned out that the food in the hopper had run out and the call of the wild was too strong. They found the lady finger bananas on the veranda.

photo opportunity sort of day

2009-06-02T00:00:00.000-07:00

"Do you want anything for the shopping list?" he said. "We've got leftovers in the freezer" she said. "Yeh, but we're going out, remember?", he said. "Ahh, now I remember, I said I would cook frangipani pie with prunes" she said.

After rectifying the disaster in the kitchen, that is, I put unpitted prunes in the pie, I eventually got around to photographing a drawing called Palindrome from 2002. The light outside was good so I shot it on the verandah near the vegie patch.

Venus escaped and then Parvati, the chicken run had to be reinforced.

Cobalt Suleyman

2009-06-01T04:37:00.000-07:00

The big low off the coast last week blew into my studio creating soggy storage boxes on "the Tank", my stainless steel storage shelving. I put out some old work onto the top shelf to dry and my sister had to take a piece home with her. I'm glad it's going to a good home instead of sitting in storage. It was a two part stoneware vessel based on Suleyman the Magnificent's ceremonial hat. It does look a bit like a cobalt blue cactus though, or maybe a life form from another planet.

heavenly chicken house

2009-05-23T21:28:00.000-07:00

My darling sister and Mama have arrived to help collect chicken eggs from the goddesses' coup. The rain has stopped and we went to Bangalow to see the FEHVA exhibition. Sharon Steel's cards with a lino cut angel in red was irresistable. I cracked the kiln and the self saucing earthenware jewellery pieces are now ready for sanding before the process of applying decals.>

ceramic thunder pattern beads

2009-05-14T23:50:00.000-07:00

Had a busy morning making minestrone, bread then pesto. Moved some heavy logs around under the poinciana tree to stop the chickens from scratching the soil down onto the driveway. I finally got into the studio and made some ceramic beads using two lino cuts with Chinese thunder pattern to emboss the larger sides. After lunch I headed off to Barratt Galleries to catch up with Damian Kelly on his whirlwind tour for the Print Council.