In Print...

This week we collected our photobook of the Dancing Dingo Project undertaken by Cass & Jay last year (read about it on our Collaborations pages). I created the book online using images from the project and text written by Cass about the project, using the software template provided.
I must say that we are so pleased with the outcome. It's the first photobook we have made and are planning more, even though it is a relatively expensive process for just one book, well worth it, we think. What a great way to mark a project and have a record of it for the future, and, in this case, for our Son to keep. Here are some images of some of the pages in the book...
(Click on an image to see larger version)

Trading Places...

We are now ramping up our making efforts to create works for our 'Trading Place' exhibition. The premier of this project will take place in September at the Arid Festival in Port Augusta. We intend to make 100 artworks between us, all miniatures (which is a challenge for two people who like to work large) to take over to Port Augusta for trade. I have been busily making more miniature landscapes and find that it is something I really enjoy. So far I have used three different types of clay, all white varieties, as they take the underglaze decoration much better. I have just bought a pug of Traditional Porcelain to create some more and am interested to see how these ones will turn out.

I have nothing to say... 
I am struggling finding anything to say today...
...not because our week was uneventful, it wasn't - I am just exhausted and don't really feel like writing, however, ....
...at the start of the year I decided to make the commitment of trying to write something here every week, so I will stick with it and write something ... but it might not be much :)

Mapping Our Region
Our work continues with the collecting country project and we have been busy mapping the region to identify key places, concentrating on significant places both in the natural, the man-made/monumental categories and places of importance to the Bundjalung People (showing the proper cultural respects, of course). We plan to use this formula in the other areas that we visit on our 'Trading Place' tour as well. This is a really interesting exersize and one worth doing for anyone really, especially the artists amongst us! Once we have made a map of these key places we intend to visit all of them (a lot of which we have already done, see previous posts) and take a sample imprint of anything that we find interesting to then make an artwork from. There are the obvious 'big ticket' places like Mt. Warning, Byron Bay Lighthouse, The Big Prawn and the like, but it's the secondary places that interest me the most, places like Tooloom Falls or Woolool Woolooni or Black Rocks... - maybe it's just the explorer in me! 
And on that note, if anyone from the Nth NSW region wants to share an important place with us please let us know.

Sunday Ceramics
I received my swap spoon in the mail from Kim Foale of Sunday Ceramics - Thanks Kim! Now I just need to glaze and refire to send her my swap in return. It's fun to swap and this concept of exchanging ware directly feeds into our Trading Place project, so I am really excited to have started some trades already!
 
Until next week... (maybe I will be re-energised by then)
...Keep the creativity flowing

Please Grant us the Serenity!
This week was another busy one at EFS and we had loads to do including submitting a grant application for our Trading Place project.
Pictured Left is an image of our concept - it is a merging of our Art practices, as you can see! We hope to make a travelling studio to facilitate our collecting of country and pieces of place related artworks for the Trading Place project and exhibitions.
It was stressful writing it up and getting all the figures right for the budget section (that's the bit I hate actually) and then getting it in on time. There was a last minute panic about some of the details, but it was submitted ... now all we have to do is wait....
... cross your fingers for us!

Gone Mouldy
I have decided to make some moulds from a couple of the cardboard caravans that I made last year so that I can make ceramic vans from them. So this week I was busy preparing them for the mould making process. As the cardboard would've disintegrated when the plaster is poured around it, I had to address this first. I decided to coat them in wax as a protective coating, plus as they were not perfectly symetrical I could add bits of modelling wax where needed to help fill any undercuts. Well... this was a much bigger job than anticipated, I thought it would be quick (I am always underestimating!) - it took up most of a whole day - but will be worth it for the next stage of pouring the plaster, which I plan to do this week.

For all the Stirrers...
Most ceramicists would already be aware of this but ceramic artist Vipoo Srivalasa is calling out for spoons for his Object:Spoon event - click on this link to find out more. 40 of the most outstanding spoons will be chosen and exhibited at Harvard in Boston, USA. 
Maybe we will submit one ourselves...?

Bookworms...
This week we have all felt like bookworms - reading loads of books - I don't think I have ever read as many in as short amount of time as I have this week. Between us I think we are up to about 40 or so! All in the name of research ( and some even about research). At least we can both now say Assignment number one - tick! 
Cass is even Assignment Two - tick - good for her!

Sunday Ceramics
Don't forget to check out all the other studios on Sunday Ceramics,
& if you are a ceramic artist you may even want to join in!

Until next time  - Keep Creating....

Nature's imprint
This week we have been busy creating lots of new ceramic works and doing loads of experiments, mostly about making impressions. 
Taking inspiration from nature we first went fossicking in forests and combing beaches to find interesting objects to use in this process.
Pictured left are some bowls Cass made from impressions off a coconut found washed up on Shelly Beach. This is such a fun process and we have used numerous things like driftwood, bark, banksias, stones, petrified wood, shells, leaves, seed pods, etc and you can see more of the initial results in the pictures below. 
(Click on the image to see the larger version.)