It's a cold, cold winter...
Well, winter has finally hit - and it's sooo cold !!! I really don't like the cold, every winter we both threaten to move. It was minus 2 degrees on friday and the ground was completely white with frost, brrrr - now it's blowing a gale and making a cold day even colder! 

.....but enough of that... what about the art!

Blue & White Anyone?
I decided to experiment with a bit of blue & white porcelain this week. I had made some miniature landscapes for 'Trading Place' using some Traditional Porcelain, but wasn't sure if I should decorate the same way as I had done the stoneware ones I had previously made (see earlier posts). 
That's when I thought about just doing them blue. I really wasn't convinced in my own mind, but thought, hey... why not give it go - I could always wash it off and redo if I was really against it, right? I was still a little unconvinced even after doing it.... but they are growing on me.... Here's some of the results pictured below.

Story Telling
Cass has been powering along with more spirit figures and 
story dogs and is busily decorating them in her story telling 
style. 
Here's a work in progress shot (right) of one of her new 
Story Dogs which will be featured in the end of year exhibition.

Sunday Ceramics
Sunday Ceramics is now up to it's 20th episode - 
read along by clicking here and check out the other studios, 
always worth a read.


New Horizons...
We are also looking to the future and planning yet another exhibition, probably for 2016, as 2014-2015 are all pretty much booked out already for us - busy beavers that we are. We have already started the process of making pieces which will feature in this exhibition - name & venue yet to be finalised.... watch this space!!!

...and until next time keep creating!!!!

Unpacking the Kiln...

Another very succesful kiln firing this week with great results. 
It's always so much fun unpacking a kiln after firing, I love the anticipation of wondering how that bowl looks, or did the spoons come out OK? Did the glaze work? etc... or knowing that you will have so many bisqued items to go on with and decorate to get to the next stage - good fun!
We were both so pleased with the results and we have several pieces which have 'made the cut' into the Trading Place exhibition in Port Augusta.

Mixed Messages...

The above photos show some of the great results - although some of the photos don't really do justice to the pieces (as I only took them with the phone) but they really are great! I especially love Cass' coconut bowls, they turned out fabulous.
Lots of my spoons turned out pretty good too, but I have mixed feelings about my miniature landscapes - some I love, some I'm not so rapt with, some I just can't decide.... does anyone else have this problem? 

Sunday Ceramics...

Not sure if there's a Sunday Ceramics this week, there was talk of it going bi-weekly - but check it out anyway... always worth it!

One of the Crowd...

Check out my friend Kim's pozible campaign - some great rewards offered. I think it has inspired me to try it - who wants one of our artworks in exchange for helping us out? Stay Tuned for details...

... and until next time keep creating...

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.

Happy Lunar New Year!!! 
Well, can you believe that we are already into month 2 of the new year! Actually Cass and I always have preferred to celebrate the Chinese New Year and that means we are only day 2 into it! This is now the Year of the Horse = something that Cass is especially happy with, as she is also a horse - it promises to be a good one for all of us!

100 Artworks
We are still working on making artworks for our 'Trading Place' installation. It is envisaged that we will create 100 pieces between us! 
Some of these will be individual works while some will be collaborative pieces - all of them will be about 'place' - our connection to it - our response to it - our relationship with it. 
Actually we will probably make more than 100 pieces and chose the best 100 out of them - that's about 2 per week each to get them created in time - so be prepared for weekly updates on our progess!

Get Crackin'
To that end I sat back and thought about all the native plants and animals that I believe are the most significant to me on this property. It was a long list! Bottle brush most definitely, as it grows along the creek - wattles everywhere, spotted gum and river she-oaks... and grass trees - grass trees everywhere. Wallabies are the first animals that I think of - there's an abundance of them, then possums, bandicoots, bettongs, kookaburras, black cockatoos, and the little finches that always make me smile and think of my Dad. There's a resident goanna - well a few actually - and the red belly black snakes... and the owls I hear at night... then there's the frog chorus... the wonga pigeons... I said it was a long list!

This is a drawing of Kookaburras that I will turn into a print - maybe on ceramic?...maybe on card & framed?... we shall see... I also attempted to draw some of the other things on my list - some with great success - some major failure - but all good fun!

Corporate Generosity
In other news, I have had some success in securing some corporate sponsorship for my project titled 'Flatpack Habitat'. Just when I thought that big business didn't care anymore about anything but the bottom line - this restores your faith somewhat!
I am very excited about this project and can't wait to get started on this and I must give major thanks to Gary at RCR International Pty Ltd - There will be more details about this project in future blog posts, including a link to their website - so stay tuned...
Needless to say that it is great to team up with up with big business on an art project and an extremely exciting, and one that I believe will prove to be hugely rewarding, opportunity.
Let's hope it's the first of many more to come!


So, I'm off now to create some more....
And don't forget to
Read the other 'Sunday Ceramics' blogs here...

2014 has most definitely started and of course we have hit the ground running! 

Big Things will be happening for us this year - especially for our Art careers, with lots and lots of fabulous and exciting things in the pipeline.

Honours Scholarship - We both graduated last year from our Bachelor of Visual Arts degree (yipee!) and are now getting prepared to study the Honours Program. Great news, I won one of the SCU School of Arts and Social Sciences Honours Scholarships - I gotta say I was pretty happy with that!

Artist's Residency - In September we will be off to Port Augusta as we have been offered a special residency at the Port Augusta Cultural Centre, Yarta Purtli - this will be a great adventure for our whole family and we have an exciting installation planned for this ....more details to come, stay tuned!

We are then planning to exhibit this work at the Lismore Regional Gallery in 2015 and have secured an exhibition slot on their program - very exciting!

So remember to stay tuned to find out more about our interesting year ahead!