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.

Mold Making

Well I finally finished my mold making sessions in the studio and now I have 4 x three-piece molds for miniature caravans, an alphabet press mold, 2 sea creature/shell molds and a few different banksia molds.

The banksia was a little bit challenging, due to the nature of using the natural object to make the mold from, but I hope it will look awesome when I pour a few banksias from them!

The teacup, however, was a bust and I have to redo it - lesson learned, do not play with plaster before it has hardened properly!

Mixing pouring Slip

I found an old bucket of porcelain slip that I had in the shed which I thought I could use to start my pour process - wrong!
It had been stored for about two years (possibly longer...?) so I think I can safely assume that it is a little too old to use - darn!

I was hoping not to have to mix up more pouring slip, but I think I am going to have to. Alternatively I could just buy some pre-mixed slip which would quicken my process and get me started much more faster - so I might even go down this road to get me started off  and then mix up a batch later... we'll see...

Studio Process

Hopefully this week I will get a chance to pour some of these little treasures and have a few images to show next week - Yay!
As I said in an earlier post, this is the process I enjoy the most, pouring the objects and seeing all the little duplicates emerge from their molds, fun, fun, fun.

Sunday Ceramics
Please check out the other muddy studios on Sunday Ceramics.

Until next week, keep creating....

 

Well I failed at my attempt to write a blog post every week! I missed last week - oops... oh well!

It has been a very wet week here and our creek is once again flowing wildly after becoming almost completely dry. It is the only time in 20 years that we have seen it so empty - it's gotten really low before, but never that dry. Mother Nature always come through when you need it ...& just in time!
It did mean that we got stuck in our property for a day, but that's OK, it is great to have the waterhole so full again.

Spirit World

Cass has been busy creating pieces for her body of work for the end of year show. She is doing a project about identity - how identity is formed and how Artist's can explore these concepts in their work. 
So far in her studio investigations she has made a number of tall, slender figures with differing impressions and surface additives, embedded materials and textures. 
She is also experimenting with different clays to get varied effects. So far the clays used have been BRT, Special K and Raku T. They are still as yet unfired and they look really interesting and it will fascinating to see the fired results.

Branding 


The other exciting venture that Cass has been working on is the creation of branding irons, which will be cast in bronze. These relate to her identity project and she plans to make several of these so that she can brand both clay and wood - and anything else that takes her fancy!

Pictured right are some of the initial wax positives that are the first stage of the bronze process. This is a long process, but well worth the effort and I believe a really fabulous addition to her investigations into Identity.

Getting Plastered

I have been busy making moulds to slip-cast my little caravans. So far I have managed to make only 2 of them, with 2 more planned. (We had a few distractions last week and I wasn't able to get in to the studio on the days that I had planned.) 

They are three piece moulds so take a little bit of time to set up each step of the process - not my favourite part of making, but I do love the end results from mould making - the actual pouring and creation of repeated objects - I can't wait for that bit actually! I can't wait to see all the finished little vans all lined up together...
watch this space!

Back to the grind...

So this week we hope to get stuck back in to making...
...hopefully the rain will ease and we can get back in to the studio to continue our creative projects. We have so much going on this year that we really just have to keep at it.

Sunday Ceramics
Once again, if you are interested in ceramics, please make sure you check out what's happening in the other studios on the Sunday Ceramics site.


Until next week....
Keep the creativity flowing...

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....

Artist as Researcher
Well it has been another huge week for us at EFS - loads & loads going on, as always - and no signs of slowing down in sight!
There was not as much creating happening this week, although we did manage to pack, fire and unpack a full kiln load.
The week was mainly taken up with writing & research. We are both working on several projects at once (mad I know) and this includes our Uni work and our collaboration projects.
I am researching the concept of 'home' and what that means. It is a very interesting topic and enjoying it so far... especially researching artworks related to the topic.

Pieces of Place
The other theme we are working on is our Collecting Country projects and we have been researching Place-making and Sense of Place. I love this area of investigation and particularly like the idea of 'pieces of place' as souvenirs. This term refers to an object that has been collected in it's original environment as a memento of the place or event and the act of collecting the piece personally gives it extra significance to the collector. Our work relates to this concept as we are utilising pieces of place and the idea of collecting imprints on site to create our artworks and wish to convey this importance of connection to place to our pieces. 
We have had some great success with this (see previous blog posts for some images) and will be continuing with the process for some time.

Sunday Ceramics
As I haven't done much creating this week at all, I thought I would take today to do some Sunday Ceramics... that is actually get my hands muddy and make something! 

Please check out the other ceramicists on the Sunday Ceramics blog too to see what others have been up to for the past week.

Until next week... be creative!

Working hard ...
What another jam-packed week we've had at Earth Fire Spirit!
Firstly we officially started our Honours year at Uni and it was a little overwhelming to begin with, although I think we've managed to get our heads around at least some of it!
We packed and unpacked and re-packed kilns and , of course, kept creating more & more new work.

Location, Location, Location
In between all this we decided to take a day to photograph some of our work. We spent half a day in the studio taking studio shots and then we ventured outdoors...
Shelly Beach at Ballina provided the ideal setting for the look we were going for and even though the weather wasn't the greatest it didn't deter us.
Armed with boxes full of wares and camera gear slung over the shoulder we headed down to the water to take photos.
A bemused man walking his dog stopped to watch the proceedings. I'm sure he thought we were crazy as we squated in the water waiting for the waves to come in - and yes I did get a wet bum! 

Studio Incantations
The studio images also turned out fantastically and we were very happy with the results from this photo session too. 
We took some photos in our photography studio and others inside the gallery at Studio One29.
Pictured right is a piece we collaborated on together last year and was exhibited in the Northern Rivers Community Gallery.
It is a merging of our two art practices and this sparked the concept of a whole new collaboration project we have dreamed up. I will reveal more about this project in a future blog post ... stay tuned for that one, as it's very exciting - and could even involve some audience participation!

Material Matters
Last week my donated materials arrived for my Flatpack Habitat project.
Thanks so much to RCR International for your generosity and willingness to work with me on this project. Working with Big Business is very exciting and hopefully we can form an ongoing relationship (My head is full of more ideas!).
I started to assemble some of the pieces, as I just couldn't wait to get started, but quickly realised that some adjustments need to be considered. 
Not least of which will be the actual location where this piece will be ultimately exhibited, due to it's size and the size restraints of the exhibition space. The joys of being a 3D artist!

Big Things ahead...

So...another big week ahead of Art and creating, research and learning.
It's always a journey, but a wonderful one!
More and more opportunities on our horizon.

If you're interested in ceramics check out the other studios on Sunday Ceramics



Until next time... keep creating - or just go surfing!

Kiln Packed 
This week we packed the kiln with our first round of offerings, which is always an exciting process - it's just the bisque but still makes you feel good! I love the anticipation of waiting for the firing process to end and then opening the kiln again to see what treasures await. The bisque firing offers all the promise of what will happen and then deciding how the pieces will be glazed or finished - love it!

Dish it out 
We have now graduated from spoons to little dishes (although continue to make spoons as well)

Pictured above are some of the first lot of these dishes. They are fun to make and look great with the imprints. They just look like squares of clay but they are shaped to form small dishes or plates.

Little Landscapes
I have also been experimenting with creating some miniature landscapes (one of these is pictured right). These were also a load of fun and we will most definitely make some more of these. This one I'm calling Up Mallanganee Hill. It's a very steep hill and anyone who's towed anything up it will relate! Our previous vehicle really used to struggle and it was almost impossible to tow a caravan up there, luckily our current vehicle climbs the hill with ease!

Impressing Country
One thing about this process of responding to place is that we have a great excuse to go out exploring the region. This week we decided to go bushwalking in Bundjalung National Park and went on the Wedding Tree walk by the banks of the Evans River at the Evan's Head end of the park. This is of great significance to the Bundjalung People as it is the site of the first camp made by the 3 brothers who first arrived at the beach by canoe. The Wedding Tree is a kurrajong tree and was a wedding gift from the Wahlubal tribe from Tabulam.

It's such a peaceful place and full of wildlife too - we really enjoyed our time there, although the little one was complaining about having sore legs! "Bushwalking is really, really hard" he says, and wanted to be carried back.
I look forward to our next exciting adventure, all in the name of Art!

And if you're interested don't forget to check out the other ceramic studios posted on Sunday Ceramics.


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.)

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...