Canberra Potters'
Society Inc.
MEMBERS' EVENTS
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Members' events are short evening meetings, quarterly on the first Friday of each CPS term, with a speaker/demonstrator on a subject of interest to members. Four in-house events a year leaves plenty of space on the calendar for off-site activities such as studio and exhibitions visits and also to take advantage of visiting artists who might come to CPS at short notice.
Remaining quarterly 2008 members' event dates are:
Friday 1 August and Friday 24 October.
Friday 1st August, 7.30pm
chawan chasen chashaku chaire
These are some of the words familiar to practitioners of chado, "the way of tea". But what do they mean? Come and find out.
At our August members' event John Henderson, a practitioner of tea for more than 25 years, will present an overview of ceramics as related to the Japanese Tea Ceremony. John studied at Midorikai, Urasenke School, in Kyoto and was granted the tea name Soei - an honour conferred on those who reach a superior level of practice. He is a senior teacher of the tradition in Sydney and an avid collector of ceramics appropriate to the ceremony. He will be bringing examples from his extensive collection for us to admire and discuss.
John has recently written a book about tea ceramics and presented a paper, "Tea Bowls - A User's Perspective", at Sturt Woodfire in April, which was one of the highlights of the event. “Tea is not a museum piece but a living thing that changes to meet the needs of each new generation. As tea moves from time to time, culture to culture, and subculture to subculture, the equipment chosen for a tea event changes to express the reality of person, time and place", says John.
Join us on Friday 1st August to hear more.
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May members' event report & photos by Bridget Anderson
Cathy Franzi - Production Throwing
A familiar smiling face around the studios, Cathy Franzi introduced us on a Friday night to her world of production throwing. For those of you who were unable to make it to this members’ event, production throwing is the act of throwing repeat items. Cathy amazed us with her skill on the wheel - quickly pulling up form after form with incredible speed. Cathy informed us she averages 100 pots a week, including sixty different shapes! Cathy began production throwing in Adelaide (16 years ago) and at present is throwing for Bison in Pialligo with whom she has been throwing for about 6-7 years. Although Cathy made it all look rather easy with her flawless throwing, repetition potting is a particular skill, taking a lot of practice. Stepping us through her process we learnt that measurement of the weight of clay is important, judgement of size and the feel of the clay beneath your hands. Also let’s not forget economy of movement - you don’t want to spend any more unnecessary time on a piece! Cathy’s tools: * 2 circular bats stuck together with a removable square insert. You can then also use a round bat again on top of these bats. These bats proved very useful when throwing multiple forms. * A curved rib (as pictured) is Cathy’s main tool which is good to smooth edges, shape and to cut and trim. * A de-airing pug mill is essential – it is important to get the right consistency of the clay. To begin reproducing a form you have to know how to throw and then move onto repeating that form… this can take a long time to perfect! To help get you started Cathy passed this important information on: To copy a piece, first you need to know the shrinkage of the clay – X = wet measurement; S = shrinkage; P = finished measurement X = (100 x P) / (100 – S) Second, understand the shape. Cathy’s good book recommendation is ‘Functional Pottery’ (click here for a review). |
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April members' event report from
Ian Hodgson Stefan Jakob |
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Stefan is a Swiss potter, who originally trained as a plumber, which no doubt explains his expertise with tin snips. He then switched to social work, and finally, about 12 years ago, to full time ceramics. Stefan’s speciality is raku and, in particular, kilns that he manufactures to his own design, using an Ikea 40 litre pedal rubbish bin. The kilns burn wood, and in half an hour, with just a shoebox full of kindling sticks Stefan can get his kiln up to 1000ºC. It takes another 15–20 minutes to get the glaze well and truly runny and then the pots are taken out of the kiln and put into a bin of sawdust, where they cool rapidly in a smoky atmosphere. This gives a black surface to unglazed areas of the work and the classic black crazing of crackle glazes, as well as the dazzling colours of the multitude of other raku glazes. The evening was well attended by about 30 members and friends, who were well rewarded with a most entertaining talk and slide show, and the demonstration firing—a real fun night. Many thanks to Stefan Jakob for his generosity in making this a free event. I don’t know how many people went to his workshop as a result of attending the evening, but I look forward to seeing the results of the inevitable surge of interest in raku, over the next few months and, perhaps, in this year’s members’ exhibition. Stefan told us there are over 1500 Ikea raku kilns in Switzerland, most made from kits put together in his workshop. Twenty-two were produced at the Strathnairn workshop, and more will be made in Sydney and Perth before Stefan heads home. Maybe one day there will be 1500 in Australia. It would be nice to think so. Good luck Stefan, and thank you! |
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February members' event report from Lisa Baier: Janette Loughrey |
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Wow! What a fantastic way to commence our members’ events for the year 2008. A substantial amount of members gathered at the Potters’ Society to observe Janette Loughrey, potter and teacher from Wollongong, demonstrate her inimitable techniques in earthenware underglaze design and decoration on Fri 15 Feb. Janette began the evening with an interesting and diverse slide show of her work whilst presenting a brief synopsis of her own journey into the realm of ceramics. Janette also brought a wonderful selection of mugs, plates and bowls for us to hold, study and admire enviously! The demonstration (which lasted for two hours) was captivating! Janette, whilst selecting from a palette of underglaze colours, displayed the many ways in which she achieves the surface decoration on her ‘ceramic bits’ (name of her business) - from the blending and layering of colours, the use of various brushes, latex and paper resist, coloured slip contrast, paper decals, sponge stamps etc. Janet was extremely magnanimous in sharing with us some of her trade secrets that took her years to figure out and graciously answered many questions that were asked throughout the evening. I would like to thank the members’ events co-ordinator, Jane Crick, for your hard work behind the scenes in organising this stimulating and enriching occasion. Thanks also to the participation of the members whose attendance makes an event like this truly successful.
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This information last updated 01/07/08