Returning to an ideas first explored while learning to thrown on the wheel, this work has been developed as the result of an invitation to participate in the Back to the Table exhibition on show at Sturt Centre for Contemporary Craft and Design in September 2014. This is the first time I have incorporated a timber element into my ceramic designs.
Back to the Table Artist’s Statement:
I glimpse snippets of memory: whitewashed firebox glowing, face-bricks the deepest glossy brown, heavy metal poker so tempting, pyjamas warmed ready to embrace bodies washed of the mess of the day’s family activity. Toasting forks retrieved from hooks below the mantle, handles extended, ready for their role in a ceremony of sharing. Butter, real butter, kept at a safe distance, as are the children: a toasting fork plus an arms length and our cheeks glow. Soup brought hot from the kitchen, the pot kept warm upon the hearth from where it is ladled: seconds, thirds if you’re not already full of smokey, buttery toast. There must have been bowls, and plates, but I don’t remember: invisible, perhaps for their everydayness. But I do remember a table of sorts: a low timber stool, the perfect height for cross-legged communal gatherings. Above all, I remember all-encompassing warmth.
My particular interest as a maker of ceramic vessels is in the provision of haptic experience through design. With unglazed porcelain exteriors and a form that encourages the cupping of the vessel within the hand, my work presents an enhanced tactile experience to the user. I also seek to promote a slower, more considered activity.
