Handmade (Ceramics)

I have a thing for pottery - beakers, bowls, pots... I love them. I love handmade things that are functional and beautiful, and nothing quite encapsulates that the way that ceramics do. From the earth, transformed by skill and heat to become something wonderful.

It all started when I was given a Chris Plumridge beaker about a decade ago. I now have half a dozen as well as two of Chris's jewellery boxes - I use them for salt and pepper though!

These lovely porcelain cups are by Samantha Robinson. Melanie gave them to me when she was still working at Market Lane.

This one came from Craft Vic, and was made by Bridget Bodenham.

These are but some of Zak's MANY pots that I have accumulated. I love the variation - from his celedon graduation pieces to hefty stoneware to fine porcelain. Talented bloke.

This is from Sari Api in Ubud - complete with my inadvertent collection of apostle spoons.

I bought these at a little gallery in Adelaide  - they're by Jane Burbidge.

These are by Arnaud Barraud and look lovely, but when using cutlery to eat out of them they scrape like nails on a blackboard... Eek!

I found these little beauties in an op shop. They're Martin Boyd egg cups - from a time when eggs were a little smaller...

This is a lovely, tactile piece by Biggi Spiro.

This came from Latrobe Regional Gallery too. I wish I could remember the potter's name but I don't. It is signed MH '02. The text reads...

"Measuring the spaces between two houses, the distance is not in metres but in time, it's not that I need a ruler but that I need a bottle to contain the water that is shed..."

Kirsty Sutherland was once Kirsty Rogers. You can see her glazed 'KR' on the base of the small pot in the centre. It came from her graduation exhibition of 100 pots. The remainder are from when she was based at Kardella working with Rob from Gooseneck and was anticipating being married to Kynan by signing her pots with her (then yet-to-be) married name.

Gippsland potter Victor Greenaway made these beakers that are lovely to look at as they are to use.

I picked up this Lisa Boyter piece in Launceston in 2004 at the beautiful design centre. It was all I could do to get out with just this...

This was another gift from Mel. I think it came from Craft Vic but as for who made it...

These two bowls came from Darwin's Territory Craft in 2004. In the first the indentations are so deep as to allow the light through but still the bowl is entirely watertight. I love the confidence of the flash of green glaze in the second.

And finally, these two were also a gift. They are the finest pieces I have, as thin as skin. The paintings on their faces are delicate too. I've lost contact with the gift-giver and have no idea where they came from or who made them. There was an earthquake today while I was taking these photographs. I watched helpless from across the room as these two beakers teetered... All's well...

Garden (part III)

Fast forward. The 'garden' was a patch of dry paddock grass, a lot of freshly spread topsoil, quite a bit of unforgiving clay and not much else.

Some grass grew. But not as much as the weeds. There were times when I despaired, thinking that it was a crazy idea to attempt to transform a paddock on top of a hill into something even remotely welcoming, let alone lush. I planted fruit trees - beautiful specimens that withered in the wind. I mulched around their bases so the roots survived, but the tops were mere sticks.

The photos here show just how bare it was. Some of the pics are from the fires in February 2009 - our fires here were a few days before Black Saturday. Other photos show hail, others still show just how exposed the garden was.

On Cup Day 2008 I won quite a bit of money. I have a very uncomplicated method of betting. Once a year, on the Melbourne Cup, I back horse number 9 and the horse in barrier 9. In 2008 it paid off handsomely when Viewed won at odds of 41/1. With some of the winnings I bought timber to make the vegie garden and plants to fill it. I tried to protect the patch with shade cloth, but the wind eventually tore that asunder too.

What else is in these photos? Mum's mosaic pavers out to the clothesline. The poas planted around the worm farm (with a border of coffee grinds - if they ever do an archaeological dig here the abundance of coffee grinds in the soil will surely confound...), silver and canoe birches in the back corner around the tank, succulents going in to the "Dr Suess" garden on the bank behind the vegies, proteas and leucadendrons in tiny beds out the front, the grass eventually being tamed... I built the planter boxes and sandpit in spring 2009 and filled them with plants on Cup Day that year - despite losing my dosh!