argilos 15 winter 2014
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Eastern Cape Newsletter Ceramics S A Winter 2014TRANSCRIPT
newsletter of ceramics sa eastern cape
winter 2014
Letter from the Chair 1.
Our Regional Exhibition 2.
Ruthanne Tudball Workshop 6.
Student News 8.
Magdalene Odundo Visit 9.
National Exhibition in Cape Town 10.
Antoinette Badenhorst Workshop 12.
We like. . . . . . 13.
GIC Biennale Information 14.
Letter from the Chair 1.
Our Regional Exhibition has come and gone…… Despite the very generous sponsorship of R13000 from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Uni-versity and prizes sponsored from as far afield as Pretoria, why are members not taking part in exhibitions? Looking back at the poor show ofentrants, this is a question I ask myself over and over. Has your Committee not inspired you enough by organising workshops and other oppor-tunities to improve your skills as a ceramic artist? Or is it mere apathy? Or perhaps the age old self destructive missive… ”My work is notgood enough”. Unfortunately, regarding the last one, you will never know or receive positive criticism if you do not enter the exhibitions.
“There is no exposure for my work”, “nothing sells” or “I am a poor marketer”. Well, what are you waiting for. Those who succeed grab all theopportunities they can and make their own future.
Considering that only nine members made an effort to take part in the exhibition, we are fortunate that more students were interested in exhib-iting work.. How embarrassing for myself and the committee, as well as our sponsors to see such apathy. Would sponsorship be granted ifrequested next year? Our organisation is too small to exist without sponsorship and the Region will collapse.
Apathy kills an organisation, and we are at a crossroad where only our members can determine the route we should take.
On the other hand…… Those who took part were generously sponsored and through advertising had their work exposed to tens of thousandsof festival goers. Considering the number of entries, our sales were good and comments by the public very positive. Some members were in-vited to take part in exhibitions in other cities, which would not have happened if their work was not seen at the Regional Exhibition.
Thank you very much to those members and especially our Fellows of Ceramics SA who took part, keep up the good work.
Now we need to turn towards producing work for the National Exhibition held in Cape Town this year as part of the festivities around Cape Townbeing chosen as the Design Capital of the world 2014. Are you going to miss out on an opportunity to exhibit in Cape Town and get worldwide exposure again, or will you grab this generous opportunity. The entries are by image only, so good photographs of your work are essen-tial. We will endeavour to have a professional photographer on hand to take photos of members work, thereby making sure that entries are wellpresented. A notice will be sent out closer to the time.
As the year races towards its end, let us all make an effort to attend the Magdalene Odundo workshop being held in November. Members whoattend workshops always remark that they learn something new, even if it is not their making method of choice or type of clay they use. Simplyby attending we can all learn something from each other as well.
Eastern Cape Regional Exhibi-tion 2014This year the Eastern Cape Regional Exhibition was held inGrahamstown to coincide with the National Arts Festival.
It afforded our members the opportunity to show their workto a national as well as an international audience. Accordingto the organisers, it is estimated that at least 250,000 peoplevisited the festival this year, and although it always has anemphasis on performance art there were numerous excellentexhibits by local and national artists. Considering this, aswell as the hard work done by the Committee to bring this tofruition, it is disappointing that so few members took the op-portunity to show their work.
2.
Lesley-Ann Hoets
Gavin Cox Aaisha Davids Suzette Crafford
The Exhibition space was shared with three other exhibitions in the large Trin-ity Hall, which made for a very vibrant and well visited space. Nine membersentered the open exhibition, excluding nine students from the Ceramic De-partment of Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, a guest exhibitor andthree Fellows, totaling seventy two pieces.
There was among the exhibits, as usual these days, an emphasis on hand-built, decorative pieces. The work ranged from earthy wood-firing, delicatelyfinished porcelain, to the brightly decorated.
The guest exhibitor this year was last year’s award winner Lydia Holmes.Lydia entered five exquisite high fired porcelain works. These were decoratedin shades of blue and turquoise with additions of glass, perlite and glass fibre.
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Lisa Walker
Anton van der Merwe
Lesley-Ann Hoets showed four large Raku vessels. Intricately decorated and looking almost like cast iron in their perfection thesepots deservedly won the Belmont Ceramics Award for Excellence. Delphine Niez was awarded a Gift Certificate from CPS for her fineporcelain work.
Lisa Walker also impressed with her Basalt pots. Delicately decorated, they reminded me of buds and blooms. The beautiful blackshapes earthy and bulb like in their perfection. A deserved winner of the Award for Merit. Bianca Whitehead’s two brightly decorat-ed cylinders were awarded the Best Under glaze award sponsored by CPS. Her use of under glaze combined with oxides and intri-cate texture made a bold statement. On the other hand Anton Van Der Merwe had four wood fired platters that spoke quietly of a
master hand. Anton received the award for BestFunctional Work.
It was encouraging to see more entries from ourmembers in East London and surrounds.
The local Fellows of Ceramics SA, Charmaine Haines,Lynnley Watson and Donvé Branch, all showed astrong body of work.
The student work was, as always, interesting, experi-mental and varied. Aaisha Davids was rewarded withthe Best Student Award for her beautiful green “knit-ted” bowl. I also really enjoyed the two white earth-enware glazed heads by Suzette Crafford. What apity that more quality student work was not submit-ted and that their entries rarely explored the com-plexities of the glazed surface.
Donve Branch
4.
Lydia Holmes
Lynnley Watson Bianca Whitehead
Delphine Niez
5.
Clockwise from top left:
Donve Branch, Lesley-Ann Hoets,Charmaine Haines, Aaisha Davidsand Melanie Ruiters .
Ruthanne Tudball Workshop
Ruthanne Tudball presented a one day throwing workshop at NMMU, Port Elizabeth.
Ruthanne is a fellow of the Craft Potters Association of Great Britain, a member of Contempo-rary Applied Arts as well as the International Academy of Ceramics.
Ruthanne’s work is thrown, manipulated, altered, assembled and trimmed while wet on thewheel (phew). Her work is raw fired in a LP Gas and wood kiln, using a soda vapour glazingtechnique.During the workshop Ruthanne spoke about her experiences as a potter, her life in Norfolk andwhat inspires her. Ruthanne’s work allows us to enjoy the whole “making” process with her.There is a feeling of spontaneous movement, a gentle contrasting of textures and the wonder-fully earthly tones from the soda firing.During her stay, she demonstrated throwing various forms. First off, she threw a teapot off thehump. Starting with the spout, which was thrown, shaped and then cut off. A small “doughnut”was thrown and cut off, followed by a lid-thrown the right way up. The pot was then thrown,with the gallery sized to fit the lid. It was then horizontally faceted and some of the cut pieceswere used to decorate the knob on the lid. Using a throwing stick, the sides of the pot werepushed out, giving the pot more volume. Excess clay was trimmed from the base of the pot andindents were made on the rim, for attachment of the handle. The little donut (handle) was cutopen and pulled, thinning it out and adding some pattern.One end was then firmly attached to the rim, the handle was further pulled and shaped and the otherend was attached. The spout was attached and the pouring holes were cut from inside the pot using ayarn tool. The spout was attached to the handle to hold it in place.Ruthanne then threw a pot with a lovely neck. The sides were faceted and again these trimmings wereused later to add texture and decoration to the piece. The pot was pushed out from the inside. Two flatboards were then held on opposite sides, just above the base of the pot and the sides were gentlypushed in and flattened. The excess clay at the base was removed. She then blew into the neck to puff
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the pot out. Now for the feet! A stick was gently pushed through the base, in the centre and flat against the bat. The stick was lifted hereand there, until the pot had feet. Voila!It was mesmerising watching pieces being thrown on the wheel from start to finish. There was very little trimming or none at all to be doneonce the piece was taken off the wheel.Ruthanne uses a soft grogged stoneware clay and very little water for throwing. She uses pieces of bamboo for decorating, porcupine quillsas a needle tool for mark making and faceting and a welding striker with wire for faceting.It was a welcomed visit which brought fun, interest and knowledge. For further information about Ruthanne’s work and technique, visit herwebsite.
Lisa Walker
7.
A student going places…… Lelani Fourie
Lelani is a fourth year (Btech) ceramic design student at the Nelson MandelaMetropolitan University. She has chosen to concentrate her fourth year studieson product design and the technique of slip casting. Contemporary ceramicand interior trends inspired her to base her work on quintessential ‘South Afri-can’ product forms, namely: Marmite, Ms Ball’s Chutney, All Gold tomatosauce, Sunlight soap, and Jik bleach. She has taken a plaster of Paris mould ofeach of the above mentioned product forms, and has begun to slip cast theforms in white Ascent casting slip. Once she has cast enough forms she cutssome up, or dissects others and then reconstructs them into new and inter-esting functional ceramic pieces.
Lelani is also currently producing ceramicitems for sale at galleries and shops in PortElizabeth and Cape Town. At the momentshe has six products in her repertoire: thesalt and pepper ‘Penis’ sets, the little Man,the Milk bottle vases, the clay Canvass, smallbowls, and a simple dinner plate.
All these items are slip cast and hand paintedwith her unique and quirky images. No twopieces are the same.
Contact number: 061 009 9736
8.
Magdalene Odundo
26 Nov 20149:30 - 4pm
NMMU1 day workshop (subsidised) R300 (non-members R500)
Magdalene Odundo (OBE), Professor of Ceramicsat the University of Creative Arts
in Farnham, England, is the award judge for the National Exhibition and will bepresenting a workshop on her pinching and coiling techniques.
https://www.magdaleneodundo.com
Magdalene Odundo will be giving a full dayworkshop demonstrating how she produc-es her beautiful coil built pots, explainingher firing methods and the philosophy andbackground to her ceramic aesthetic.
Magdalene Odundo was born in Kenya. Shetrained and worked in advertising, com-mercial art and graphics in Kenya beforegoing to England where she studied ce-ramics. She spent 3 months at the AbujaTraining Centre in Nigeria where she learntto make pots in the traditional Gwari tech-nique under the guidance of Ladi Kwali andLami Toto and throwing under Peter Gbokoand Abu Karo.
Magdalene received her BA 3DD Ceramicsat West Surrey College of Art and Design (UCA ) and MA at the Royal College of Art.She is Professor of Ceramics at the Univer-sity for the Creative Arts ( UCA ), Farnham,Surrey and is based at it’s Crafts Studycenter.
She has exhibited widely and achievedmany accolades for her unique vessels thatdraw inspiration from her interest in a pot-tery narrative and dialogue that is univer-sal to all cultures, that of making pots andvessels.
Please book by emailing [email protected]. (Click on email address fordirect link). Please do not verbally book through any committee member as this causesconfusion and might result in no booking at all. All workshops are held at the Nelson Man-dela Metropolitan University, Ceramic Department, Second Ave Campus.
Please bring something for the “harvest table” lunch.
9.
Watch out for the entry form in theSeptember NCQ.
We will be organising a centralpoint in Port Elizabeth for profes-sional photographs to be taken ofall entries. Please remember thatyou are only allowed to enter if youhave previously had work acceptedfor a Regional Exhibition.
Please also consider entering a ves-sel for the Iziko Museum - “AfricanSmoked Fired Vessels” Exhibitiontaking place at the same time at theSlave Quarters, Cape Town.
Please contact me [email protected] should yourequire more information regardingentries for the Iziko Exhibition.
From African Earth - Our National Exhibition willform part of the celebrations of Cape Town as the
World Design Capital 2014.
Make sure you are part of it!Make sure you are part of it!Start working now and be sure to have your bestStart working now and be sure to have your best
work ready by 17 October !work ready by 17 October !
Professional photographs will be taken onProfessional photographs will be taken on
Monday 13 OctoberMonday 13 Octoberbetween 9 to 11 am at the Ceramic Department, NMMUbetween 9 to 11 am at the Ceramic Department, NMMU
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Cape Pottery Suppliessponsors of two regional exhibition awards
Kiln Contracts Building, 11 Celie Road, [email protected]
021 7011320http://www.capepotterysupplies.co.za
Antoinette Badenhorst workshop
The first image of Antoinette’s work which I saw, made me catch my breath. The carving beautifully complemented the form which sat soperfectly on an elegant base – and the translucency looked set to lift the shell-like form off the base and float it away. So you will know thenthat I was at the front of the queue to attend her workshop when she visited Port Elizabeth in June.It was a busy two days with Antoinette more than ready to share her knowledge. Lots of tips were given for achieving the effects she enjoysand I’ve listed some of them here for you to share.
a. Add a dash of white vinegar to your throwing water as a defloculant – it enables you to throw thinner.b. Makes use of plaster bats. Leave work on till it pops off.c. Invert a plastic bucket to cover the piece until ready to work on it.d. Antoinette uses two green Mud Tool ribs to pull up and open the walls.e. Walls thrown lower than 300 will slump.f. Work is fired on silica (calcined)g. When putting two pieces of a press mould together, clean the join to just below the level of the walls – stops that joining
ridge from re-appearing.h. Turning: Throw a low chuck without a base, centre pot inside the chuck and push chuck walls in till it just touches the pot.
When finished, remove the chuck by cutting downwards then loosen at the base, remove clay.i. Use a motorcar aerial (telescopic) with a sponge on the end for removing water inside a tall vessel.j. Get to know when your clay will allow manipulation.k. Memory kicks in at brittle leather hard.
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Antoinette also used a number of homemade tools. We will plan a get-together when we can make some of these for ourselves.The actual altering of her shapes was done with much self-assurance and she demonstrated the processes clearly. Knowing the clay body youwork with is definitely a VIP factor in the manipulation process and will be key in your success rate.Thanks Antoinette for a most interesting workshop – I shall enjoy the little pot I purchased from you.
Antoinette used CPS Supa Porcelain forher workshop work
CPS sponsored our Best Porcelain award.
Delphine Niez was the award winner.
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BELMONTcERAMICS
We supply:
Quality earthenware and stoneware clays
Exciting coloured clays
Wide range of glazes
Pottery tools and equipment
Contact us :
Danie 0719063313
We like……
www.ferrincontemporary.com
www.accessceramics.org
Recommended by Antoinette Badenhorst:
www.paulabastiaansen.com
www.michaelsherrill.net
14.
16.
lydia holmes - [email protected]
bianca whitehead084 257 [email protected]
donve branch - v. [email protected]
eloise moggeast london [email protected]
margie higgs - [email protected]
lisa walker [email protected]
Email address: [email protected]