We all have a role to play with making decisions that are environmentally sound. I have my kiln completely run by rooftop solar panels and wind energy for the extra. I use minimal water in my studio and recycle both the water and clays I use. I make goods that last. I also financially contribute to Greenpeace on a monthly basis and enjoy getting regular updates of their progress.

Another choice I make is to pay to have my soft plastics taken away on a commercial level as the clay bags really do stack up. Recyclesmart are an excellent recycling service that collect from your front door. They are innovative and inspiring - here is an example of an iniative they have running for the month of March -

These ceramic wallhangings are a stylised vision of the five phases of the moon. Made for those that like to garden by the moon. They are made with a variety of glazes and have a playful surface texture - from using heirloom textiles to Unearthed signature dimple carving. Perfect inside and out.

I recently posted an image of my recently renovated kitchen with an image of my feature shelf full of ceramics. Turns out that I am not alone in conceptualising my feature shelf first THEN the rest of the kitchen to go around it. I thought I might just include some details of a few of the excellent craftspeople we had work on the renovation

The journey of making a set of 8 Terra Firma plates

1. 13kg of clay required - a mixture of mid fired clays and wedged a total of 320 times.
2.Clay thrown on the potters wheel - the best method for a most durable plate.
3.Left to dry for two days.
4.Once leather hard, trimmed and shaped and then burnished with a sea stone to settle the iron oxide particles. Left to dry completely over two days. Trimmings all recycled.
5.Loaded into kiln and fired to 1000 degrees over 12 hours then left to cool over 12 hours.
6.Washed and sanded a little then glazed with Unearthed Ash, crackle and Oatmeal glazes - studio recipes made in house.
7.Fired to 1200 degrees over 8 hours and left to cool over 12 hours.
8.Sanded and washed and ready for a new home.

In Mid December I had the pleasure of visiting Good Clay Sunshine in Kreuzberg, Berlin. I was in Germany to visit my daughter and couldn’t help but squeeze in a little clay love whilst there. You always have to make hay while the sun shines. Vanessa and Ariane whose studio it is, were super welcoming especially as they were just about to shut up shop to go enjoy Christmas with their families. I thought nothing of messaging them from one side of the globe to the other to ask if I could visit whilst in the area, and they reciprocated this slight craziness with warmth and laughter. We talked all things clay as tends to happen when potters get together and enjoyed a lovely afternoon tea. Doesn’t matter where you are in the world, it seems that that comman thread of clay love is an equaliser amongest potters!

This is ‘moi’ after searching high and low through our beautiful Winter holiday in Germany and France. I still have one last place to try in Berlin, but at this point, I’ve come up fairly empty handed. I do have some ideas of products that I am going to try and source online to then sell on my site. But, that’s it folks!!! I’ve realised that what the ceramics community offers to Australians is pretty, darn good. Creative, great quality, well priced and so much variety. We really need to nurture and support what we have…it’s quite amazing! This trip has helped me see this more clearly! PS…the burnt orange Datsun 120Y jacket was primarily chosen so my family could spot me in the crowd.

In the last part of this year I am travelling to Eastern Europe for a white Christmas. Of course, there a lot of variables that can happen, but that one is a must! I will be in Berlin for Christmas itself and hope to enjoy a ridiculous amount of joy experiencing the Christmas markets. It’s always been a great time of year, having grown up with an extended family that met on the Orchard and later by the Murray for big get-togethers. But change is inevitable and I am going to try to embrace ‘change’ a little more in 24 rather than lament about it. When I first went about getting my new website up and running, my designer Claire and I came up with the concept of bringing back hard-to-find treasures from my travels over there. To find markets and handmade crafts that you rarely come across in Australia. So now the time is here, the year has passed and I am indeed going to get my sourcing cap on and see what I can find. Wish me luck…I am going to find out any related stories I can, and bring them back to share with you as well. It may work, it may not, lets see where the wind blows.

CLAY MATTERS September 2023

OPEN LETTER OF SUPPORT FOR INDIGENOUS VOICE TO PARLIAMENT

We represent a broad group of clay workers for the environment.

As part of our Potters Pledge to make informed choices regarding the environment in our daily practice, we pay our respects to the country on which we create and to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who have never ceded sovereignty.

We wholeheartedly support the Indigenous Voice to Parliament. We respect the principle of self-determination. A commitment to long-term listening is essential in addressing the systemic inequity that Indigenous Australians experience today.

We believe that the Voice is a straightforward, sensible and empowering step in rectifying historical injustices and shaping a more equitable and promising future for Australia.

We pay our respects to the incredible resistance of Indigenous peoples and celebrate the endurance of their Culture, relationship to Country and the immense knowledge from which we must all learn. We acknowledge that sustainability is not a new concept for First Nations people and that areas of thinking sustainably are built on indigenous thinking and practice.

This is part of the core values of Clay Matters.

We wish to accept with equal grace the offer with which the Uluru Statement of the Heart is given. Please sign below and join us in this history making moment to vote for a more equitable and prosperous future for all Australians. We urge all Australians to learn more about the Uluru Statement and make an informed decision in the referendum.

The Potters Pledge was formed during the pandemic by a group of Potters wanting to open up discourse re the Climate Emergency we were facing as a humanity. We wanted to share and learn together how to support each other, as a community. What was our footprint? How could we lessen it?

All those Abba songs that were sung, all those Donna Summer moves that were danced. She was Frida, I was Anna, on those long, hot endless Summers.

Statements from the Soul shows that the Uluru Statement of the heart goes to the heart of who we are as a country and is essential to reconciliation.

If you are a traditionalist at heart, for the 9th Wedding anniversary you give pottery to your loved one. It represents something beautiful emerging from something so ordinary as a piece of Earth.

I’m excited and also proud to have this webshop up and running. I have no idea how it will go, but am happy that I have taken my time to reach this point and I am still bewildered by the kindness shown along the way. I am very grateful for this. I’ve left nothing on the table this time…well, except for a bunch of ceramics!