NEW STUDIO, NEW WORK

Whilst busy with orders and work for my forthcoming show at Kim Sacks Gallery in Johannesburg (20th June) I am playing with some new ideas...here are the images of the newest...

BACK TO WORK....

After 2 weeks of moving, packing and unpacking, installing kilns etc. we are finally up and running...and the show goes on!
These are plates that came out of the first firing in the new studio, a great firing, a good omen...

STUDIO VIEWS

Ok, so the space is still beautiful but already filled with shelving, clay, colours and lots of stuff.. however, I cannot resist posting images of the various views...the ceramics and the creativity will start next week (I hope!) In the meantime, I am absolutely loving the space and feeling so inspired...

STUDIO RELOCATION

As of today, May 7th 2009, my studio is at 501 Tollgate Industrial Centre, 12 Ravenscraig Road, Woodstock, Cape Town. Visitors are welcome by appointment as I am not always in...this is a vast fabulous space, 300 square metres, very light, north facing with views of harbour and mountain...very lekker!! I am so excited to begin working here..spacious and uplifting..

VISIT TO ST.IVES, CORNWALL UK

These are images of my visit to Cornwall in March...a bit belated, but nevertheless here they are. I had always felt that I should see the Bernard Leach Pottery as in a way he was my reason for starting off on the ceramic path. So it was a kind of a pilgrimage. I found the studio - now a museum - very beautiful and inspiring but not wanting to replicate that sort of atmosphere. Jack Doherty kindly gave me a tour of the working studios in a new wing where guest potters and students work. I also read Edmund de Waal's book on Leach while I was there and this gave me a much more balanced insight into the man whom we as students in the 70's revered as a type of guru. After finding out more about him as a person and a maker, I realised that he was far more 'ordinarily human' with all the vices and weaknesses that accompany this state.
I also spent some time with Petronilla Silver who runs the Wills Lane Gallery where she shows my work. Walking along the cobbled streets in St.Ives reminded me a lot of Kalk Bay here in Cape Town, only more authentic and prettier.