I'm catching up with work for stockists before diving into Christmas designs. I've nutted out most of this year's illustrations and I'm itching to get into them. Being sensible and responsible to complete existing orders has been difficult when I can hear wrens and reindeer calling to me from my sketchbooks!
I've only just updated my homepage and contact info, removing my travel dates. Whilst I catch up with myself and resettling, it's been quite nice to fly under the radar. It's been a particularly lovely week in the studio, thanks to a glorious Indian Summer:
0 Comments
True to form, I've hit the ground running! Back into the studio on Monday morning to prepare for the Isle of Man Food + Drink Festival. It's seriously exciting (if somewhat anxiety-inducing) to have full time hours to dedicate to my work now! We had a wizard jolly time at the food fest. PIES, CROISSANTS, JUICE, BEER, GOURMET HOTDOGS, CUPCAKES, BEER. I could go on. I was stoked to double last years sales. Many, many, deep thanks to my customers for continuing to support me and for embracing my new, slightly higher prices. I went through the age-old agonizing over increasing prices (what if people stop buying, blah blah blah), but as everyone reassured me, it was FINE and sales were still strong. Thank you. Special thanks to the organisers and Manx Radio for the live interview!
My last week in Melbourne, before flying home. This has been my base for the last 3 months, and it feels odd to not be coming back here again after a week or two, as I have done throughout this trip. I love this city. It makes my heart flutter. It's my second home. I did a lot of growing up here, though if you count the days and weeks spent in the city it may not add to much over the years. The trip has been marvellous, and sad as I am to leave, I'm ready to return home.
It's refreshing to be happy to go home. I've spent years escaping the island and feeling sad at the prospect of returning, but this time is different. My business is thriving, I have shops waiting for stock after a busy summer (far busier than I anticipated!), there are some exciting Christmas projects to work on, I'm fortunate to be doing this FULL TIME and I have a lovely, inspiring, supportive man by my side. Clay comrade and partner-in-crime, Adriana Christianson, is curating an exhibition of handcrafted cups later this year - The Cup Collaboration. 34 potters from across the globe have been paired up to create two cups together and one of their own. I'm fortunate to be one of those potters! The AH-mazing Niharika Hukku is my partner. We met three years ago at the Eveleigh Market during an Australian Ceramics Association event, where we bonded over our love of illustrated pots and birds, particularly Australian natives! Niharika paints exquisite, highly detailed, almost photo-realistic designs on wheel-thrown porcelain. We'd both been watching rainbow lorikeets in recent weeks, so they became the subject of our collaboration. Niharika welcomed me into her studio whilst I was in Sydney this week. Each of us threw cups in our preferred forms and swapped them to paint. Niharika works in Clayworks Cool Ice porcelain, a new clay to me. Thankfully it threw and trimmed beautifully, which made the new-studio-new-wheel experience pretty pleasant! We spent hours talking, sharing stories of our cultures, travels, families, work, social media (Niharika's Instagram following sky-rocketed this year after a featured post, so she has a unique experience of it!), love, thriving as an artist. The gorgeous men in her life, husband Tintin and 5 year old son Shay, were also lovely to spend time with and made me feel right at home! These two days, along with some time spent with other friends this week, have fed my soul. That's why I travel, that's what I'm seeking. The magic doesn't always happen, but this time the stars aligned.
The last images from my time in Freo...packing was a somewhat anxious task! I'm stoked with the new designs that I developed during the residency and excited to use them at home.
It's been two weeks since I completed my residency at The Clay House. After a challenging start I produced some decent work, explored new designs that have been rattling around my head for months and learnt some screen printing techniques, thanks to Elaine Bradley.
I loved Fremantle. It's a small town (officially a city), but it has a heap of energy for it's size. The dockside cranes dominate the skyline. I love that they look like creatures, gobbling up the shipping containers. Massive ships glide in and out of the harbour constantly. It feel like a healthy environment for indie business, I loved so many of the coffee shops, eateries and shops. Definite recommendations: Moore & Moore, Kakula Sisters, The Monk Brewery & Kitchen, Little Creatures and especially The Raw Kitchen! That uncomfortable thing I talked about in my previous post. Yes, I don't like it. But after sharing the link to that post in the IoM Creative Industries Facebook group, it dawned on me that growing as an artist is supposed is be uncomfortable. This is probably an embarrassingly overdue realisation. At home, I've been concerned that I will become too comfortable and complacent in my practice. The Isle of Man has many perks and life can be relatively easy, but creatives run the risk of developing low expectations of themselves. It's a frequent occurrence - not just on the island, though I do believe it's more prevalent in small places - talented individuals don't fulfil their potential because their lifestyle has become very sheltered and safe, so they don't take the risks to push their boundaries or expectations. I don't want to do that. I want to be ambitious, I want to improve my skills, I want to exceed my goals. So, dear Present Katy, pipe down and work through this discomfort, Future Katy will thank you for it. [On a side note, yesterday I tried out a Xiem Tools Batmate and I'm pretty impressed! They claim that it's 'the perfect solution for annoying bat jitter and warping. Place Batmate™ below your problem bats on the wheel and instantly your warped bats become stable. It is also great for trimming bowls and plates.' - so far I've tried bats of 3 different materials, even a warped one and they all held perfectly. This is an exciting development for me as I've never been good at keeping a clay pad in good shape and probably waste heaps of time getting my throwing bats level. Yay!]
I've been in Fremantle, at The Clay House, for two days now. The studio is lovely, with heaps of space and natural light even on cloudy days!
I applied for this residency to learn new skills, make some work in Australia and step out of my comfort zone. I forgot that being outside of one's comfort zone is scary. I'm working in an open plan studio; with just three other potters in the building, totally focussed on their own work, I feel vulnerable. I'm using a new-to-me wheel. It's a classic Venco, but it feels clunky compared to my Shimpo. I've picked up some Walker's Number 10 white stoneware clay, but it's way firmer than I've become accustomed to. There aren't many throwing bats available so I have to cut the pots straight off the wheel, something I only did a few times in college. I probably have an unhealthy dependency on bats. All of these things feel BAD, but that's just nerves talking. These differences are what I'm here for. They'll make me a better potter. One month has passed since I land in Australia. It's been an excellent month. Last week I had a couple of days back in Melbourne to recuperate from the conference (2 days was not enough...), then flew to the Gold Coast for a long weekend. This week I've had some lovely, slow days in Melbourne, preparing myself for the two week residency in Fremantle. I fly to Perth tomorrow morning! Part of the plan for my residency is to learn some screen printing techniques, so I've been playing with designs in Photoshop. I'm really excited by the prospect of combining painting, printing and digital decals. I spent a quiet day with Adriana yesterday, and during one of many cups of tea she declared 'You should paint something!'. She promptly provided me with a bowl, showed me how to use pure cobalt (with some frit) to paint and left me to play! It was the first time I'd sued cobalt - it was strange to get used to, as it dries quickly on the palette, but I really enjoyed it. The Australian Tapestry Workshop is right around the corner from my Aunt's house here in South Melbourne. I've walked past it countless times and wondered what the studios were like. This weekend I had the opportunity to peek inside, thanks to Open House Melbourne! It's a fascinating workshop and SO colourful!
We're ready to drive back to Melbourne after the Australian Ceramics Triennale. Our week has been grand. Intense, sometimes stressful, often hilarious (and delirious) and exhausting! The Instagram treasure hunt, @Trienseek, was utterly hilarious - watching people scuttling around the ANU school of art clutching their smart phones, determined to take a pot home with them! Well done to Callum for finding my pourer. It's been a week of meeting social media friends and seeing their pots in real life (IRL!)! A particular favourite is Melanie McEvoy (@melaniemcevoy), her hand-painted porcelain cups are charming. These teeny espresso cups came with me from the Isle of Man for a little secret suitcase sale. They're now travelling to new homes across the country! There is so much to be learnt from these events, but mostly they remind me that all (or at least most) of us are self-conscious, insecure and highly critical of our work. Even the potters that seem like they're killing it and living the dream, they're all worrying whether their work is good enough. It's grounding to be reminded of this and it levels the playing field somewhat. We all need to give ourselves a break and quit the internal bullying!
Saturday was a real highlight for the talks, which were all focussed on making money. Mike Goldmark of Goldmark Gallery gave a stirring keynote speech with an emphasis on selling real, functional pots to be used in daily life. Mike must have received around seven rounds of applause during his 45 minute talk! We liked him a lot. Other favourite speakers were Carole Epp, Ben Carter and Fred Olsen. The closing presentation from Vipoo Srivilasa, Kenji Uranishi and Kirsten Coelho on residencies in Arita, Japan was also incredible inspiring. Thank you to the Isle of Man Arts Council for the grant to cover my conference fee, it's wonderful to be here and represent our wee island! I still feel such a part of this community even though I've been gone for over 2 years. |
Archives
February 2019
|