newsletter of ceramics sa - eastern cape
summer 2013
letter from the chair
1
thoughts from my studio
2
2014 programme
3
starways - a weekend of fire & smoke, 15 questions for Anton van der Merwe
4
regional review - Jean Wright
8
gallery on leviseur
12
notes on a legacy
13
ergonomics and ceramics
14
the Lesley-Ann Hoets workshop experience
16
five of the best from Brenda
22
1. We have had a roller coaster year!
I feel that I have been on the hop all year long and now, as I am trying to finish this last
edition of our Argilos Magazine before everyone gets caught up in the holiday spirit, I can look back at what we have achieved. When I took over the chairmanship from Margie, I felt that I had large shoes to fill, as she has truly steered us through some difficult times in setting up a new branch of Ceramics SA and getting everyone organised to participate in activities.
At the
AGM at the beginning of this year, you were vocal in what you wanted from our organisation, and I hope that the committee has delivered.
We seem to have gained some vitality and vibrancy and the exhibitions and activities during the last year
have proved that we can all work together and participate and make our branch a strong dynamic entity. When we have had visitors from other areas here, they remark on how we have bonded as a group and how friendly, helpful and sharing we are. Those are compliments none of us should take lightly. You will find our programme for 2014 on page 3‌‌‌and there is more to come!
Our magazine is packed with past and
future plans, so get your 2014 diary out and mark the dates. Our AGM will be early in February and we welcome feedback both in the form of brickbats, accolades and suggestions. Please join us for a festive start to our year on the sixth of February at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. We are sadly losing Delphine and Brenda as members and committee members next year.
Delphine, you have been an effi-
cient secretary to our organisation and a creative thinker who will be missed. Brenda, your input and enthusiasm to get an annual market going is appreciated.
We wish you both well in your new endeavours.
I wish you all a happy holiday and hope that you will start the new year early in your studios and make 2014 a year of excellence.
2.
Well, here we are at the end of another year ! I am sure that, like me, you feel the year has simply flown past, but as I look back on it I feel happy with what I have achieved. Some pots were not so good, but some were not too bad either; others were just plain awful ! During the year I have experimented with new ways of firing, tried new clays, and, unusually for me, just played in the studio. The latter is very important, as I need to play with clay to get my thoughts moving in new directions. This year has also been interesting from the exhibition side. Sales have been fairly slow for a few years, but this year I feel that people are starting to buy and collect ceramics again. Exhibiting can be hard, expensive work, and yet sometimes financially rewarding. But perhaps just as important, and one of the joys of exhibiting, is meeting and building relationships with people who love pots. Exhibiting at the Grahamstown Festival is a wonderful opportunity for me to talk about my pots, and explain why I make them. It is also a chance for me to stimulate in others an interest in crafts and things hand-made. A few of our major chain stores have started ‘Artisan’ projects to help promote crafts, from textiles to ceramics, and the people who make them. I am sure this must be quite daunting and very testing for the potters involved, but it must also be very rewarding. Nothing beats seeing your work displayed after months of hard work. Finally, a last reminder to myself as I put my studio to bed for the summer holidays, to keep looking at other peoples’ work and reading as much on ceramics as I can. Hopefully this will inspire more play and excitement in my pots in the New Year ahead.
2014 - CSA-EC : we are five years old!
3.
Programme for 2014 Annual General Meeting 6 February 2014, NMMU Ceramic Design Department, Second Ave Campus, Summerstrand. 2pm. Information workshop by Bianca Whitehead on commercial glazes - tricks and treats 22February 2014 - Starways @ Hogsback Woodfiring weekend March Legacy Exhibition at the NMMAM and workshops by David & Sarah Walters CSA Eastern Cape Regional Exhibition June 2014 - National Arts Festival in Grahamstown Antoinette Badenhorst porcelain Workshop August 2014 - Selections for the National Ceramic Biennial November 2014 - Magdalene Odundo Workshop November 2014 Corobrick National Ceramic Exhibition November - Month in Clay - Cape Town
Magdalene Odundo
4. Anton van der Merwe has set aside the weekend of 22 February for CSA-EC members to attend a workshop on wood firing at his studio in Hogsback.
Book soonest - only 6 spaces available.
You will be able to fire 2 - 3 ves-
sels 150 x150 x150 depending on how much Anton needs to fire of his own work. The weekend will start with glazing your bisque fired ware, some social activities, packing the kiln, starting the fire, stoking and getting up to temperature (high stoneware).
Whatever clay is being used, whitish stoneware preferably, (Lize Fine is OK)
wedge in 10% coarse grog 0-1mm and 3% Potassium Feldspar. Cost for CSA members will be about R750 and that could include two meals at Starways. Cheap accommodation available on the property or hotels in Hogsback.
So start working and get all the details early in the new year!
please contact us at ceramics.easterncape@gmail.com to book
1 Where were you born and where did you grow up? I was born in the town of Louis Trichardt in the Northern Province. My father worked in a bank and made all our furniture in his spare time. We often used to visit Tzaneen for our holidays and played in the mud down at the river.
2 How did your life in clay begin?The river provided us with as much mud as we needed to make all our toys, cattle, dwellings, churches in fact we built whole towns. These were built to the scale of our small collection of “Dinky Toy� cars, we usually became so absorbed that we always were in trouble with the elders for having stayed out too late. I think there was also the occasional crocodile in that river.
3 Why Clay?
5.
Clay did what we wanted it to, it was a printing press, a fantasy vehicle, and it was so smooth and slippery particularly suitable for whole body slippery slide kids play. We did get into a lot of trouble.
4 How long have you been making pots for? First pot was made in the small studio of a pottery teacher in Cape Town in 1974. I went professional in 1976. In 2014 I would have been making pots for forty years.
5 Where were you before Hogsback? I had a fabulously large pottery studio in an old milking shed in Midrand for five years gas firing and before that in Rondebosch for fourteen years in a back yard converted double garage pottery studio. I built a fifty cubic foot gas kiln in a covered area near the pottery. Which potter parks cars in an urban garage anyway? The neighbours would lean over the back fence to find twelve gas cylinders in a row feeding the kiln. They always received pots for Christmas so that they wouldn’t complain about the “bombs” in the back yard!
6 Why did you move to Hogsback? I was tired of the constraints of city potting and needed a change from the rather insular life of a city potter. I fired three to four hundred gas firings in urban areas and longed to try wood firing as being the ultimate firing experience. Hogsback is in the middle of commercial forests and fuel would be no problem. It was also on a tourist route and I now sell most of the pots I make right here in Hogsback.
7 What clay do you use ? It took me some years to find the right clay for high temperature work and suitable for wood firing. I finally settled down to a blend of Grahamstown clays with a high percentage of coarse and fine grog added as well as three percent potassium feldspar.
8 Can you tell us how a normal day in your pottery studio proceeds. As busy as I am with building our property ,Starways infrastructure, seeing to animals, fixing things etc. etc. etc, I try and throw between twenty and fifty kilos of clay every day except when glazing decorating and stacking the wood burning kiln. This
usually happens in prime time between ten and one o’ clock. The afternoon, after a brisk nap, is usually taken up with turn-
6.
ing, handling, stacking bisque firing. In hot weather I throw in the cool of the evening so that pots are ready for further treatment in the morning.
9 Can you remember the most beautiful pot you have seen was? What a difficult question! I still have vision of a very large and rare large pot of Esias Bosch who I briefly spent time with in 1979. The owners had placed this pot in the middle of a room all on its own. It was a large porcelain pot, waist high, and a delicious, delicate glaze. The shoulders had some sculptural tactile features as well as very free brush decoration.. The colours were delicate and muted.
10 What is the best pot you have ever made, do you still have it or at least a photograph of it? The best pot I have ever made, must always be the current favourite recently sold to a mad pottery enthusiast who is currently setting up a pottery in the Karoo somewhere to retire to. It has all the features I currently enjoy and its decorative elements have come together well in the firing. It also shows ample evidence of the fire.
11 What is the best advice you have been given as a potter? I was handed the plans of my wood firing kiln at Grahamstown Festival 1998 during the run of an exhibition of pots and paintings I had mounted. Jen Rabinowitz handed me the plans and said “Hyme says you must build this kiln.� I had already started to build a version of the Fred Ohlson fast fire kiln. I tore that one down and set about building the kiln Hyme had recommended. It was the Ohlson kiln modified and built by Joe Finch at a potters conference in Aberystwyth Wales 1987. This kiln is forty cubic foot (1.5 cubic meters) has had ninety two firings here at Starways. Literally tons of finished pots all sold, from the studio here in Hogsback.
12 Who or what inspires you to go into the studio every day? The next firing. The sense of anticipation is unlike any other art form or medium. It gives a wonderful impetus that launches each day. I have a pile of warped and cracked, over fired and
exploded pots littering the path to the studio all with luscious glazes, admonishments and promises of things to come from the next firing.
14 Would you do anything differently in your pottery life? I would change very little. But there are plans afoot! A
13 What advice would you give a 20 year old
salt or soda kiln to build, more sculpture, the long fire,
starting out?
white heat sustained for days instead of hours, larger
At my recent exhibition in East London many ceramic students came to the week long daily demos I held. I realize that it is quite intimidating but also inspiring, for a young person to see an experienced person at work. How do you become “well known”? I was asked… My response: You keep working for long enough so that the work becomes “red hot” in its fluency and flow, long enough to develop a following and long enough to be completely addicted to doing it.
t to e g r for st fo t ’ t n ne Do oo nd a s ok eke s! e bo r w rway u o Sta
pots…an overhead rail to deliver the pots to the kilns. To find the pot every South African has an emotional response to.
15 Anything you would like to add? The timeless quality of ceramics is so attractive to the makers and collectors of pots and ceramic objects. My parting comment to a happy buyer goes as follows: “All pots come with a thousand year guarantee unless you drop them of course”
7.
8. This is a curated exhibition of 65 works selected by Emma Taggart, Delphine Niez and veteran Sedgefield potter Lesley-Anne Hoets, who also had her own blue-brick Raku fired work on display. Ranging from free-form ceramic sculpture to traditional decorated earthenware, the one thing which struck me about this year’s annual exhibition of ceramics by Eastern Cape ceramists was the dichotomy between those who control every facet of their medium and those who experiment and allow “creative accident” to inform their vessels’ shapes and textures. In the hands of experienced potters like Delphine Niez and Donvé Branch, the ‘accident’ factor becomes a tool for experimentation and the expansion
Donve Branch
of their oeuvre. Both artists relish and capitalize on the alchemy of what happens when surface accidents occur during the firing process. Modern ceramics have moved a long way from their originally utilitarian function and the Bauhaus dictum that “form follows function”. Most of the pieces on show are designed not to be used, and therefore exist in the realm of studio art. This means that the aesthetics of good design apply and especially the aesthetics of the three dimensional “space envelope” which each piece occupies. In ceramics, if the dialogue between shape, texture and decorative surface is off balance – and it’s a subtle but damning flaw - you get mediocrity.
Nicole Kingston
Mellaney Ruiters
Vale v d Merwe
Here, with some of the less experienced
pothesis about those who do and those who
potters, the way “accident” is handled
don’t grasp the marriage between form,
manifests as vessels which hover on the
texture and the space envelope. Donvé
cusp of being traditional shapes, but flirt
Branch and Delphine Niez were jointly
with what their makers regard as ‘contem-
awarded the People’s Choice Award.
porary’ shapes. These – and there are
last year’s award winner, showed technical-
quite a few - end up by teetering on the
ly sophisticated and fragile white porcelain
fine line between being a “failed” pot and
vessels in which foliage and organic materi-
being a pot which makes it to another lev-
al is burnt out of the clay body leaving
el.
evocative traces of their original presence.
Works which stood out for their innovation and imaginative flair were Lee Hensberg’s white vessel decorated with baroque detail reminiscent of Austrian painter Gustav Klimt, and Nicci Stewart’s reprise of her signature large bowl shape which is decorated with her whimsical and charming motifs. Lydia Holmes won this year’s Award for Excellence with her two blue porcelain vessels which bears out my hyLisa Walker Billie MacNaughton, Nicci Stewart
Bianca Whitehead
Heather Frankel
Niez,
10.
Lesley-AnnHoets
Lee Hensberg
Anton v d Merwe
Delphine Niez
Charmaine Haines
Miranda Qomoyi Richard Pullen
Brenda Davis Michelle Luyt
Billie MacNaughton
Owen Tarr
12.
E T O N E
K A T
Contact Gallery on Leviseur in Bloemfontein directly on ADMIN@GALLERYONLEVISEUR.CO.ZA should you wish to take part in this ceramic competition early in the new year.
13. The exhibition opened on Wednesday 24th July 2013 in Kimberley, and it is a really beautiful show - one of our best. Quite emotional, of course, but not a sad occasion. Mike Hart, Juliet’s husband, came up from Maritzburg with his son Tom, and Christopher Duigan came from Maritzburg to play a wonderful concert. Wiebke von Bismark and Michelle Rall represented the potters and Julia Meintjes came down from Johannesburg to help me select the work for the travelling part of the exhibition, a superb selection of work that I cant wait to show around the country. Professor Ian Calder made a considered, sensitive and very interesting opening speech. He would rather have opened the exhibition under less sad circumstances, but he was clear that the Ceramic Studios at the CVA are under threat of closure at any time. This in spite of the large numbers of Masters students currently enrolled - they are FULL, and in spite of the popularity of the course, its efficacy and the fact that it is the last remaining academic institution teaching ceramics. This is a totally unacceptable situation, adding in my view to the shameful lack of logic or sense in education in our beautiful country. He was certain that the Legacy exhibition represents one of the last remaining hopes of drawing attention to what has been an effective and excellent institution. I am determined to carry this forward as best I can.
This travelling exhibition will be in Port Elizabeth running from March until May 2014.
David and Sarah Walters will be presenting a
workshop here in Port Elizabeth at the time of the opening. The exhibition will open on the fifth of March, so keep this date in mind.
14. Although many ceramists are aware of the issues relating to hazardous materials in their environment, here are a few points to remember about ergonomics and how tasks are undertaken in the studio:
People differ in height, weight, physical strength and ability to carry out tasks. We work in an environment where our tasks are very different as each person might work with a different clay, a different process or a different size object. Our skeletons , muscles tendons and ligaments hold it all together and are controlled by the nervous system.
Any tasks per-
formed incorrectly will result in some pain manifesting in the muscles, tendons and ligaments, as they try to protect the skeleton from injury.
However we sit, move or stand will have a short as well as a long term effect on our bodies.
Therefore, posture, force, duration, recovery time, heavy dynamics and velocity will all have an influence on our bodies. Often heat stress, poor lighting and noise can severely affect individuals. It is important to set out your studio in such a way as to minimize the risk factors in picking up heavy objects, twisting your body while working, bending and stretching. Manual work is at the core of ceramic work. We lift clay bags and kiln shelves without thinking, we sit at the wheel for hours without stretching, we make repetitive movements when hand building.
These movements all have an effect on our bodies.
When lifting, attempt to hold the object close to your body and keep your legs apart and slightly bent. Use your legs to lift and not your arms and back.
15. Store equipment between your knee and shoulder height and use a ladder if higher objects need to be reached. Put a dolly under heavy studio equipment which need moving from time to time. Make sure your seat is the same height as your banding wheel. Brace your elbows on your thighs to form a triangle when throwing and use your body weight to throw, not just your arms and shoulders. Make sure your workbench is the correct height for you. Adjust your chair so that your elbows are at right angles to or slightly higher than the workbench. Use a footrest so that your knees are bent at right angles to your seat. Use a lumbar support if need be. Your work surface for standing should be different for sitting, or adjust your chair accordingly. Try to have things within easy reach. A little stretch is good, but be aware of twisting too much when stretching.
Vary your tasks so that your body can assume a different
position. A good idea is to set a stove type alarm for 40 minutes to remind you to relax and move a bit. Remember, your body is like a machine – it needs some love and care and will break down if not looked after!
Madelein Maddon has a kiln and wheel for sale. Please contact her at (maddon@intekom.co.za).
Michelle Scheepers has a kiln for sale. It is a single phase kiln. R7000. Please contact her on 0733009934
There is a wheel going begging at the University. Madeleine Murray brought her wheel in. It is old, but if you are interested please contact Billie MacNaughton on 0845812023 for more information.
16.
Wedge, roll, drop and rotate, turn over, drop and rotate, pat and rotate………… Controlled rhythmic manipulation of luscious red clay and the base of a vessel is born! Lesley Ann Hoets – hand builder of sensuous Raku fired vessels demonstrated her building techniques at the NMMU Ceramic department on the eleventh of October, to a group of 15 members. As the wind buffeted the building outside calm reigned around Lesley Ann as she firmly but gently shaped the clay with evenly spaced pinches, all of the same pressure. This is a potter in complete control of her medium. She knows her material well and knows too just what she can expect from it – all resulting in vessels you want to put your arms around and hug! Lesley Ann constantly related the human body to the work process and form of the piece – everyone needs toes and feet to balance on and then the body - belly and shoulders for the correct form.
The body must be balanced on the toes to create
a beautiful shape. Her toolbox contained many found objects – a piece of driftwood picked up on Hout Bay beach is her paddle, her Granny’s darning mushroom is used on the inside of the vessels, a pointed shell makes textured impressions………………….
As the piece grew, new coils were rolled between her hands (NOT on the table) and added after light scoring and dampening.
17.
Lesley Ann works on a small, low banding- wheel and while the rim was trimmed her elbow was firmly anchored in her side to keep her fetling knife absolutely steady. She kept the inside smooth and tidy at all times with various ribs and the darning mushroom. Once the coil was joined, the pinching process would begin again. A firm piece of plastic stretched between her fingers is used to smooth and compress the rim. The vessels are sometimes given a coating of slip before burnishing and the transparent soda glazes she uses are coloured with oxides. All her work is Raku fired followed by a heavy sawdust reduction. Lesley Ann recommends reading “Pioneer Pottery” by Michael Cardew and Paulus Behrenson’s book on pinch pots. This was a workshop well worth attending – seeing a potter of this calibre working is truly inspirational and the valuable little tips and hints that flow between presenter and attendees is a bonus on top. Thanks Lesley Ann for a super day.
Cape Pottery Supplies sponsors of two regional exhibition awards
Kiln Contracts Building, 11 Celie Road, Retreat info@capepotterysupplies.co.za 021 7011320
19.
BELMONT cERAMICS We supply: Quality earthenware and stoneware clays Exciting coloured clays Wide range of glazes Pottery tools and equipment Contact us : Danie 0719063313 Belmont@cermalab.co.za
Lisa Walker Teaching Studio I will be giving classes on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, 6-9 p.m.
Promote yourself!!!!!
20.
My classes begin on 11 February and a monthly fee will be
Get your details onto the Ceramics Southern Africa
charged.
Website - its free!
For further information contact Lisa Walker, cell:0825169220 or e-mail at deanlisa@mweb.co.za
Eloise Mogg (East London) See advert on page 19 Nahoon, East London, Cell:082 756 5734 Tel:043 735 0909 Email: moggspottery@bluebottle.com
Please supply the following details for addition to the National Website at www.ceramicssa.org 1. Contact details Name: Phone Number: Cell number: E mail address:
Commencing on 15 January 2014. Contact Eloise for more
Website:
information.
Region: 2. A bio of between 150 and 160 words. Not sure what to write?
Nicci Stewart - Teaching Studio My classes will begin 1st Feb 2014 . I teach every 2nd week
To get an idea of what is required, have a look at the website and see what others have done.
of month from my studio at 150 Fordyce Road, Walmer.
3. A portrait in black and white 151 pixels w x 151 pixels h
Classes on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings from 6 to
(portrait orientation) at 72 dpi .
8pm.
4. An image of your work in colour 258 pixels w x 343 pixels h
Each lesson costs R135.
Tel: 0415811380 or
nicci@niccistewart.com
(portrait orientation) at 72 dpi. Please note 3. & 4. If the images supplied are not sized as
John Steele (East London) Studio Open ceramics studio on Monday Evenings or Tuesday Mornings - come play with clay ! @ CLAYSTATION, 14 Princess Drive, Bonza Bay, East London, John Steele 0847005864 or Oudol Silberblatt 0835577132.
required, I will resize them but they may have to be cropped when resizing, which will be at my discretion. Send it all to John Shirley at johnshir@gmail.com and cc to ceramicssa@icon.co.za your profilewill be published on the ceramist’s page on our site www.ceramicssa.org
21.
in the shelves - at ART Gallery Are you interested in showing your individual en-
one hundred plates exhibition …coming next year!
deavour? You have a wonderful opportunity to
Bianca Whitehead, Head of the Ceramic Design Department at
exhibit all on your own “in the shelves” at ART Gal-
the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University will be hosting the
lery.
100 Plates exhibition next year.
Anthony has offered this opportunity to all
members of CSA - Eastern Cape. She has endeavoured to hand out and receive back 100 plates, You will have one or two of the tall shelving units
decorated with black under glaze in which ever style the ce-
all to your self while the walls are being used for
ramist chooses.
other exhibitions. So, take some time to work on some related pieces and take the plunge to exhibit
At our first social evening of 2013 (long long ago!) These plates
on your own.
were handed out and they have been slowly trickling in for fir-
The normal 30% commission will
be charged. You stand to have your work on display at the openings of other exhibitions and to showcase your individual talent.
ing. The funds from the sale of plates will go towards helping needy students within the ceramic department, a good cause in deed and something we should all support, considering that the University sponsors many of our own projects. This is a very good
Please contact
Anthony Har-
ris at ART to negotiate a time frame.
“pay it forward” project. Have you done your charitable bit yet? If not, contact Bianca at Bianca.Whitehead@nmmu.ac.za to collect your plate and get decorating. This is a worth while cause to support, but nothing will happen if we do not all assist!
0723795933 * anthony@anthonyharris.co.za You may do more than one if you wish!
We a 22. re da fo saying go raw odby hi e to B b a ck ren. Bre le - hope y n ou w da is Engla i g l l o nd on be ing to and o not b work ff a n e ava in d she ilable the c w f o i ll r elec omm tion t ittee o n e xt Good Luck! year. When glaze firing porcelain, pots fire much better if they are placed on a thin layer of silica sand. Mix the sand with wax resist and brush it on the bottom of the pots.... this keeps the sand under the pots and not falling into pots on shelves below... Large bowls of similar size and proportion may be stacked inside one another for bisque firing. Fill each bowl with vermiculite to support the next bowl. Vermiculite may be used repeatedly..... If your bisque tiles are warping in the kiln, try standing them up on end, instead of placing them flat on the kiln shelves. Place them in the centre of the kiln, not close to the elements....
Fire Pots in saggars with used tea bags as a reducing agent. They are already packaged and easy to keep reduction consistent and controllable.... Sulfur released in bisque firing an electric kiln can be controlled by placing a small cup of whiting in the firing chamber. It can be used several times....
23.
lydia holmes - chair
donve branch - v. chair
margie higgs - treasurer
lisa walker
0835649430
0833262842
0837279454
0825169220
lydia@rgholmes.co.za
donve1@telkomsa.net
margie.higgs@pcadvice.co.za
deanlisa@mweb.co.za
Brenda Davis will no longer be available to serve on the committee
As Delphine will be returning to France next year, she has resigned as secretary. Please use our own email: ceramics.easterncape@gmail.com for any correspondence.