Learning from...

When you start exploring ceramics as a relative beginner there are hundreds of different pathways/directions you can follow. I've not chosen the pathways involving turning* on the wheel or slip casting because I want to hand-build my clay creations. So that narrows down the field a bit as I have found that the majority of potters I've met, in person or found online, turn on the wheel. I've yet to pin down exactly why I prefer hand-building but I think it's because I value simplicity.

For a while now I have explored a few pathways that are within my means and have piqued my interest, but I feel like I am still at the cross roads with a hundred different pathways around me and I don't know which way to turn.

It's a bit overwhelming and disorienting. Too many projects on the go, too little focus.

The 'learning from' project will hopefully help me to focus, help me to be brave enough to try new things in order to make and learn from my mistakes, help me to identify the areas/themes in ceramics that I like and find my artistic direction.

In this project I'll choose an artist and a piece that I like and learn what I can by listening to their podcasts, watching their demos on YouTube, and looking closely at images of their work that I can find online. At the same time I'll create ceramic pieces inspired by certain elements of their work that appeal to me. With the aim being to push me out of my comfort zone, to make mistakes, to learn. To hold close what resonates with me and leave what doesn't. I'll make minimum three, maximum ten, pieces before moving on to another artist.

* The word 'throwing' apparently originates from the Old English word 'thrawan', meaning to twist or turn, and 'turn' is the word I like to use when referring to the process used to create clay work using a mechanical/electrical wheel.

Learning from Lisa

"Who is your art for? I don't make these as Commodities. I'm not thinking, what does my commercial audience want, no... I am making each one of these as something for me." ~ Lisa Orr

The mug pictured above was created by Lisa Orr and is part of the Rosenfield Collection: https://www.rosenfieldcollection.com/c755/

Lisa Orr's work is gloriously handbuilt. Starting with a simple form turned on a kick wheel or pressed into a bisque-fired mold, Lisa's functional art has interesting uneven rim/edges, rolled handles, decorations or 'sprig' molds, deftly applied slip trails, and it is made from low-fire clay and covered with low-fire glazes. Lisa says in one of her demos that she "can't leave any surface uncovered" and that her colourful glazes are like a "healthy garden colour in action".

The elements of Lisa's work that I have noticed and will attempt to include/recreate in one or more ceramic pieces are

working from a quick slab (as Lisa does with her butter dishes);
incorporating (rather than trimming/smoothing) the rough edges of the slab;
sprigs from bisque-fired molds;
bisque-fired forms;
slab-rolled handle;
slip in plastic bags for piping/trailing decorations;
brightly coloured engobes and glazes.

I will also try work more quickly, as Lisa does, which of course comes from her many years of experience.

What I cannot do is use a kick wheel, or low-fire clay, or low-fire glazes to make turquoise 'stained glazed holes', as I have none of these (yet?). I will be using slabs of mid-fire clay and decorating with commercial underglaze and mid-fire clear glaze.

My study

Learning from Lisa pushed me out of my creative comfort zone because I was new to using sprigs, slip trailing, and riots of colour. I made five ceramic mugs (three pictured here) based on Lisa Orr's mugs in the Rosenfield Collection and Lisa's tall mugs with a frilly base.

Each of my mugs was pinched or rolled from Clayworks cone 6 white midfire clay. I started with the cup body, then added the base and the handle. I made and attached sprigs from molds of crocheted doilies, trailed slip from a plastic sandwich bag, and managed to keep the natural textured edge of a pressed slab in one of the mugs.

After a bisque firing to 1000-1040c, I brought out the texture of the sprigs and slip trails using a brown underglaze wash (after first trying red copper oxide wash which came out green), carefully wiped the raised areas clean with a damp sponge, then applied yellow, red, and green underglaze paints inside and outside with a brush. I used a large brush deliberately to encourage bold brush strokes.

I found the application of the colour underglaze challenging. Colour scares me. No one will understand what I mean unless they too are someone who is scared of colour. But I found that I love the combination of red, yellow, green, and white. It is a very fruity colour combination, and it does remind me of, as Lisa says, a healthy garden in action.

The height of the tall mugs was new to me, but I love the curvy shape and the frilly skirt which to me, combined with the doily, says 'feminine' and 'voluptuous'.

The duds

Are you learning anything if you don't make some mistakes? In the spirit of embracing failure and failing forwards, here are the duds.

The first dud was of course the first mug I made in this project. It didn't have the right shape and the sprigs weren't well defined but I loved the fruity colours inside the mug. So in subsequent mugs I kept these colours and tried something different for the rest.

The other dud was one of the last mugs where I thought I should at least try bring in some turquoise. But using underglaze to try emulate a turquoise low-fire glaze, a mini-stained-glass window, is never going to work. On the plus side I was more adventurous and ended up with an interesting flower footer. Overall the dull turquoise and a couple of hairline cracks inside the mug meant that this one was a dud.

I learnt that...

red copper oxide comes out green;
trailing slip from a sandwich bag is a genius idea;
points of clay slip fire to sharp points of ceramic;
slip trails can be delicate and can detach from the ceramic form after being bisque-fired;
bisque sprig-molds are handy to create repeated motifs;
sprigs dry out quickly;
surface cracks inside bisque-fired forms can be fixed by painting with white underglaze before covering in clear dipping glaze;
with art, as with life, layers add visual interest and appeal;
the combination of swiftly applied red, yellow, green, and white underglaze with a clear gloss glaze on top is luscious and fruity.

I'm sure I learnt more on a subconscious level and therefore cannot put into words on this page. Like all learning. Too nuanced to be fully defined or measured.

Learning from Rafal

"It's about collaboration, not competition" ~ Rafal Kaczmarek, Ceres Market, July 2025

The mug pictured above was created by Rafal Kaczmarek and purchased from Rafal at Ceres Market in Melbourne. And yes it is wheel-thrown!

On his website, Sticky Earth Ceramics, Rafal says that he is attracted to minimal forms that are "perfect but imperfect at the same time." The form of the shape, rather than the decoration on its surface, is the most important to him; a form that functions well. This sentiment resonates with me as someone who values simplicity and the design mantra that 'form follows function'.

The elements of Rafal's work that I have noticed and will attempt to include/recreate in one or more ceramic pieces are

the use of Feeneys Buff Raku Trachyte (BRT) clay, a dark, coarse-textured clay that I have not worked with for over a decade;
simple, minimalist form with a slender handle;
the base is slightly wider than the rim;
a white glossy glaze that breaks on edges.

My limitations include not having a suitable potters wheel and not being able to fire to cone 9. Instead I will hand-build using thinly rolled slabs of BRT and I will fire to a hot cone 6.

He’s Polish and Living In Australia | Rafal Kaczmarek | Episode 984Rafal Kaczmarek | Episode 984 Originally hailing from Krakow, Poland, Rafal Kaczmarek now lives and works in Melbourne’s west. Rafal’s pottery features earthy, organic tones and a minim…

My study

Working with the mug that I purchased back in 2025 as an example, I tried to copy the form that I saw in my hands. Stating the obvious, I am not Rafal, I do not have his experience, skills, tools and equipment, so my first attempt was a clunky chunky wonky mug that looks only vaguely like the original. But, as I reminded myself three mugs later, that's the whole idea. The aim is not to make an exact copy of the original. The aim is to follow the artist along the path they've taken, exploring and learning from the experience, going as far as I want/need to.

As I started my fourth attempt I decided to go back to Rafal's philosophy rather than the exemplar mug in front of me. To focus on form and simplicity. I had also learned that BRT has grit and strength and behaves differently to the midfire white/speckled clay that I usually use. So I made my slabs thinner, just under 5mm. I pinched the edges of the handle and liked the finger marks I left there. I pinched the rim nice and thin and smoothed it with a piece of sponge. I didn't put a coil inside to seal the join between the cylinder and the base, trusting the grit to hold everything together.

Mug made, I looked at the plain surface and thought about carving the lines again into the side. But the lines/stripes I had carved into the three previous mugs weren't working for me.

Form Follows Function, I thought.
So what's the function of this decoration?
I sat there, mug in hand, thinking some more...

Once upon a time, the decoration would have been an elaborate maker's mark. I looked at the stripes on Rafal's mug and thought of ZAINI in my last name. The letters are all straight lines... And that's what I carved.

I made four mugs in this departure from Rafal's stripes, refining elements each time. Pinching the edges of the slab-cut handle as thin as I dared, keeping the finger marks, enjoying how sticky and forgiving the clay was. Pictured here are three of the four. The fourth became a victim of my impatience as I dipped it in glaze while still green/raw, not once, but twice, and the thin walls cracked apart in my hands.

The duds

Are you learning anything if you don't make some mistakes? In the spirit of embracing failure and failing forwards, here are the duds.

I fired the raw glazed pieces as a permanent reminder of my impatience.

Pictured here are also the insides of two mugs, one with a coil at the join, and one without. Which do you prefer? I think the coil free seam is neater, un-fussy, simple. It's the only thing I would change in the mug that I am most pleased with in this series.

I would also consider my stripe mugs and the mugs with the thick S footer as duds. I could not cut smooth straight stripes like in Rafal's example. But I had to follow Rafal's lead and experience this frustration in order to find my own way. I was so much happier with my carved ZAINI lines.

I learnt that...

Simple ≠ easy.
Feeney's BRT clay is strong and sticky and, surprisingly, a beautiful clay for delicate work.
I need to be more patient and not double dip!
sometimes you need to let the clay decide.
(which sounds a bit coocoo lala but that's what I did with the tea cup pictured which I absolutely adore. I didn't set out to create a handle shaped like that, the clay decided to go that way. I didn't decide to carve the flower footer but the cup felt too heavy and it just happened.)

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