At the Chinese brush making shop, Jingdezhen.

At the brush shop you can buy from pre made brushes or you can give them your brush specifications and they will whip it up for you. In this dark back room there are strings of all sorts of little fluffy tail type things that will eventually be the brush tips. At a guess it could be rabbit, cat, dog, horse or maybe ferret hair.

The shop is a dingy little hole in the wall in a side street with rickety stars up to a spooky attic where the spirits of ancient brush makers live (I am sure) so my photos are quite dark.

These are the bamboo rods that the brush maker uses for the handles of their brushes. Who knows what clever hands will be holding these stems in the future or what masterpieces they will be working on. So much potential!!

The wonderful finished products in their different size categories. These are underglaze brushes as they are for broad strokes of colour and they hold a lot of colour in the fibres. 

This is Maggie my friend and interpreter. She is like a pocket sized pixie weighing only 43kgs!!

Here are some more elaborate brushes with red hair and nobly handles! The brushes on the right are in some sort of horn... they look beautiful if I objectify them as an object of art, but they are not very appealing to the animal lover in me.

One of the brush makers gluing the tips into a handle. You can see his workshop is very basic, dark and he is probably as high as a kite from the glue. They use rabbit skin glue.

Another brush makers hands moved so quickly as she glued the tips into the handles that I couldn't get a good picture of her.

Some bigger fluffier brush head waiting to be made into brushes.

Glorious Glaze Shopping in China

Glaze shops here in China are magical places where rainbows, spectrums and candy have distilled and separated themselves. They have melted into pots, tubs, and plastic water bottles for you to take home and splatter all over your ceramic greenware.

This is my dear friend Shelley from Adelaide who is on this artists residency at the Pottery Workshop with me. Here she is checking out the ming blue colour variations in the underglaze stains. You pick the colour from the fired sample and then they go out the back and bring you your own little tub to take away.

It is a hive of activity here at "Paint Town".

A section of the shop with glazed samples on the shelf for customers to choose from. I was surprised to see a piece by famous Japanese artist Yoshimoto Nara. Does he produce sculptures here in Jingdezhen and one mysteriously found its way into this shop and on to its shelf? 

Stains R'US. Yummy. Actually I bet they dont taste as good as they look. I enjoyed some of the colour therapy/healing benefits of the colours as I stood here and gazed.

Did you say you want white glaze? We have white in about 100 variations. This is some of the crackle options, which I am quite hot for.

Ming blue, of which Jingdezhen is famous for. Jingdezhen is where the ancient porcelain Ming vases have come from.... 2000 years of porcelain making.

From the kiln this week

Last week I had some fast refresher lessons in ceramics. My new friend Simon Suckling (Brisbane, Australia) who is also a resident here at the Pottery Workshop has been such a great help in answering all of my silly questions.

THANK YOU SIMON!!

Here are my glaze samples... I really like the colours, however the glaze is very runny. The kiln man told me off (in Chinese sign language) when I picked up my goodies because my pieces had stuck to his kiln bricks. My friend Kosta likes these the most. He thinks they are very wabi-sabi (HELLO THAT IS A BIG COMPLIMENT).

Here are some mark making and underglaze stain samples.

Here are some underglaze stain samples... I quite like the results as they appeal to my rainbow obsession, but the application is a bit wishy washy in some areas. Ill keep trying. I will be overglazing with some gold lustre when I can face breathing in those toxic fumes for an hour. China's pollution is bad enough for now.

Well thats it from the kiln this week. Watch this space for more...

Art Supply Shopping in China

I had a flood of ideas today- HOO RAH! The lights came on. Quite symbolically I turned around and there was a big light bulb on the table behind me. I love symbols.

I had plenty of little vibrant, fluffy, flighty, ideas fly in to visit me at the Pottery Workshop Studio today. These creatures flew in and around the bird cage of my mind so fast that I could hardly talk at all! It was a flurry of activity amongst my neurones. My brain took over my body, and my mouth stopped working... ha ha.. (I wasn't great company today for the other artists). I had to use every ounce of my energy to keep my attention focused on each little idea, before it spread its wings or beat its fan tail and flew away from the view of my minds eye.

It is days like today that remind me that I really am an artist- irrepressibly, and I just have to lump it.

I decided to strike while the iron is hot and so I marched straight out the door, through the dusty/ noisy Chinese streets and down to the art supply store downtown (near KFC). I shopped for materials to begin to catalogue these ideas- broad optimistic pieces of white a-grade paper, fancy pens with magic tips, tracing paper, alphabet templates, Chinese ink brushes, porcelain carving tools and some tools that I have no idea what they do but I am sure Ill work it out one day.

                        My brush collection is growing bigger by the day, but for 2 RMB why not!

I bought a new 3 tiered pastel pink tool box, to fit it all in. I love the dichotomy of a "pastel pink tool box"... ha ha...

My giant piece of paper and my new templates.

Many things I could just pick up off the isles but some things I had to do charades to act out what I was asking for. My best effort was acting out "tracing paper" to the Chinese shop assistant. It was one of my most interesting contemporary dance pieces yet! We got there in the end and the shop assistant now knows what the English words tracing paper means.

I also did trips to the the underglaze decal shop and bought some beauties. I have made some porcelain bowls with some Christmas chains cut out of decal. Ill glaze them today and get them fired at the public kiln in the next few days.

I did a trip to the glaze shop and bought some underglaze stains as well. Yummy spectrum of colours.

I also went and bought some Fencai ingredients (Chinese ceramic enamelling)- overglaze stain, frankincense oil and camphor oil. My studio is starting to look like a laboratory that makes rainbows.

Now to get busy...!!

The Pottery Workshop

Hellllloooo! Here I am in China living the artistic dream. Life is not always this peachy, but this is why we have dreams and chip away at making them happen. If you dont dream it, it aint gonna happen.

I always knew I would end up making art in China, ever since I read the children's book "The Story about Ping" when I was little girl. Here I am.

I am in an artists residency in a land far, far away. It is exotic, mysterious and the food is delicious here. I have been away from Australia for 7 weeks now. The first 4 weeks was spent travelling far and wide through China attuning my artistic eye to new experiences, eating lots of incredible banquets and breathing in all that is oriental and beautiful. In my travels I went to Beijing, Zhongwei, Xian, Tenneger Desert, Chengdu, Kunming, Lijiang, Zhongdian, Dali, Shaxi and Shangri-la.  Basically I went from the far north of China, down through deserts, mountains, rivers, cities... all the way down to the boarder of Vietnam. An extraordinary trip I assure you, and you will see influence my work for years to come.

For the last 3 weeks I have been here in Jingdezhen at the Pottery Workshop having a crash course in porcelain. The Pottery Workshop is an hour and a half south of Shanghai by plane.

Alas I haven't done any blog entries since getting to China as the Great Fire Wall was too far and wide for this little black duck to fly over, however I have now climbed it and am back. I am not sure where to start- so much has happened, my mind is so full of memories and my hard drive so full of photos! I have 2 more months here so I have plenty of time to fill all the details in about what I have been thinking about.

Being a jeweller (in a ceramics residency) I was shocked at the complexity of the things I needed to learn just to make one little thing!

Here are some photos of the studio here:

My colour test project

My flower project

My workspace

My porcelain greenware

Thumbing through Chinese Mythology

So departure date is looming... 2-and-a-bit weeks! Excitement is making me 'ping' out of bed in the mornings. A strange phenominum indeed!

Beyond the stress of leaving Australia for 4 months & agonising over what I will need to buy & pack, I also have lots of paperwork to get through, some clients orders to make, lots of shifts at work, tax, voting, house cleaning, some dinners & a concert in Melbourne to get to. I have at least 200 un-replied to emails that have snowballed into a psychologically traumatising mind bomb. This is why my poor blog has taken a back seat too. No time! No time! Too much to do! Er!

In the few quiet moments I have, I have aspired to read as much as I can about China & in particular I have found myself thumbing through a dusty Chinese mythology from my bookshelf. Turns out that I actually own this book & have done for about 20 years... what a strange kid I was.

My favourite story so far is the Chinese creation story that explains that a giant magical turtle had it's 4 legs chopped off by the god of creation (who was tired of holding up the heaven from the earth) & it is they that hold up the 4 corners of the earth. I imagine that it was a bit bigger than this turtle.. however basically doing the same job. Just imagine the match box is the earth.

Bugs, beetles, moths & butterflies

I love insects because they are like gemstones on legs. Many of my designs try to capture the beauty, intricacy and delicateness of natures little warriors. I found these little critters totally alluring, I mean how often do you get to have such a long hard look at something so beautiful? Never! They are always just a flash in front of your eyes. The texture and radiance of them is extraordinary. Viva la bugdom!!

I won the China Residency!!! :-)

HOORAY! I won the grant to go to China in September! I am sooooo excited! I am gonna make art! art! art! in China! China! China!!!! For 3 months! I am riding a massive high because I really wanted to go... really really... really.. 
First of all I love travelling, secondly I am a Buddhist and thirdly I am bursting at the seams to make things.

This 8-week artist residency is located in one of the most fascinating and ancient creative centres in China. The Pottery Workshop is an artist’s residential retreat offering artists from diverse cultures and skills the opportunity to interact, learn and create. It is situated on the site of an old National Porcelain Company Sculpture Factory in Jingdezhen China and is surrounded by hundreds of small and independent craftsmen and artists with every kind of ceramic skill; clay producers, throwers, sculptors, mould makers, blue and white decorators, overglaze decorators, glaze and colour shops, kiln firing workshops, brush makers, black smiths, box makers and shippers. What a dream come true...

This residency will stimulate and develop my existing skill base, whilst introducing me to a plethora of ancient Chinese decorative skills through a variety of workshops and lectures. Other participants and I will meet international and local artists/ craftspeople on a daily basis and do workshops with them. This 8 week residency will inspire growth in current practices as artists thrive in a vibrant atmosphere, surrounded by working artists and right in the heart of this fascinating city.

WHEN: 9th Sept- Dec 2010

I wanted to participate in the residency to the Pottery Workshop because the time is right for intensive artistic growth for me. Using my leadership qualities and amalgamating them with my zest for action and spirit of adventure, I believe I will experience inner and outer transformation in my arts practice by going to China. This cultural and artistic immersion will facilitate a journey into my inner world where I will create new ideas, gain insight into unknown fields of knowledge and perpetuate dramatic self experience. The creative wisdom gained here would be the beginning of some promising projects and mark the start of my transition into becoming a full time artist. 

The Workshop offers me an amazing opportunity in so many ways. It would allow me to exist in the art head-space that I enjoy so much. Going to China would infinitely inspire me as I would meet fellow artists, experience Chinese culture, learn new skills and acquire knowledge in a supportive and well resourced environment. I also look forward to meeting the masters and teachers in Jingdezhen, and being given the opportunity to share my own skills and experience in jewellery, ceramics and drawing with my Chinese hosts.

I also intend to do side trips to Beijing, Xian and Shanghai to experience the other Chinese artistic highlights such as the National Arts & Craft Museum, The Great Wall of China and the Terracotta Warriors.

The knowledge and skill acquired in this residency, is something I could not obtain in Australia. The amalgamation of practical contact, observation of masters at work, facilities and inspiration from fellow students will be invaluable nourishment. This learning experience will be vital for my art practice and will allow me to inform and enrich the local and national arts scene back in Australia.

As an Australian citizen I appreciate the incredible influence Asian culture has on our country. Our continent is placed centrally in the Asia-Pacific region which affects our social climate, political and trade concerns, as well as our food and cultural practices. I believe that the more alliances and relationships that Australia can forge with surrounding countries the more understanding and acceptance we can have between us. There is much potential value for all parties involved in liaising with our Asian neighbours and I wish to be a part of this alliance.

Now time to go and celebrate! POP!!!

Contracting before expanding

Sometimes our lives contract before they expand. I can feel mine doing it at the moment. I am aware that I am in the middle of shifting from one stage to another in my artistic life. I have spent the last couple of years growing, studying, learning and absorbing. I feel full to the eye balls with inspiration, and grumpy that there is never enough time spent in the studio! Hopefully if I get to go to China then I will have 2 months solidly in a fully equipped workshop.

I was starting to feel a little discouraged at my lack of output the last few months, as there has definitely been a lack of progress. Now I realise the progress has been internal. Sometimes this is simply the way life works. The contraction and expansion of the inner and outer world. Like a catapillar that confines itself to a tiny cocoon before it grows wings and flies, I am experiencing the darkness of the potent cocoon.

I need surrender to the experience, so that I can move through the tightness and into the opening on the other side quickly. So many ideas, just need to make the time to create. My old foe- the delicate life/ work balancing act.