It's been a very busy couple of months for me with work and preparation for our SALA exhibition, which opened last Wednesday night at the Urban Cow Gallery in down town Adelaide.
The Clay Collective put on yet another great show with our usual eclectic mélange of works! It was a terrific to catch up with some old faces and meet and greet many new ones. A very bubbly evening, fun with a capital F.
Time and weather where certainly not on my side with this one. How many times did I throw my hands in the air and and yell... 'That's it, it's never going to happen, I'm pulling out!' ...(in true Drama Queen style)... Plenty! but it all came together somehow and I am so in love with my Tiny Dancer.
I had to give into the weather, it was just so wet and cold up here at the Blue Door Studio, so I converted a newly vacated bedroom into a cosy Hand building Studio (Luxury!) A couple of tables, a comfy chair, a CD player and a Heater, what more could you ask for!
I didn't have time to test the materials for this project but a lot of educated guessing and a bit of luck and I couldn't have been happier.
It really was a tense 7 days from start to pulling her from the kiln still warm and bundling her into the car on exhibition set up morning,but now I know it can be done in the middle of a Lenswood winter, OK so I did steam her for 24 hrs and leaving the oil heater on 24/7 for a week did nothing for my carbon footprint.
A blend of Feeneys Buff Raku and Keans White Hand building clay allowed very quick building. and created a lovley softening undertone where the porcelain slip top layer was lightly sponged back.
I used Gestley Borate and body stains (1 part GB as to 2 parts BS) mixed with water to apply light washes to the dress, boots, headscarf and the banding over her eyes which again I sponged back into. She spent 24 hrs steaming in the kiln and then slowly once fired to about 1200 degrees,may be just under.
Rather than a literal representation of a dancing figure I was striving for a painterly dream like suggestion of an intimate moment of introspection and I couldn't be more pleased with the results...
And somehow it all came together and I am so in love with my Tiny 
Dancer!
Till next time Cheers from the Bluedoor (Rose Maguire Ceramics)
Hi my name is ROSE MAGUIRE and I am a clay addict!
My first Clay memory is as a small girl, in the 60s, in New Zealand, standing on tip toes and peering over the top of our neighbors big old kick wheel and being transfixed as a slimy wet lumps of spinning brown mud became pots right before my very eyes.
I loved spending time in the huge old brick floored X barn, surrounded by the smells and sounds of the Pottery. Usually sitting on the floor listening to the slow rhythmical clunks of the kick wheel mixed with the gentle rise and fall of men’s voices as Dad and Bob Huck discussed life the universe and everything. I loved peering at eye level through the long lines of newly made pots on the dusty ware boards.
My Journey in clay really started though in the late 90s when I decided to do a year at the local TAFE in Mount Barker, South Australia. Then, I thought, I would be able to make my living from the pots I would learn to make!!! How naive! The first half of that year was all ‘Mud Sweat and Tears’ but I learnt so much in that year under the guidance of Helen Doubell and Auriel Collins and the supportive eye of Ute and partner Bob and realized I had only just begun my quest. But at least I finally knew what I wanted to be when I grew up!!!
So it was of to North Adelaide School of Arts( as it was then-now ACArts)where I concentrated mainly on Ceramics and Sculpture. John Woods was head of the Sculpture department followed by Andrew Stock and John Coulter was head of the ceramics department He was a fantastic teacher and Mentor. 2 more years of full time and a further 2years of part time study I finally completed the Bachelor of Visual Arts and Applied Design.
In my current practice I continue to make domestic tableware as my main stay bread and butter line and have teamed up with my old Art School buddy Ang to sell and promote our work for the past few years at the Stirling Market and a few special event markets and fairs in the Adelaide hills. I also exhibit more sculptural/conceptual work during the year with Ang, Ali, Tracey others under the name of The Clay Collective…
The Clay Collective is a group of emerging and established ceramists based in South Australia. We have either meet during our studies or have current or past links with JamFactory Contemporary Craft and Design. Our numbers Eb and flow a bit but usually there's 10 to 15 in any of our exhibitions. So... Little did I ever dream as that small girl in the 60s, standing on tip toes and peering over the top of Bob's big old kick wheel...
That I too would have a big dusty shed and make a living from transforming slimy wet lumps of spinning brown mud into pots right before my own childrens' very eyes. I now live and work from an Orchard property in The Adelaide Hills with my Partner, the youngest of my two beautiful daughters and the cat and continue to play, explore and generally indulge my addiction and I am as happy as a Pig in mud.
Carpe argillum, Seize the Clay!
It's been a very busy couple of months for me with work and preparation for our SALA exhibition, which opened last Wednesday night at the Urban Cow Gallery in down town Adelaide. 
I used Gestley Borate and body stains (1 part GB as to 2 parts BS) mixed with water to apply light washes to the dress, boots, headscarf and the banding over her eyes which again I sponged back into. She spent 24 hrs steaming in the kiln and then slowly once fired to about 1200 degrees,may be just under.
Dancer!
