JOURNAL - Pinky & Maurice

April 22, 2016 by Claire Atkins Leave a Comment

Part II – Mai kumhari hu : I am a potter

For ten days in February 2016 I travelled through Delhi and Rajasthan to meet traditional Rajasthani potters with a small group of clay enthusiasts led by Australian potter Sandra Bowkett.

At the end of our tour, on the Yamana River between the Holy City Vrindavan and Delhi, Sandra asked me if I missed anything back home. Her words, and the adventure she led us on inspired the short story below.

‘Mai kumhari hu : I am a potter’ part II

It’s three weeks since I’ve run and I’m desperate for it like a junkie. There’s a gentle offshore blowing and Nat duck-dives under the foam for her early. It’s hot already. I crouch in the sand, my right leg behind me, I lift my chin to the sun and feel the stretch along my hamstring. I change legs.

‘Is there anything you miss?’ Sandra asks me.

Nat cuts through the morning glass and I shake my head. It’s so clean. I’ve missed this daily ritual.

I’ve only run 500 metres and already I’m telling myself that I can’t make it to Wooyung. So I focus on the sea-spray forming up ahead and the stories start to spill out.

I’m checking into a hotel with four companions. We’ve been sitting in traffic for hours and it’s past lunch time. I’ve been in Udaipur for the last week in a hotel on a lake that was once the home of the Maharana’s noblemen. Outside its whitewashed walls the town is manic with three wheeler autos and pedestrians dodging limping dogs and cows and the occasional elephant, but now I realise Udaipur is a sleepy country town. I’ve just arrived in Old Delhi, and it’s on crack. We hand over our passports.

The door chimes and a woman with silvery cropped hair and black rimmed glasses walks in off the street.

‘Sandra!’ Vicki cries out.

She’s quite tall and slight but not fragile. Her gestures are calm, and for a moment I think she’s Indian. She greets us with a warm smile, clasps her hands and tilts her head ‘Namaste’. She asks if we’ve eaten, and says she’ll take us to a good place that she’s discovered this week.

Sandra Bowkett is our guide. She’s a Victorian potter and has been collaborating with Rajasthani potters in India and Australia for more than 10 years.

The whole group exhales. I don’t want to leave her side.

‘I’ve just been to the market,’ she says reaching into plastic shopping bag, and without pretence she places a garland of golden fluffy marigolds around each of our necks. I press their softness to my face and inhale the bees wings. I bite my lip.

Sandra has magicked up our second wind, and like excited kids we check out our rooms. I’m sharing with Evie, a smiley 20 something from Glenn Innes who has just graduated from National Art School. We’re up three or four flights of stairs on the top floor. We open the bathroom door and exchange looks over our squat toilet and a shower slash bucket for bathing. But it’s clean and we think it might prepare us for something much worse later on. Outside our room is the hotel’s kitchen and a terrace that looks onto a red sandstone mosque called Jama Masjid, and flying around its 600 year old marble domes and minarets are thousands of pigeons believed to be the spirits of deceased relatives and friends.

Below me, hundreds of yellow canopies on wheels weave and honk their way around a river of bright blue tuk-tuks and timber carts hauled by ancient men. Across the street there are neatly made bed rolls waiting patiently for their owners in the shade of the mosque’s walls, while others snatch sleep stretched out between shifts on the median strip in the afternoon glare.

We make our way down onto the street and for a moment I’m in a Dickens novel, but his world is suddenly more genteel. The garbage collectors have been on strike for a week and the rubbish is putrid and close to knee deep. Above my head bunches of black electric cabling decorate the shop fronts like bunting for a festival, and buildings multiply and sprout from each other like something living.

We stop. Sandra is talking to a man baking in a tandoor out the front of his restaurant. It’s not much more than a hole in a wall, and it’s packed, but we squeeze into the last booth. Although it’s winter it’s hot in here and we switch on a small blue fan perched close to Evie’s head like a parrot. Sandra orders plates of ‘tali’ and sitting on an empty gas cylinder, she officially maps out the tour with the names of towns and potters that sound like spices. I should write them down in my notebook and commit them to memory, but our lunch arrives, and we eat plates of hot naan, potato and herb filled paratha, spicy pickles, and wet daal with our hands.

“Why do you punish yourself?”

‘Wha’?

It’s my neighbour Colleen. She smiles and shakes her snowy head at me.

‘Nice low tide for ya Claire!’ she yells and continues on her morning walk.

The hard packed sand stretches on for miles and there’s not a soul ahead. Nearly half way. It’s so hot and I take off my singlet and wrap it around my forehead.

Sweat prickles my skin and another wave of nausea hits. I bring up last night’s deep fried chicken into a Zip-Loc bag from Tasmania on the doorstep of our new hotel. It’s sunny and warm and there’s a garden and balcony. The streets are clean. It’s a well to do part of town. I keep throwing up as if it were a competition sport. I’ve made quite an entrance.

‘Where have you been staying?’ The hotel owner demands.

‘Oh…um…Jama Masjid.’ I wipe my mouth with the back of my shaking hand.

‘Why on earth would you go there? People go there and never come back alive. Come. I’ll show you to your room. Do you want the doctor?’

‘No…please just my bed.’

‘But you must take something for the infection.’

‘Infection?…No really, just something I ate..’

Sandip’s not convinced and he ushers me through the dining room and it’s homely and tastefully decorated. There’s a jar of Vegemite amongst the sauces and jams on the middle of the table.

In my room I fasten the warm Tasmanian Zip-Loc and stow it in the bin. I manage a smile. It’s a small world after all. I sleep all day and between retching I dream of sock puppets and hallucinate script ideas for a client shooting a video with a giant yellow duck next week in Sydney. There’s a wedding going on down the street and a brass marching band is going hard at it, but I can’t quite pick the tune. I drag my sorry bones into the bathroom in the greying afternoon and lift my singlet to finger my newly protruding hip bones and abdominal muscles. I haven’t seen them since my early twenties. There’s nothing left inside me. I rinse my mouth and think of Vegemite on toast. That’s a good sign surely.

In the morning there’s no call to prayer, or I sleep through it, my legs are shaky but I kneel in the early light and repack my bag. I pick up a crudely thrown terracotta chai cup that I’ve kept from a chai wallah. I feel its belly. I see its unknown maker squat before his wheel and pull up the wall of clay between his fingers. He slices its foot from the centred hump on the wheel head and places it on a board to dry with a thousand others he has already made that day. His wife prepares the clay among the chickens and children, and in the evening the kiln crackles and sparks into the darkness from their roof top. Each cup he makes will serve just one spicy tea at a road stall, and moments later it will be tossed and crushed beneath a million feet on the city street.

My head is bowed and the sand looks like a moonscape pocked with holes, and I dodge the tide as it creeps to my right. A professor of Indian art tells us about a beach in Bangal where there’s no gravel or sand but is centuries deep with potshards. The tides rise and fall and even tsunamis come and reveal still more shards. Sandra and I look at each other wide-eyed. I swaddle the little cup among my clothes and the cooking pots I’ve bought from a potter we visit in Deli. His enormous blackened kiln towers above me. My neighbour likes to call the council whenever I fire my kiln, I’d like her to check this one out for size.

I smell toast and zip my bag. Delhi has been like a family reunion, and today we leave for Rajasthan to meet more cousins.

‘What did he say?’ Vicki whispers behind me.

‘Poetical Energy’ I whisper.

He apologises again for his English. We shake our heads. I don’t want him to ever stop speaking. It’s the ceramic artist Jacques Kauffman. He speaks about the poetic energy and the dream that lies within our materials. I’m nodding. His lecture is so profound I want to yell. I can feel the towers of red matka pots, mountains of chai cups, centuries of shards, even the cow dung moves me. It’s like I’m coming out of a mist. Truth doesn’t matter. Feeling matters. Christ, I’m having an epiphany, and I sense whatever I make from now on has already been conceived in this room.

I’ve reached Wooyung and I stop and stare out at the ocean. I’m not sure why, but I cry here some mornings. Maybe Colleen is right. It crowns in my throat and I cry for the family living on the traffic island, I cry for the kids in the school room that smells like shit, I cry for the tiny girl with black kohled eyes begging me to buy her dessert and I don’t, I cry for my dead Dad, I cry for the surfer who keeps washing up at my feet. I kiss him hard full of my breath, but only the sea answers back. I cry for my sins. The ocean doesn’t give a fig and strangely this comforts me.

I retrace my dissolving tracks and Ganesh considers me from my carry-on, I look up and Haripal the potter turned engineer has disappeared. The strangeness of our meeting follows me for weeks and hangs about the studio like a spirit, yet I’m grateful for the company. New works are slowly emerging although it’s like looking into a steamy mirror, and I’m worried I might frighten the ideas away if I look at them too hard. So I work quietly alongside them; stretching, rolling and shaping the clay, and maybe this material will give up its dreams to me.

I’m sprinting now along the eastern edge of the continent and the rising sun beats up my left arm. Nat bobs out the back waiting for another set. The morning walkers are approaching, so I unwind my green make-shift turban from my forehead and cover my body. We wave as we pass each other.

My hair is wet through with sweat, lactic acid is eating up my legs, and I stink something fierce. Red faced, lungs burning, I bend and untie my hot pink laces and kick off my shoes and socks. The sand is damp and cool and I hear the slap of wet fabric on the holy steps at the waters edge and the men gather to scrub their clothes. I wade out into the foam and they disappear silently beneath the surface.

I’m on a small bus leaving the holy city of Vrindavan on the Yamana River. There’s a gentle offshore blowing. My newly adopted brother is somewhere across the sea on an oil rig. Sandra turns to me. A heavily pregnant woman swims close by naked. I want to give her some space but there’s a strong rip. It’s so clean. I shake my head. Is there anything you miss? We dive under the cresting wave. So clean.

—————————————-

If you’re interested in pottery and potters, and you’re open to unique adventure and travel that sometimes takes you out of your comfort zone, then I encourage you to travel with Sandra Bowkett in February 2017. Contact Sandra and read about her tours and ongoing collaborations with Rajasthani potters through Crosshatched 123 here

You can also see the wonderful potters of Kumhaargram in this Youtube made by Sandra here

March 14, 2016 by Claire Atkins 8 Comments

Mai kumhari hu : I am a potter

My story begins at the end of my tale as I’m settling into my seat on flight SQ403 from Delhi to Singapore.

It’s almost 10 at night and although the plane is packed, for the first time in over two weeks of travel through Rajasthan with a group of potters, I feel like I’m on my own.

It appears the airline has assigned everyone’s seats, and there are families and friends who have been separated throughout the plane, and they’re not happy about it. There’s seat swapping going on everywhere. My two friends, Sue and Vicki, are also on this flight and through a stroke of luck, Sue has landed a place up front in the luxury of Business Class. Vicki’s down the back somewhere, and I’m on the wing, wondering what the flight gods have in store for me. I scan the menu card and I’m hoping I’ll score the Asian option for dinner rather than the English roast.

It’s dark outside except for the flashing lights of the ground crew manoeuvring expertly beneath my window. I slowly shuffle a small stack of potter’s business cards and ticket stubs to marble tombs and red forts that I have stuffed inside my small hand-stitched diary. I thumb its pages and open to read the scrawl from my first day in Old Delhi, and ‘an otherworldly, heaving orchestra of horns, colour, rubbish, and dust’, jumps from the page and looking across the tarmac I am thinking of the thrill of being amongst the throbbing organism that is India, and I’m aware of my privilege that allows me to leave it too.

The Singaporean stewards in their beautiful batik glide through the cabin snapping the overhead lockers shut, while the young woman assigned the seat next to me is still standing in the aisle bargaining with two men to swap with her girlfriend so that they can sit together. But neither will budge.

I ask if I can help. Would she like my seat? The deal is done.

The stewards smile, and I gather my things and move to the other side of the plane and quickly take in my new flying companions. One is already curled up in the window asleep, and the other looks up at me and we smile tilting our heads in recognition the way Indian’s do. I take the aisle seat. His name is Haripal and he’s chatty, so we start talking.

Haripal lives in Jaipur and he’s flying to Singapore on business. He’s an engineer and an advisor on off shore gas and oil rigs that are dotted throughout the oceans of the world. He’s often in Australia. Big job, I think. He asks me if I’ve been visiting his country for work or a holiday, and I explain that it’s been neither of those things really, but probably more holiday than anything, an adventure if you will, and I tell him I’ve been visiting traditional potters’ communities throughout Rajasthan.

His mouth drops open. I’m not really surprised by his reaction because potters aren’t exactly rock stars in India, but live and work among some of the poorer communities and villages.

‘Why? Why would you want to visit potters?’

I suddenly feel a little defensive, protective even and offer, ‘Well, because I’m interested in pots, and … because I am a potter.’

He’s staring right at me now and I wonder if this might be the most uncomfortable flight home that either of us will ever make.

A small smile appears at the corners of his mouth, he leans in and whispers conspiratorially,

‘I am a potter,’ and he touches his chest to make sure that I understand him, ‘I too belong to the potters caste’.

The hairs stand up on the back of my neck, I make a weird cry and clap my hands as our craft hurtles down the runway and leaps into the sky. For the next two, or three hours we trace and mark maps, and he paints for me his childhood in the village with his father and grandfather, spent making and decorating the rich earthy ‘matka’. As he tells his story I can see his family stacking the unfired earthenware directly on the ground and covering them with cow dung for firing. We talk about our firing disasters, making curd, and how a traditional village potter ever came to be an engineer advising on the oil rigs of the world.

We talk ourselves to sleep.

It’s only 2.30 in the morning but we’re woken by the stewards to straighten our seats. We circle and descend with sweeping arcs into Singapore and he reflects that it’s 30 years since he has made a pot, but he can still feel the clay, and his hands remember how to make the matka, and I nod, because I know this is true.

We’ve landed and the strangeness of our meeting hovers above us like a spirit as we fold our blankets and taxi to the terminal.

‘This is a wonderful thing that has happened,’ he says, ‘and we will never forget this…like my old village, you and I are connected in this way now.’

A sign lights up and sounds above my head, and to a chorus of seatbelts unfastening and clacking, I am adopted into the potters caste. Mai kumhari hu.

March 1, 2016 by Claire Atkins 12 Comments

Forget passion, follow your curiosity – Conjuring Big Magic & Exploding Chickens

Last year, I was listening to Richard Fidler and author Elizabeth Gilbert on the Conversation Hour, and my ears pricked up because of how she spoke about the nature of creativity, and in particular she talked about the cultivation of curiosity rather than preach a sermon on following your dreams.

Learning to crochet granny-squares, sparked an obsession crocheting sculptures in fishing line and plastics. ‘Hatch’ by Claire Atkins

Like Gilbert, I’m not a big fan of preaching on passion, not because I’m not passionate, but because I can’t pin myself down to following just one. For years I had seen this as some kind of creative fault; I’ve never neatly fit into a box that could be named. In fact, my alter-ego Pinky & Maurice, came about precisely to give my growing obsession with clay a name. It was clear after a time I had spent away from clay – directing festivals, raising small children, and crocheting plastic fishing line – that an alter-ego obsessed with making porcelain tableware was emerging, and I wasn’t sure what to do with her at the time.

An interest in porcelain could become a full blown enquiry

‘We become what we do’. This quote is attributed to everyone from Aristotle to motivational speakers; whoever said it, I don’t find it very helpful. For example, I run. I like to run at least 8 kilometres everyday, but that doesn’t necessarily make me a runner! I don’t want to be a runner, I just like to run. ‘Life isn’t a career’, Jane Campion recently said, and I find that much more helpful.

Pottering around with timber in the shed

I love pots, and I make them most days, but I’ve also been known to become completely sidetracked and engrossed by making stuff not only in other materials, but also in entirely new fields. I’m not alone in this. Following your curiosity can open up new creative possibilities and lead you into collaborating with other curious and inspiring makers.

Tristan_Bancks_Pinky_and_Maurice_ceramics_still_life

Kid’s author Tristan Bancks in my studio directing the trailer for his book ‘ My Life & Other Exploding Chickens ‘. Cross-fertilise with other artists and in new media. It’s an INSPO BOMB!

For instance, some days I’ve found myself being a film producer, or an actor playing an evil nurse, or being the Art Department on a short film making exploding chickens with rubber gloves! Sounds strangely fun, yes? You can see the results in the silly Youtube below!

An exploding chickens creative genius! Who would have thunk it?

Life isn’t a career, and as Gilbert shares on The Conversation Hour, if we’re open to curiosity, life looks more like a scavenger hunt where we follow a series of clues that spark our interest. These clues might lead to new ideas, they might even propel us toward a passion that we never knew existed. On the other hand, curiosity might take us nowhere, and we may have nothing to show for all our efforts except exploded bits of rubber glove and chicken feathers! However, for Gilbert, devotion to inquisitiveness is a worthwhile pursuit in itself. I tend to agree, and more often than not it’s strangely fun, usually because it feels more like play than work.

You can be curious anywhere

If you’re curious about curiosity, even just a little bit, and you’re open to embarking on your own creative adventures, I recommend you listen to Richard Fidler and Elizabeth Gilbert’s conversation here, or read her latest book ‘Big Magic : Creative Living Beyond Fear‘. Who knows, there could be an evil nurse waiting inside you just busting to get out! Or maybe you’ll discover that you like making pots even though you’re a film Producer … and vice versa. 😉

You can see me as Evil Head Nurse ‘Miriam Gooch’ in the silly Youtube below. It features a wonderful cast of hilarious older folks reliving their fictional mate’s escape attempt from a nursing home! All performances are improvised, none of us actors, but all keen for creative adventure.

January 11, 2016 by Claire Atkins Leave a Comment

Sweet New Year Sale at Sugarmill Studio!

Helloooo! It’s a new year, and I’m trying to get excited about getting back to work after the holidays, but the weather is too good, and I’ve become obsessed with stand-up paddle-boarding and reading. Sometimes together. I’m thinking of going pro 😉

I have very limited experience as a reading-stand-up paddle-boarder. A few hours experience to be precise. So when artists like me are fantasising about making irrational career choices like this – as if being an artist isn’t silly enough – it’s a good idea to clean up and have a studio sale! Better still, get together with a couple of your artist mates, who are also fantasising new and more irrational career choices, and have a big clean up and an even bigger studio sale!

My mate children’s illustrator, Tamsin Ainslie, pondering a career in yodelling. That’s right YODELLING!

So that’s exactly what we’re doing, and you’re invited to our SUPER SWEET bigger than Ben-Hur studio sale at Tamsin’s funky new gallery, Sugarmill Studio, at 4/15 Commercial Rd, Murwillumbah, NSW. You’ll find samples, seconds, one-offs, discontinued and limited edition pieces by local artists including Olive and The Volcano Letterpress, Blu Byron, Tamsin Ainslie and Pinky and Maurice. The sale opens TOMORROW, Tuesday 12 January until Saturday 16 January! Trading hours 10am – 4pm. Enquiries call Tamsin 0408442274

Sugarmill_sale_illustrations_Tamsin Ainslie

We’ve cleared out the studio drawers and dusted off the shelves to make room for new ideas, characters and forms. Beautiful paintings and illustrations by Tamsin Ainslie.

sugarmill_studio_pinky_and_maurice_ceramics_tamsin_ainslie_illustration

Handmade porcelain by Pinky & Maurice, you’ll find seconds, samples and discontinued lines at cost price.

We are all Corals Now | Necklaces by Pinky & Maurice Contemporary Ceramics

Dreamy porcelain necklaces were $105 now $85, only 2 in stock

Our handmade porcelain spoons, were $15 now $6 each! For this week only.

sugarmill_window_illustration_tamsin_ainslie

A flying Whatsa-ma-doodle by Tamsin Ainslie

…and that’s just for starters, there’s even more craziness in store! See you this week at Sugarmill Studio!

November 19, 2015 by Claire Atkins Leave a Comment

All Fired Up!

I’m all fired up about the inspiring schedule Hillary Kane has created for the culinary clay workshop, ‘Food Meets Plate’, happening May 15 – 28 at Gaya Ceramic Art Centre, in Bali!

Places have been quickly snapped up by a diverse group of foodies and clay enthusiasts from around the globe. There is ONE place remaining in this workshop.

If you would like to join us, click here for workshop fees and secure your place.

Now, dear reader, get set to feast your imagination!

DAY 1 : Welcome Dinner : MOKSA restaurant

15 May 2016: Sunday evening

A sumptuous evening where we will sink our teeth into the culinary genius of Chef Madé Runatha, and the concept, framework, and assignment at hand for the next two weeks. Hillary Kane, our workshop host, will set the stage, sharing imagery and ideas to get our creative juices flowing. Chef Madé will set the menu that will keep mouths watering until the last supper…

DAY 2 : Inspiring Reference Materials : Gaya Ceramic and Design

16 May: Monday

We spend the morning touring through Gaya Ceramic and Design’s archives of over 30,000 production samples and countless trial pieces. The morning includes a special session with Michela Foppiani, Creative Director at Gaya Ceramic and Design, on selecting a look, constructing a setting, innovation and practicality.

Showcasing: Janice Wong collection, Ritz Hong Kong, and Maldives project.

Lunch and the afternoon will see us back at Gaya Ceramic Arts Centre settling in and getting hands into clay.

Demonstrations today include: basics on throwing bowls, plates and repetitive shapes.

DAY 3 : Natural Containers : Gaya Ceramic Art Centre

17 May: Tuesday

Jajan, banten, woven boxes, offering pedestals and bungkus – today we take a lead from the richness of natural disposable samples still used here in Bali, we will study a wide variety of examples, looking for design ideas and local inspiration.

Showcasing: Megumi Naitoh

Demonstrations today include: stretching textured slabs, folding and assembling slab forms and two part throwing.

Lunch at the studio, family style, catered by the incredible Dayu.

DAY 4 : Spices from the Spice Islands : Warung Mendez

18 May: Wednesday

Think Bumbu (spice pastes), iconic spice blends and individual raw ingredients. We’ll get to know the essential ulek (mortar and pestle) and burst the magical flavours from the archipelago with talented local chef Mendez.

Cooking preparation and lunch with the chef at his titular restaurant, Warung Mendez.

Demonstrations today include: double-walled bowls, throwing off the hump, fascination with faceting.

DAY 5 : Homage to the Coconut : Mary Jane Edleson

19 May: Thursday

Pulling out all the stops, long-time Bali resident, culinary curator, and extraordinary cook, Mary Edleson, will share with us about one of the three main food stays on the island, the humble coconut. From trunk to fruit, furniture to table, texture to taste buds, this will be an unforgettable tribute to this favorite of Indonesia’s food groups!

Demonstrations today : tba

DAY 6 : Sumptuous Surfaces : Gaya Ceramic Art Centre

20 May: Friday

We’ll take an early morning rice field stroll (8:15am) from the studio: for a discussion of traditional Subak culture, lore, nature, and nuance, then translated into a full spectrum study of surfaces.

Varied demonstrations: including rice hull slip, sgrafitto, carved surfaces, water etching, brush work (other wet to bone dry possibilities)

Lunch in studio, family style catered by Dayu.

DAY 7 : Just Desserts : Will Goldfarb

21 May: Saturday

We’ll spend the morning finishing pre-bisque pieces. Notes on trimming: foot, foots, no foot, feet using a variety of tools. Notes on assembling: secure slips, wrapping portions for even drying, lid fit, knobs.

Light lunch in the studio, catered by Dayu.

A talk with world renowned dessert chef about his unique choices of serving vessels for each of his equally unique creations and working out his ideas in clay. From food to plate or plate to food? Response from clientele, future ideas? Desserts in time for tea.

Bisque kiln loaded. Begin firing

DAY 8 : A DAY OF LEISURE

22 May: Sunday

Bisque kiln firing

DAY 9 : The Fabric of Glaze : Pak Cok Batik studio

23 May: Monday

Pattern, color, wax resist, layering, complexity vs simplicity – choices!

A morning visit to all natural indigo and plant dye batik studio, leading into glazing demonstrations. Tips for successful surfaces (esp. with our glazes), dipping, pouring, spraying, gradients, resists, pencils, over glaze marks, distressing surfaces, brush work, stilting, bare.

DAY 10 : Glaze Days : Gaya Ceramic Art Centre

24 May: Tuesday

All day focus on getting our pieces touched to their last perfection before sending them off to the kiln Gods.

High Fire Kiln Loaded. Begin firing

DAY 11 : A Village in Bali : Jangkahan

25 May: Wednesday

A day of cooking, culture, and collaboration, Bali-style. An opportunity to really look outside the tourist guidebook as we are welcomed to the traditional village home of Hillary’s Balinese husband. I Madé Janur Yasa’s mother and sister will guide us in the preparation and presentation of several of Bali’s celebratory and delicious dishes.

Cone 10 firing

DAY 12 : Master Chef Class : Chef Madé Runatha

26 May: Thursday

Morning cooking class of another class: Chef Madé pulls out all the stops and ushers us into his world of exquisite raw, vegan, and vegetarian that will turn even the most staunch meat-eater is his tracks!

Afternoon, unloading the kiln with baited breath. Time to take care of any post-firing attention to details needed.

DAY 13 : Manifested Meal : MOKSA

27 May: Friday

(Optional attendance to some of Ubud Food Festival’s morning and afternoon activities or free time until evening)

An evening on show: tonight is the culmination of our creative act: a public viewing and private dinner on our wares at MOKSA restaurant.

(Pre-event discussion with professional food stylist, Jacqui Hudson tbc)

DAY 14 : Concluding Discussion : Gaya Ceramic Art Centre

28 May: Saturday

Works gathered and returned to the studio by 10am.

A final group gathering to sum up the experience; packing of treasures; a last early lunch together. Finish by 12noon.

To be part of this incredible experience, click here for workshop and booking details, or contact Claire Atkins +61 0420986570 or sales@pinkyandmaurice.com

October 13, 2015 by Claire Atkins 2 Comments

Island Idyll

For centuries, islands have captured our imaginations, they are magical places inhabited by mermaids, pirates, fairies, and more recently – much to the delight of my two sons – they are the petri dish of mad geneticists and their dinosaurs!

For many years, I lived on an island north of Sydney. Island living is every bit as idyllic as you imagine. However, I discovered that it was not just the physical beauty of the island that inspired me, but equally it was the challenges we each faced, that inspired creative thinking and helped shape a diverse, vibrant, and resilient community.

Today’s post is the final in my Bali series, and I’m talking to Janet DeNeefe, long time islander, internationally renowned restaurateur, writer, festival director and, one time student of ceramics 😉

30 years ago, Janet left Australia, the world’s largest island, and fell in love with a man named Ketut. She also fell for Bali, his island home, in the magical archipelago of Indonesia.

The island has proved fertile ground for Janet’s imagination and has inspired a highly successful cooking school, restaurants, guesthouses and bars including; Casa Luna, Indus, Honeymoon Guest House, and three best selling books, Fragrant Rice, Bali.The Food of My Island Home, and To Stir With Love.

However, it was during the wake of the devastating Bali bombings that Janet was inspired to invite writers from around the globe to stare down terrorism with poetry and bring about healing to the island community. Now in its 11th year, The Ubud Writers and Readers Festival has become the largest and most prestigious literary gathering in South-East Asia.

It is with great excitement that I’m talking with Janet today, and I’m thrilled that my ‘Food Meets Plate’ workshop participants will be part of a final celebration meal in Janet’s latest project, The Ubud Food Festival!

Claire Atkins: Welcome Janet! Wow, what a story! How did you come to live in Bali?

Janet DeNeefe: I first visited Bali with my family in 1975 when I was just fifteen years old. I was overwhelmed by the sights, sounds and smells and I instantly felt that it was the beginning of a much bigger journey.

I returned ten years later and I never really left! My Balinese husband, Ketut and I, now have two restaurants, a guesthouse, a cooking school and, of course, the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival, Bali Emerging Writers Festival and the Ubud Food Festival. Our kids were born and raised here and Bali really is my island home.

You’ve been in Bali for 30 years now, in that time you must have seen some incredible changes on the island, can you paint us a picture of what your early years were like?

When I first arrived in Ubud, it was common to see more people, chickens and pigs on the main street than cars or motorbikes. Ubud was like an overgrown tropical jungle and afternoons were “mandi” time with peak hour river action happening up stream and down stream. Electricity was only just coming in and kerosene lamps were the main source of evening light. I have an old photo of my sister and I walking on the track just past where Indus is now and you can see how simple life was back then. And yes, the island has changed, but any dynamic, creative culture always moves with the times. Ubud has managed to retain it’s mysterious beauty and charm. Thirty years on, I’m still discovering pockets of the unexpected.

If I look back 30 years, I notice how much our approach to cooking has changed in Australia. Aussie meal times have undoubtedly benefited from immigration and the wonderful diversity it brings to communities. In what ways do you infuse your own cultural heritage with Balinese cuisine? And how has a life in Bali changed and shaped your cooking?

Food and cooking has been a part of my family for generations; my aunty Helen wrote a food column in the Sydney Morning Herald in the 70s and my Maltese grandmother had this prolific vegetable garden with everything from chickens to fruit trees. How we cook is such a reflection of who we are as a person, our cultural heritage, so of course this background has influenced my food. I cook a lot of Balinese food for the family in Melbourne or sometimes make pavlovas or roast dinners for special occasions. I add a dose of my knowledge of spices and flavours into everything I make. I add tamarind to gravy sauces and chilli and palm sugar to just about everything too. I especially love travelling across Indonesia and other parts of the world sampling new and exciting foods and then bringing back my own version to add to the menus of Indus and Casa Luna.

I remember a few years ago salivating from the couch watching Rick Stein’s ‘South East Asian Food Odyssey’, and I think he was tucking into some beautiful fragrant rice when he said that this was his idea of ‘Bali on a plate’. Is there a local dish that encapsulates Bali for you?

There’s too many to choose from! And it depends what sort of Bali we are talking about; ceremonial or home-cooking. I love Smoked Duck and the multi-levelled elegance of melt-in-your mouth duck cooked together with a serious amount of spices. I am also crazy about Jackfruit, cooked Balinese-style. To me Jackfruit curry just about embodies the character of the Balinese; the humility and down-to-earth goodness that you can’t help by love!

At the conclusion of our ceramics workshop ‘Food Meets Plate’, participants will ‘exhibit’ their ceramics in a final feast at one of Ubud’s new restaurants during the Ubud Food Festival. You also studied ceramics, in what ways do you think good ceramics can enhance a good dish?

Food has evolved so much over the past two decades – and, more than ever, presentation has become an ever-growing important part of the culinary process. I love the new irregular, zen-like pottery styles appearing in restaurants these days. They are refreshingly charming, organic-looking and modern. It reminds me of my ceramic making days when I had to battle with our lecturer because I refused to make my bowls perfect. I don’t think my grades were very good because of this whereas now it’s all the rage. These days food looks like an absolute fashion statement and fabulous plates make a huge difference.

Finally, do you have a favourite local recipe you can share with us?

PEPESAN IKAN Grilled Fish in Banana leaves

Fragrant gingers, chilli and fresh fish are wrapped together and grilled over hot, coconut coals. The result is a deliciously golden and healthy meal. Use parchment paper if banana leaves are not available and barbeque your fish or grill in the oven in the absence of hot coconut coals. This dish is absolutely drop dead delicious. I promise you will love it!

SERVES: 4 – 8

600 gms.(18oz.) fish

banana leaves

4 shredded lime leaves

salam leaves for each parcel

SPICES:

6 garlic

3 shallots

2 tomatoes

1tsp sea salt

3 candlenut

2 stalks of lemongrass

1/4 tsp shrimp paste

1 tsp coriander seeds

2 tsp tamarind

3 large red chilli

2-4 small chilli

3 tbs fresh galangal

1 tbs fresh turmeric 2 tsp ginger

3 tsp palm sugar

3 tbs oil

Grind the spices with some water if necessary in a mortar and pestle or blend in the container of a food processor until you have a fragrant, golden yellow paste, flecked with chilli and tomato skin. Chop the fish into fat chunks, roughly 4cm x 4cm or leave whole if you prefer. Shred the lime leaves. Mix thoroughly with the spice paste, oil and fish. Cut the banana leaves into rectangles roughly the size of a standard envelope. Wrap the fish in one or two layers of banana leaves, with a salam leaf underneath. Roll over and secure the ends with a toothpick or tie with string. Grill, steam or barbecue the fish for five minutes or until cooked. Serve with steamed rice and kangkung pelecing.

Thank you for sharing your inspiring, mouth-watering story with us today Janet!

I hope this blog series from Bali has left you feeling inspired to embark on new creative adventures.

I’m thrilled to say that our workshop, ‘Food Meets Plate’ at Gaya Ceramic Arts Centre in May 2016 is almost full! There are places still available, and I would love you to join us. Click the link and head over to the workshop page now for full details and exclusive Early Bird specials when you book through me.

October 6, 2015 by Claire Atkins Leave a Comment

Spice Up Your Art Life!

In May 2016, I’m leading a group to be part of an inspiring workshop ‘Food Meets Plate’, at Gaya Ceramic Arts Centre in Ubud, Bali.

Hosted by American potter Hillary Kane, it will be a South East Asian odyssey for clay lovers and food enthusiasts, that is set to enliven your senses and spice up your creative practice!

If you’re just tuning in, catch up on my conversations with our workshop host Hillary Kane, here, and with Bruce McWhinney, Australian potter and the creator of our inspiring Ubud accommodation here.

Today I caught up with ceramic artist Vicki Grima, who has attended three workshops at Gaya!

Vicki Grima is a tour-de force, and for the last ten years she has managed to squeeze her ceramics practice between demanding positions as Editor of The Journal of Australian Ceramics and Executive Officer of The Australian Ceramics Association.

In these roles she shines a bright spotlight on the diversity of contemporary Australian ceramics and shares it with a global audience daily. She says however, the occasions are rare when she can spend time in her peaceful Sydney studio, so you can imagine, that going on retreat and filling up the creative well is an important part of Vicki’s calendar.

‘…my times in Bali have been an indulgence in what I love most – to sit with a ball of clay ; no rush, no pressure, just me and the clay…’ Vicki Grima

Claire Atkins: Thank you for joining me here Vicki!

Recently I’ve been speaking with artists on the blog about the workshop ‘Food Meets Plate’ at Gaya Ceramic Arts Centre, and for each artist, travel impacts in various ways on their creativity. In what ways does travel affect you creatively?

Vicki Grima: Travel brings new colours, textures, smells and tastes into my world… an abrupt disruption to my normal day-to-day pattern. I love visiting new places and seeing how lives are lived on a daily basis – how people shop, cook, and move in their landscape. Architecture too is a fascination for me.

‘The workshops at Gaya are about exploring the unknown, being creative and learning new skills…’ Vicki Grima

You have been to three workshops at Gaya! What is it that keeps calling you back?

My first visit to Bali and Gaya Ceramic Art Centre came through an invitation from Gaya CAC for me to gather a group of potters together. I had never been to Bali, so it was a perfect opportunity for me personally to explore a new place.

I recall choosing the ‘Culinary Clay’ workshop as I thought there could be no better way to immerse myself in Bali than to explore two of my passions – clay and food – in this place I had heard so much about.

Between visiting the local food markets at dawn, to joining local families in their home kitchens, and tasting food that was cooked using a wide array of spices and herbs new to us, we also made pots inspired by the fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices.

It was a vibrant, diverse and exciting experience, so much so that I have returned twice more. My second and third trips were to explore woodfiring, another of Gaya CAC’s creative offerings.

My own ceramics practice of making small pinch pots has been enhanced by workshops at Gaya. It allowed me to use different clay bodies and fire with local timbers in an anagama kiln, whilst also being inspired by the multitude of rich patterns and textures in the surrounding landscape.

I have a busy job as editor of The Journal of Australian Ceramics, and it means my studio practice has suffered, so my times in Bali have been an indulgence in what I love most – to sit with a ball of clay; no rush, no pressure, just me and the clay. The people, the food, the culture and the landscapes are unique and I love it.

Gaya’s May 2016 workshop, ‘Food Meets Plate’ focuses on the relationship between food and handmade ceramics. ‘Culinary Clay’ shared a similar focus, from that experience, who do you think would suit this workshop?

The workshop is suited to those with a passion for food and clay, together with an inquisitiveness to explore the connections between the two.

The knowledgeable team at Gaya cater for all levels of ceramics experience from beginners to more advanced in a gorgeous handbuilt workshop space. With a local cook preparing the daily lunches the immersion in clay and food is complete in every sense. Workshops are about exploring the unknown, being creative and learning new skills.

That is all possible at Gaya.

‘The workshop is suited to those with a passion for food and clay, together with an inquisitiveness to explore the connections between the two…’ Vicki Grima

Curious? Inspired? I am! There are still places available in this workshop, and I would love you to join me!

Click the link and head over to the workshop page now for full details and exclusive Early Bird specials when you book through me.

Meanwhile, stay tuned for next week’s delicious blog offering!

September 29, 2015 by Claire Atkins Leave a Comment

An Art Villa in Ubud

I’m leading a group to Ubud in May 2016, for the clay-bending-mouth-watering workshop, ‘Food Meets Plate’ at Gaya Ceramic Art Centre. This month we’re meeting some of the inspiring artists whose knowledge and vision will turn our time in Bali from a trip into a transformative experience.

Last week I spoke to our workshop host Hillary Kane, and if you’re just joining us, catch up on our conversation Creative Callings.

This week we’re checking out the workshop accommodation, at the inspiring, art-filled guest house ‘Ubud ArtVilla‘, owned by Australian ceramic artist Bruce McWhinney.

Ubud ArtVilla at night

Bruce McWhinney is an Australian artist with over 30 years experience in ceramics. Nature and travel have been the main inspiration for his work; be it wood fired ceramics, sculpture, painting or drawing.

I met Bruce about 15 years ago when I was a student at Brookvale TAFE, where Bruce and a group of exceptional designers and potters were building a dynamic ceramics department on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. Brookvale TAFE continues to thrive, and while Bruce is as passionate as ever about Australian Arts education, his vision now incorporates a much wider classroom that includes building creative communities in other parts of the world…and Bruce is literally building them.

Stunning garden design links sculptures and architecture throughout the villa

One such project is Ubud ArtVilla, a unique guesthouse in the quiet hamlet of Penestanan, just minutes from the bustling town of Ubud.

Here the concept is to infuse hospitality with Bruce’s long time love for Balinese arts and culture. In this place each day, guests soak up stunning architectural design, idyllic gardens, wood fired ceramics, paintings, drawings, and sculptures at every turn.

ArtVilla is managed and operated by Wayan Suparta and his family, who bring local knowledge and Balinese custom to every moment, enabling guests to discover the real traditions and culture of Bali during their stay. ArtVilla is the perfect place for anyone who is seeking to revitalise or woo their inner artist, and for two weeks in May 2016, Ubud ArtVilla will be home-sweet-home for ‘Food Meets Plate’ workshop participants.

Ubud ArtVilla’s lap pool looks out to Mt Agung

Claire Atkins: Hi Bruce! I had the pleasure of staying at Ubud ArtVilla last year while I attended a workshop at Gaya. I have to say, that living with and using your woodfired ceramics every day was one of the best parts about staying at ArtVilla. Each morning, breakfast was served on stunning ceramic pieces that quietly called for our consideration. Do you think that living with handmade ceramics affects us?

Bruce McWhinney: Woodfired ceramics for me is the ultimate expression of working with clay and fire. The spontaneous effects coming from the fire on each piece is quite individual and embue the work with a human warmth that makes using it a daily joy. What I love most is that I never tire of the work and it keeps me captivated by the evidence of nature.

Bruce McWhinney ceramics

Can you describe your design process, and is your approach different when you’re making ceramic pieces intended for food?

Making tableware is very much about understanding the function of each piece. One can only be a good functional potter if they use their work and learn what makes it a pleasure to use and live with. After decades of making ceramics, my forms have been pared right back to the simplest possible. This allows space for the fire to complete the piece and also gives a calm reassuring presence about them. Teapots must pour, cups must be easy to hold with a lip that feels good up against one’s mouth, and plates should provide a smooth finish. Having said that, while I strive to give the most, it often takes time to appreciate what is there in each piece. But so it is in life and art.

Traditional ‘Bali kopi’ served in Bruce’s woodfired ceramics, is a daily ritual at Ubud ArtVilla

You divide your year working and living in Australia and Bali, with residencies throughout the world thrown in! How has travel, and living so intimately with the Balinese impacted your own art practice?

This is a big question. Bali has provided a cultural retreat where I can make work and share it with people from all around the world. My aim in building the ArtVilla was to create a place where people could experience living with hand made things and discover the joys of using wood-fired ceramics. Bali has taught me patience, detachment and to see the funny side of life. Things do not always go according to plan but the caring nature of the Balinese makes it all worthwhile. Travel is a passion but being able to work in different places makes it immensely more rewarding. When doing residencies one is privileged to experience life as an insider. I get to know people over a longer period, and hopefully share our different experiences of the world. Sightseeing is fun but it doesn’t sustain me in the same way.

Bruce in the studio

What do you hope your guests will experience at Ubud Art Villa?

What I would hope for is that people coming to ArtVilla would experience Bali from the inside. Connecting to the culture and traditions of Bali is made easy through Wayan and his family who staff ArtVilla. Combine that with the joy of making pots at Gaya, and discovering the local food and gastronomy would be a great thing. But, staying at ArtVilla would also mean extending the experience by using, learning about, and living with woodfired ceramics every day.

Thank you so much for joining us Bruce.

So, what do you think?! Will you join us? Visit the workshop page now for Early Bird fees, Ubud ArtVilla accommodation, and booking details. Private room options at ArtVilla and Art Manor are limited, so please don’t delay in contacting me to secure your place as bookings are rolling in!

Be sure to join me next week when I’m talking food and Bali with the indefatigable Janet De Neefe! Janet is the founder and Director of the Ubud Food Festival, the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival, she’s also an author, a mother of four children, aaaand the owner of some of Ubud’s best restaurants and bars!

September 22, 2015 by Claire Atkins 2 Comments

Creative Callings

Many of us spend our days alone in a studio, and as much as we relish the solitude and energy of our own creative spaces, many artists, writers and thinkers have long felt the creative benefits of travel. Simply placing yourself in a new setting can be enough to give you a creative boost. Even neuroscientists examining our grey matter have concluded that new sounds, smells, language, tastes, sensations and sights, spark different synapses in the brain and have the potential to completely revitalize the mind.

Last year I was part of a wood-firing workshop at the Gaya Ceramics and Art Center in Ubud, Bali. For two weeks we immersed ourselves in Balinese culture and worked intensely to produce enough pots to fill a fire-breathing dragon, and the results were like nothing we had ever made before.

Gyan_Wall_and_Hillary_Kane_pack_Bali_Gama

Gyan Wall and Hillary Kane pack the ‘Baligama’ – our fire breathing dragon

Next year I’m off to Gaya again, but this time I’d like you to come with me. From 15-28 May, 2016, I’ll lead a small group of clay enthusiasts to be part of ‘Food Meets Plate’, a workshop that will inspire any clay-lover with an interest in the intimate relationship between food and the vessel. The two-week workshop will culminate in a feast of the senses at Ubud’s International Food Festival! Tempted? Yes, much? Read on!

First, let me introduce you to Hillary Kane, Director of Gaya Ceramics and Art Centre and our inspiring workshop host.

Hillary Kane

Hillary Kane is a potter, painter, teacher, mother, and nomad. Travel and work has led her to claim residence in several continents and innumerable countries. Inevitably, the artistic culture of each has imparted an indelible influence upon her work and continues to be an endless source of inspiration. Educated in the United States and France, she now lives in Bali with her husband and her twin daughters.

Claire Atkins: Hillary, you have such a great personal story and you really pack it in, when I met you last year I thought, what the hell have I been doing with my time? Tell me, how did a young American woman come to live, launch and direct a thriving art centre in Bali?

Hillary Kane: Seven years ago, I took a leap of faith and headed off from a tiny mountain town in the American south-west to Japan to follow my aesthetic calling in Ceramics. At the time, I would never have imagined that it would lead to establishing the Gaya Ceramic Arts Centre (GCAC) and a life thoroughly settled in Bali.

However, my airline ticket was very deliberately one-way. I was ready to welcome the signs and serendipities as they came, and I found myself departing Japan after two months, swollen with inspiration, yet venturing toward another opportunity and another culture altogether. I set foot in Bali aiming to spend a year teaching, when unexpectedly another door opened at Gaya Ceramic and Design. From the moment I met the studio crew and the effusively generous Italian founders (both ceramic artists themselves), I knew the connection was a strong one. Within a year, together we were dreaming up an educational branch of their already well-established production studio. After a brief residency back in Japan, I returned again to Bali to build my first Anagama and to launch the arts centre.

The GCAC studio was built a couple of years after, and now, four years, five kilns, a Balinese husband, twin 3-year-old girls, a house and a thriving workshop later, it really feels the Gods of this island have led me here for a reason.

Looking out to the garden from the Gaya studio

What happens at the Gaya Ceramics and Art Centre?

Gaya Ceramic comprises a large production studio employing around 70 people who produce exquisite ceramic ware for top clients the world over, and across the street is the Ceramic Arts Centre, which is dedicated to education in clay. There is always a lot happening at Gaya, it’s a continual cross-pollination and collaboration. At the Arts Centre itself, we fill the year with two-week workshops, two-month artist residencies, exhibitions, and a variety of weekly and private classes tailored to community needs. Each year concludes with an Empty Bowls fundraiser and Open Studio event. In between all of this are the endless activities of our own staff (who, one and all, get their hands in clay!).

Looking into Gaya Studio from the garden

Why should someone travel half way across the world to make a pot or fire a kiln?

At Gaya, we believe that setting is everything, and that for many artists, the opportunity to immerse themselves in a different world, even for only two weeks, encourages growth, self-reflection, and a willingness to take the next step in their own work. When an artist is encouraged by a master ceramicist and surrounded by similarly enthusiastic participants, a workshop is an incredible time and place for development. Even for those not physically traveling so far to come here, Gaya studio stands as a sanctuary for transformation: earth into Art, self into Self.

Hillary and workshop student

Have you witnessed this kind of creative transformation and renewal at Gaya?

Catapulting one’s artistic self into an entirely new atmosphere foments intense creative inspiration. I see this throughout the year at Gaya especially with our resident artists. Three to four times per year, we host professional ceramic artists from around the world for a two-month residency program. There is no prerequisite of what each should make or spend their time doing. It has been an incredible experience to witness each resident take in, digest and respond to all the new stimuli of Bali. For some, inspiration taps from the intricacies of a cultural philosophy so different from their own, for others, from the visual explosion of a tropical ambient, some are more self-probing and introspective about identity and place in the world, others simply allow the remove from their familiar to generate great emotion, allowing it to well up and surface through their works.

One resident artist recently said: ‘It was as if I was just supposed to be here; one bit of visual information, one cue from the culture, one conversation just falling into place and leading me into the pieces I have created.’ Another was shocked at her proficiency, having come to Gaya with an intention to build rather abstract geometric forms, she gave in to an unexpectedly arisen urge to build figurative sculpture entirely dedicated to the pure emotion of parenting. It was the first extended journey she had ever made away from her early-teen children. For each, creating in this oasis of newness amounts to a unique, and utterly inspired experience.

‘For some, inspiration taps from the intricacies of a cultural philosophy… for others, from the visual explosion of a tropical ambient…’ Photo Vicki Grima

Let’s talk about the upcoming workshop ‘Food Meets Plate’, what are your thoughts about the relationship between ceramics and food?

This obvious stage of interaction is one that has endlessly offered inspiration to clay artists, and yet the question remains ever unanswered, ever re-interpretable. We have run this workshop theme twice as ‘Culinary Clay’ at Gaya – both times amazing, each time improving the experience upon the last. And what better theatre to ask clay artists to perform upon than one with the heady, aromatic, gorgeous and thoroughly tropical ambient of Indonesian cuisine?

What can participants expect from this workshop?

These two intense weeks will endeavor to inspire the contemplation of the intimate relationship between food and the vessel in which it is presented – in this specific setting upon the enriching and verdant Indonesian island of Bali and in the “foodie” paradise of Ubud. We will have inimitable opportunities to meet with, learn from, and sample the genius of many local chefs who will unveil some of the cultural and gastronomic complexities of the archipelago, encouraging expansion not only of taste buds, but also conceptual perspective of the more formal design considerations of shape, texture, colour, and scale; where the food meets the plate.

In our final ‘Manifested Meal’ we will have at last a chance to display our inspired vessels in an exhibition/feast in one of Ubud’s fabulous new restaurant venues. Timed to coordinate with Ubud’s second annual Food Festival, our finale will be on display for the public to contemplate the fruit of our labors, and to feast their eyes upon the inspiration two weeks have manifested– though the participant group will privately enjoy the meal set upon their unique vessels!

Who should come, and will the workshop suit all skill levels?

This workshop is suitable for any level of experience in clay. While beginners may be focusing on honing their skills at throwing more traditional dinner ware, more advanced ceramicists may find this an ideal opportunity to break outside their own ‘box’ to experiment widely and discover something fantastically new. This has worked to the advantage of all in the past – veteran clay artists inspiring for and inspired by those newer to clay alike. All participants will be encouraged to explore and will be supported technically, and otherwise by the Gaya studio team.

l to r : Claire Atkins aka Pinky & Maurice, Sue McGuinn and Vicki Grima, HOT AS HECK stoking team

What else can workshop participants look forward to while we’re in Bali?

This particular workshop will be packed with explorations of everything culinary – and in Ubud, Bali, that could last a lifetime – but we will also have the opportunity to peek into some of the intricate and fascinating local ceremonial and artisanal culture, Ubud’s endless boutiques and throbbing nightlife (for such a small town!).

Thank you so much for chatting with us today Hillary, I can’t wait to see you and the Gaya crew in May!

If you would like to join Hillary and me for this incredible workshop and cultural experience, head to the workshop page now for Early Bird fees and details about securing your place. If you need more convincing, visit the blog next week when I speak to Bruce McWhinney, celebrated Australian wood-firing artist and the creator of the inspired guest house ‘Ubud ArtVilla‘, our workshop accommodation.

September 12, 2015 by Claire Atkins Leave a Comment

A Creative Base in Byron Bay

Last week I had the humungous pleasure of attending the opening night of Creative Base, an inspiring new initiative in Byron Bay, dreamed into reality by textile artist Carla Dawes.

Located in the Byron Arts and Industry Estate, Creative Base is a contemporary light-filled workshop and studio dedicated to providing a space for arts and crafts people to share their passion and skills.

The space will be a permanent home for Carla to create for her successful homeware brand Bubbles At The Head, and a workshop environment that invites the curious to play, learn new skills and connect with makers of all kinds.

Carla and her Creative Base co-conspirator, artist Susie Duggin, are offering a range of workshops designed to unleash creativity and grow creative communities, with workshops available in print-making, embroidery, book-binding, photography and lots in between! The dynamic duo also invite artists and tutors to get in touch about hiring the studio to host their own creative workshops.

Creative Base is located at 2/58 Centennial Circuit, Byron Bay. Enquiries contact info@creativebase.com.au or phone Carla 0438470230 and Susie 0438343292

‘Creative Base’ Opening Night : we enjoyed catering by ‘100 Mile Table’ & champagne service with ‘The Canavan’, while the evening was beautifully captured in photography by ‘Down Bangalow Road’