Australian Flora Ceramics: New Work from Kiama

There is a new group of Australian flora ceramics out of the Kiama studio, and it is the most focused run of work Frances Smith has put together so far. Three series, one subject, and a deliberate decision to stay with native plants rather than range around.

The Endangered series

The piece in the photograph is the Phillip Island Hibiscus vessel. The series takes plants that are listed as threatened and puts them on vessels large enough that you cannot easily ignore them. It is not a subtle idea and it is not meant to be.

Each vessel carries one plant. The drawing is done at the leather hard stage, cut into the surface rather than painted on, so the pattern survives the glaze instead of sitting on top of it. That is slower and it means a mistake cannot be wiped off. It also means the plant is part of the pot rather than a decoration applied to it.

Why this subject

Ceramics holds a record for a very long time. Putting a threatened plant onto a fired vessel is a straightforward way of keeping a record of it. The Australian National Botanic Gardens holds the reference material these drawings are worked from, and getting the botany right matters to the work.

Bush Tucker vessels

The second group of Australian flora ceramics is more cheerful. The Bush Tucker vessels take native food plants as their subject, with jugs built around quandong, wattle and chocolate lily. They are functional pieces and they are meant to be used, which is why they are glazed inside and finished plainly on the foot.

The quandong jug has been the most asked about. Quandong is a desert peach with a bright red fruit, and getting that red to fire true took a long run of test tiles. Reds are the most difficult colour in ceramics. They burn out at high temperatures and go brown, so the whole piece has to be built around what the red needs rather than the other way round.

Gold lustre and the Gymea Lily

The third group is the gold work. The Gymea Lily vessels and the Golden Hydrangea pieces all take a third firing for the lustre, at a much lower temperature than the glaze underneath.

Gold lustre is unforgiving. It goes on as a thin brown liquid that gives no clue what it will look like, and it cannot be corrected once fired. A wobble in a line stays a wobble. The upside is that nothing else gives that quality of light, and on a deep glaze it reads as genuinely metallic rather than painted.

Availability of the Australian flora ceramics

Pieces from all three series are listed now. Because each vessel is individually made, there are no repeats. When a piece sells it is gone, and the closest you will get is another from the same series with its own drawing.

The full range is on the Frances Smith profile, with dimensions and prices on each piece. If you want to see how this sits alongside other Australian makers, the artist directory is the place to browse.

How the pieces are built

All of this work is wheel thrown and then altered by hand, which is why no two vessels in a series are the same height. A thrown form is trued up on the wheel and then pushed, carved or beaded while it is still soft enough to move. That window is short. Once the clay passes leather hard, the decision is made.

The drawing is the slowest part. A single Endangered vessel carries one plant worked around most of its circumference, cut line by line with a fine tool. There is no undo. A slip means the piece either becomes something else or goes back in the reclaim bucket.

Firing schedule

Everything goes through a bisque firing first, then a glaze firing, and the gold pieces go through a third. Three firings is three chances to lose a piece that already holds a week of work. The survival rate on the larger vessels is noticeably lower than on the small ones, which is why size moves the price so much in australian flora ceramics.

What is next

There is a run of lamps in progress using the same native flora drawings, which brings the pattern work onto a form that has to function as well as look right. Those will be listed as they come out of the kiln.

Anyone who follows Australian flora ceramics will know that this subject can slide into souvenir territory very quickly. The intention with this work is the opposite. The plants are drawn accurately, the vessels are built properly, and the pieces are meant to last long enough to be worth handing on.