August 12, 2024 • 24 mins
Aleshia Webster shares her inspiring journey to becoming a full-time ceramic artist, opening her first studio in Nuriootpa, and later moving to Heinze Road.
Discover the transformation of her passion into a thriving business, the challenges she faced, and the community she built through her pottery classes. Aleshia delves into the meditative and therapeutic aspects of working with clay, her artistic evolution, and the importance of supporting local businesses.
Explore the Barossa's rich heritage and the growing arts community, and learn about Aleshia’s vision for the future of regional arts. This episode is a celebration of creativity, resilience, and the power of following one's passion.
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Episode Transcript
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(01:05):
To Season 3, Episode 4 of the Barossa Podcast.
My name is Rebecca Reynolds. I'm sitting here today with Alicia Webster on Nga
Djeri Country in her beautiful Goldie and the Earth studio at Wonderground on
Heinze Road. Hello, Alicia. Hi.
Thank you so much for talking with me today. I'm so excited to be in this beautiful studio.
(01:28):
I think the first time that I heard of your your little pottery and ceramic
studio is when you had a little studio in Yuripa. Yes, my baby first studio.
And I would quite often walk past the main street, like walk down the main street
on my way to get a coffee and go, wonder what on earth is going in there.
And I heard all these lovely stories about what you were doing there.
(01:52):
And then I was so surprised and also delighted to find that your studio had moved out to Patsy Road.
Big move. Big move. So Alicia, I'd just love to hear a little bit about your story.
So just let's go right back to the beginning. How did you end up with a studio in Europa?
So I am not from like an arts background or anything like that.
(02:18):
And I was working just a regular like admin job that I didn't really love.
And I picked up ceramics as a hobby. and I had dabbled in like arts and ceramics
in like previous years but in 2022 I picked it up as my my full-time hobby yeah
so I really quickly gravitate towards ceramics and I set up a little home studio and.
(02:45):
That's all it's supposed to be is just a hobby outside of work
yeah and then end of 2022 rolls
around and I've I'm fed up with the job
like I can't I need a break and I am going to take
three months off work three months rolls around and I'm like I can't go back
I can't go back to like the nine-to-five grind I need to do something something
(03:08):
else and it just happens like my girlfriends are in my little home studio and
I'm teaching them how to make things and,
you know, just a silly girl's day.
And one of them was like, why don't you do this? Like, you're so passionate
about it and you're such a good teacher and you obviously love it so much.
Why don't you do it? And I was like, I don't think I can. Like, I don't know.
(03:34):
I don't know what to do. And then just randomly,
like again it's just the universe but that
shot I saw someone post
like a sublet for it and I was like maybe kind
of like the two little sparks went and I
was like maybe like I could start a little studio and I kind of roughly looked
(03:55):
at the costs and all of the things and three weeks after that day I opened the
studio wow yeah just a crazy and I was like it's just a hobby I was like I've
I've got time to burn here.
I don't want to go back to work yet. I'm just going to see.
I'm just going to see how it goes. I'm going to give myself six months and if
(04:17):
it doesn't work and it's not, you know, making money and churning over,
then I have to stop and go back to real life.
And it's just taken off from there. And so you taught your girlfriends and so
you're sitting around in your little home studio.
Studio and then was it
just a bigger group of your girlfriends that you started with
(04:39):
so initially when I started it's
so scary I put up a class for free on the day that I opened and it had 10 spots
and I couldn't fill them like I couldn't people kept pulling out and like it
was there was one One lady that I knew and like her kid came,
(05:00):
but in the nights leading up to it, I was in tears like every night.
I was like, I can't do it. It's like planning a birthday party and I'm worried
that no one's going to come.
And if I can't even fill this free class, like how am I going to make this into anything? Yeah.
(05:20):
Honestly, like those 10 people that came then recommended, like it's like every
single one of them went away and told every single person that they knew about it.
And it really quickly rolled into like a couple of classes a month.
And yeah, now it's obviously my free time. So it's like lighting little fires that grew and grew.
(05:42):
So tell me a little bit about what you do in your classes.
So my classes, I run two different types of classes. I do hand building and wheel throwing.
So my hand building classes, making like little pitch pot mugs and bud vases
and trinket trays and things like that.
And it is literally what it sounds like. It's building with your hands.
(06:04):
And with clay. With clay, yes.
And then my wheel throwing classes are a little bit smaller and they're the
same idea, but we're using a wheel.
People always reference Ghost. Yes. For a movie.
It's doing that, but there's no Patrick Swayze here. Patrick Swayze. Oh, no.
(06:26):
I did hear there was a Hugo, though.
Yeah, yeah. There's normally a little studio dog hanging around,
so he's very interested in anyone who's down at his level.
He wants to see what everyone's doing, so it's lovely.
And so how did you end up being – have you always been like quite a tactile person?
(06:47):
Is that what attracted you to the clay and the ceramics? Yeah.
So I've always been, always been artistic and I've always used art to calm down.
And that's why I was so drawn to ceramics when I started.
It just felt like when I would do anything with clay, it's like my brain could
(07:09):
switch off and I could just focus on this one thing.
And I loved that. And it became, you know, my once a week class that I used to go to.
It ended up, you know, I'd go and then I'd drive home with no music and no nothing.
And it became this really like meditative thing that
once a week I could go and just turn off from my
(07:30):
real life which you know I didn't really
like my job and I I know I spoke at the International Women's
Day event about like you know I don't like my job I'm in a relationship that's
failing things are not like things are not that chill in my real life yeah and
ceramics was my like little solace from like all of that um yeah and I love
(07:52):
the idea actually be driving home with no music or like just in the choir?
Yeah, just in choir. And I would go, it was in the city and I lived in the Brosser
and I would drive to my ceramics class and I'd have a thousand thoughts in my
head and I'd do my two-hour class and I'd leave and I'd go to dinner by myself
and I'd sit in choir and then drive the hour or so home in silence.
(08:16):
And I was like, this is crazy that this silly thing can do this to my brain. Wow.
Now, I'm just going to mention that it is June 2024 as we're talking and it's
been quite a dry May in the Barossa, but it's just started raining.
Yes. And there is the most beautiful, so it must be an iron roof here in your studio.
(08:38):
Yeah. Because I can actually just hear the rain on the roof. It's so nice.
It's so, so lovely here and so different from my old studio,
You know, main street of Nuri for a country town is shockingly busy and just
like trucks and stuff and people all the time.
So it's nice to come out here. It feels very like calm. Yes. Very calm.
(09:03):
On your Instagram, you have like these little words that you're a meditative mess in the vines. Yeah.
Or is that making a meditative mess in the vines? It's like joining the like
meditative mess, I think.
It's like, because it is, I see people in my classes go from,
you know, chatting and talking, which is great, to quiet.
(09:25):
Like I see people go into their own little space.
And one of my favorite things is when this studio is full of people and it's
quiet, no one, no one's talking and everyone's just focused on their thing.
And I take myself back to when I started, how much I loved being in my own little messy paradise.
(09:48):
So that's the idea is that it's a little, it's a space to be messy and fun and
creative, but also mindful and, you know, it is quiet. It is quiet. It is quiet.
Oh, I almost feel like getting... I'm happy you've said that.
I'm like, maybe I should have had some clay.
I'm sitting there talking. I'm normally fiddling with some kind of clay while I'm talking.
(10:12):
You've also got all these stamps all over the place. And so can you tell me
a little bit about the stamps?
So stamps, I just like, I want people to be able to write themselves little
messages and make things a little fun.
And again, it is supposed to be fun. It's supposed to be silly and fun and easy
and I love to see when I go to fire things,
(10:34):
I love to see often people write themselves little messages in mugs and things
like that and it's just so nice to see people's little bit of personality in
their creations and I also love to create in that way.
I like to make commissions and yeah.
It's quite personal too. It's very personal. No, like I think that,
(10:55):
so the process is people would come to a class and then, and so do you have a kiln here?
Is that where you fire them or do you have your own little special kiln spot?
Yeah. So my kiln is located on my parents' property, which is not far because
it's just too big and hot to be in.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So kilns run at, you know, 12, 1300 degrees for 12 hours.
(11:18):
So they're very, very hot and they have a huge power requirement.
And, you know, they've got three-phase power and all the stuff.
So that's over at my parents' place, which thrills them, I'm sure.
They must love to see you coming regularly. They love it. With all of your friends.
Yeah, and so my lovely mother fires 99% of people's things.
(11:42):
So I will go over and load the kiln and get it organized and then she'll watch
it for the day and she fires and she loves to see people's things come out because
they're so different from how they go in.
So, yeah, it's lovely. And it's nice to have that little connection point with
her that she feels like she is really part of this space. Yeah, absolutely.
(12:04):
And so then all of those pieces are fired and then you bring them back to the
studio. Yeah. You kind of kick them up. Yes. Yeah.
So the only change to that is if people are interstate, obviously their things get posted back.
Sure. And also if I do a class off-site, So often I do.
(12:28):
Music.
So I run classes for kids through to doing hen's days.
(12:50):
I do public classes, which is a whole mix of people.
I do a lot of work with disability and I also recently started doing classes
with defence veterans as part of their art therapy program.
So, yes, it's very widespread. straight i've had you
(13:12):
know it's it's um five to
95 awesome awesome i
love that yeah i love it it's so nice and like i
think because i work on my own it's that's my connection point with people so
it's really nice to be exposed to so many yeah people absolutely and all of
those different energies and stories and you know what how even how they ended
(13:36):
up at your table yeah yeah yeah like how people find out about it.
And I love to hear just people's little stories along the way.
It's lovely. Absolutely. Very lovely.
If we talk about your own practice, so what sort of ceramics do you like to make?
I chop and change. So I primarily started as a wheel throwing artist because
(14:00):
I liked how perfect I could make things.
So it was all about getting my skill level to perfect.
Perfect now I think I primarily hand build and you'll see like lots of things
here that are hand built by me a lot of my commissions are hand built and I
love that they're they're so.
(14:20):
Expressive of me they're so me it's my fingerprints in it and they're yeah that's
that's what I really like to do I feel like I can be a little bit more like
artistically free when I hand build yes and And they're the classes that I like to run as well.
Like as much as wheel throwing's great, I feel like people can be more expressive
(14:41):
in hand building. Awesome.
So people who've listened to me before might know that I have a little bit of
an interest in history and heritage.
And, you know, there's quite a famous potter in the Barossa,
Potter Hoffman or Samuel Hoffman.
And he leaves, he not leaves anymore because he was a potter in the early,
you know, days of settlement.
But he always had a thumbprint in all sorts of different parts of his pots. That's so cool.
(15:07):
Quite often when he was, you know, very about like domestic,
you know, Yeah, pots and, you know, implements and things.
But quite often in the handle, there's a thumbprint, which actually now.
You know, 150, 180 years ago, it was actually kind of a cool thing.
Yeah. It's almost like a bit of a whisper of the past in there.
(15:28):
Yeah. That's so cool. I love that.
Yeah. And I love, like, domestic ways. Like, that's where I put most of my energy in.
I'm not, I try, I'd love to be a sculptural artist, but I just feel like.
The mix of practicality and art is so lovely.
So I find myself really drawn to making things that people put in their homes
(15:51):
and use rather than, you know, something that's just to look at.
Yes. But I think probably the next stage in my own personal,
like artistic journey is to look into sculpture more because I want to push
myself out of, you know, I'm so far out of my comfort zone.
I'm like, why not keep going? Yeah, yeah. We'll keep trying new things.
(16:13):
Let's keep going much forward.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's awesome.
So in terms of the clay and the materials that you use, and not everything can
be sourced locally, obviously, are you able to source anything locally?
Yeah. So I like to use Bennett's Clay, which Bennett's is a South Australian business.
We don't have any clay mills in the Barossa. If we did, I would jump to using them because.
(16:38):
But that's as close as I can get is Adelaide. Yes.
And I get 95% of my supplies from a South Australian, like family-owned wholesaler.
Again, it would be so much easier to just order online, but I think I have to
support other small businesses.
Yes. And both of those businesses are still quite small. So it's lovely.
(17:03):
Yeah. And I think it's that idea of lifting everybody up together.
Yeah. And as everybody grows, you know, I think that that's a lovely idea that they all grow together.
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And I think, you know, my wholesaler does retail as well.
And I refer people to him all the time because I'm like, I just, he's helped me so much.
(17:25):
And I'm like, if people, I understand that people can't always come to a class.
Like people want to move on and do it in their own time and their own space and their own way.
So I'm always like, don't, don't go online. like let me
refer you to him so that yeah he can keep going and they've been open i think
like 40 years it's it's like a generational business for them so oh fabulous
(17:45):
i love we need a wholesaler here okay maybe i could open up those yeah i'd love
to i love like other brossa.
Brossa companies yes so how did you did your parents did you grow up in the
brossa yeah yeah Yeah, so I grew up over in Kapunda.
Yes. And I was here until I was like 25. Yeah. Or 24, I think.
(18:09):
And then did the whole, you know, did the move that everyone does when they're
young and travelled a bunch and was drawn back here in 2020.
Yeah. Kind of like just before COVID. Yes.
My partner at the time and I were planning to, you know, have kids and build
a house and do all the stuff and I always thought that I would come back here. Yeah.
(18:30):
Yeah. It's really interesting the ties that pull us back as well.
And I did grow up locally as well and very similarly and often,
you know, did all the things that I had to do.
But there was really quite a strong tie. Yeah. Which I'm not even sure what it was in hindsight.
But, I mean, delighted to be back. And I think it's really interesting that
you came back just before that whole sort of COVID-y thing hit.
(18:53):
Yeah. Because, you know, like I do think that when the decades change,
I do think there is a shift.
And I think there was a big, you know, clearly in hindsight in 20 years time
ago, yeah, that was a really big shift then.
But I think there was, like there were all sorts of things that just sort of
started to change at the end of 2019.
So I think that's fabulous. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
(19:15):
So I have a question that
I've asked all of the people who've been doing this series and
we've been talking about keepers and the people who are creating
in the Barossa and the Barossa means something different to
everybody and I'm just wondering what does the Barossa mean
to you I think to me to me
it's just home like I can I've been so many places and like this is home if
(19:41):
there's something about this place that I don't know it did just it just draws
me back all the time it's like my as much as I said I'm I'm you know I'm out of my comfort zone.
I'm out of my comfort zone in my comfortable place.
Like I love it here. And I think...
To me, it is heritage. Like it's my family is still out here.
(20:02):
It's my little home and I always want to keep my studio here.
Yeah. I think it's, yeah, super important to bring some arts out here too.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
And I think that's a really interesting, I mean, I'd always thought,
particularly in the last five years, I've just seen so many more artists in
such a stronger arts community.
(20:24):
And so we were just talking before about, you know, how there's,
you know, when the sculpture part started on Menglis Hill and I'd never really
considered the steps that led to that.
And I hadn't considered how many of those same steps have been happening in our region.
Yeah. And, you know, I can only hope that as more awesome, creative people both
(20:48):
come back and come to the Glossa, I can only imagine what the next sort of phase
in that sort of arc will be. arts community development will be.
I can't imagine in like 10 years what it will be like.
And we need arts here. I think there's so many.
And, I mean, obviously like 100 Russell artists is huge when you're like,
I don't even know if there's 100 artists here.
(21:09):
And, like, there is. There absolutely are. There's so many artists,
but we just don't, they're just not highlighted enough.
Yeah, I'm excited. I think it's going to be good. I think it's going to be amazing.
And, yeah, you know, 100%, there's 1,000. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. Who knows, in 10 years' time there might be 10. Oh, God.
(21:29):
We need young artists too. Yeah. That's the thing.
Like I feel like it's so much easier to step into arts when you're,
you know, I feel like arts is to me in my mind like a city thing.
Yeah. Like I don't think that we have enough like young regional.
And do you think that's to a certain extent a pathways conversation?
Because, I mean, in a way you're quite unusual in that you, you know,
(21:53):
you were doing your 9 to 5 job and, I mean, you obviously were clearly creative
and you clearly had some skills in like this particular ceramic sort of area.
But you really gave yourself that space and you kind of created the pathway
for yourself, which is, you know, it's very entrepreneurial and it's amazing.
I think you've done such a fabulous job. But, you know, like that's a lot for.
(22:14):
It's huge. It's huge. Yeah. It's huge. And so, yeah, I would like to see,
you know, pathways for young people that it's not like you have to go away and
come back and do all those things.
But there might be some pathways for... Help them get back out here or come out here. Yeah. Start.
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Come and create in the Barossa. Yeah. Yeah. Amazing.
(23:00):
Music.
To Season 3, Episode 4 of the Barossa Podcast.
My name is Rebecca Reynolds. I'm sitting here today with Alicia Webster on Nga
Djeri Country in her beautiful Goldie and the Earth studio at Wonderground on
Heinze Road. Hello, Alicia. Hi.
Thank you so much for talking with me today. I'm so excited to be in this beautiful studio.
(01:28):
I think the first time that I heard of your your little pottery and ceramic
studio is when you had a little studio in Yuripa. Yes, my baby first studio.
And I would quite often walk past the main street, like walk down the main street
on my way to get a coffee and go, wonder what on earth is going in there.
And I heard all these lovely stories about what you were doing there.
(01:52):
And then I was so surprised and also delighted to find that your studio had moved out to Patsy Road.
Big move. Big move. So Alicia, I'd just love to hear a little bit about your story.
So just let's go right back to the beginning. How did you end up with a studio in Europa?
So I am not from like an arts background or anything like that.
(02:18):
And I was working just a regular like admin job that I didn't really love.
And I picked up ceramics as a hobby. and I had dabbled in like arts and ceramics
in like previous years but in 2022 I picked it up as my my full-time hobby yeah
so I really quickly gravitate towards ceramics and I set up a little home studio and.
(02:45):
That's all it's supposed to be is just a hobby outside of work
yeah and then end of 2022 rolls
around and I've I'm fed up with the job
like I can't I need a break and I am going to take
three months off work three months rolls around and I'm like I can't go back
I can't go back to like the nine-to-five grind I need to do something something
(03:08):
else and it just happens like my girlfriends are in my little home studio and
I'm teaching them how to make things and,
you know, just a silly girl's day.
And one of them was like, why don't you do this? Like, you're so passionate
about it and you're such a good teacher and you obviously love it so much.
Why don't you do it? And I was like, I don't think I can. Like, I don't know.
(03:34):
I don't know what to do. And then just randomly,
like again it's just the universe but that
shot I saw someone post
like a sublet for it and I was like maybe kind
of like the two little sparks went and I
was like maybe like I could start a little studio and I kind of roughly looked
(03:55):
at the costs and all of the things and three weeks after that day I opened the
studio wow yeah just a crazy and I was like it's just a hobby I was like I've
I've got time to burn here.
I don't want to go back to work yet. I'm just going to see.
I'm just going to see how it goes. I'm going to give myself six months and if
(04:17):
it doesn't work and it's not, you know, making money and churning over,
then I have to stop and go back to real life.
And it's just taken off from there. And so you taught your girlfriends and so
you're sitting around in your little home studio.
Studio and then was it
just a bigger group of your girlfriends that you started with
(04:39):
so initially when I started it's
so scary I put up a class for free on the day that I opened and it had 10 spots
and I couldn't fill them like I couldn't people kept pulling out and like it
was there was one One lady that I knew and like her kid came,
(05:00):
but in the nights leading up to it, I was in tears like every night.
I was like, I can't do it. It's like planning a birthday party and I'm worried
that no one's going to come.
And if I can't even fill this free class, like how am I going to make this into anything? Yeah.
(05:20):
Honestly, like those 10 people that came then recommended, like it's like every
single one of them went away and told every single person that they knew about it.
And it really quickly rolled into like a couple of classes a month.
And yeah, now it's obviously my free time. So it's like lighting little fires that grew and grew.
(05:42):
So tell me a little bit about what you do in your classes.
So my classes, I run two different types of classes. I do hand building and wheel throwing.
So my hand building classes, making like little pitch pot mugs and bud vases
and trinket trays and things like that.
And it is literally what it sounds like. It's building with your hands.
(06:04):
And with clay. With clay, yes.
And then my wheel throwing classes are a little bit smaller and they're the
same idea, but we're using a wheel.
People always reference Ghost. Yes. For a movie.
It's doing that, but there's no Patrick Swayze here. Patrick Swayze. Oh, no.
(06:26):
I did hear there was a Hugo, though.
Yeah, yeah. There's normally a little studio dog hanging around,
so he's very interested in anyone who's down at his level.
He wants to see what everyone's doing, so it's lovely.
And so how did you end up being – have you always been like quite a tactile person?
(06:47):
Is that what attracted you to the clay and the ceramics? Yeah.
So I've always been, always been artistic and I've always used art to calm down.
And that's why I was so drawn to ceramics when I started.
It just felt like when I would do anything with clay, it's like my brain could
(07:09):
switch off and I could just focus on this one thing.
And I loved that. And it became, you know, my once a week class that I used to go to.
It ended up, you know, I'd go and then I'd drive home with no music and no nothing.
And it became this really like meditative thing that
once a week I could go and just turn off from my
(07:30):
real life which you know I didn't really
like my job and I I know I spoke at the International Women's
Day event about like you know I don't like my job I'm in a relationship that's
failing things are not like things are not that chill in my real life yeah and
ceramics was my like little solace from like all of that um yeah and I love
(07:52):
the idea actually be driving home with no music or like just in the choir?
Yeah, just in choir. And I would go, it was in the city and I lived in the Brosser
and I would drive to my ceramics class and I'd have a thousand thoughts in my
head and I'd do my two-hour class and I'd leave and I'd go to dinner by myself
and I'd sit in choir and then drive the hour or so home in silence.
(08:16):
And I was like, this is crazy that this silly thing can do this to my brain. Wow.
Now, I'm just going to mention that it is June 2024 as we're talking and it's
been quite a dry May in the Barossa, but it's just started raining.
Yes. And there is the most beautiful, so it must be an iron roof here in your studio.
(08:38):
Yeah. Because I can actually just hear the rain on the roof. It's so nice.
It's so, so lovely here and so different from my old studio,
You know, main street of Nuri for a country town is shockingly busy and just
like trucks and stuff and people all the time.
So it's nice to come out here. It feels very like calm. Yes. Very calm.
(09:03):
On your Instagram, you have like these little words that you're a meditative mess in the vines. Yeah.
Or is that making a meditative mess in the vines? It's like joining the like
meditative mess, I think.
It's like, because it is, I see people in my classes go from,
you know, chatting and talking, which is great, to quiet.
(09:25):
Like I see people go into their own little space.
And one of my favorite things is when this studio is full of people and it's
quiet, no one, no one's talking and everyone's just focused on their thing.
And I take myself back to when I started, how much I loved being in my own little messy paradise.
(09:48):
So that's the idea is that it's a little, it's a space to be messy and fun and
creative, but also mindful and, you know, it is quiet. It is quiet. It is quiet.
Oh, I almost feel like getting... I'm happy you've said that.
I'm like, maybe I should have had some clay.
I'm sitting there talking. I'm normally fiddling with some kind of clay while I'm talking.
(10:12):
You've also got all these stamps all over the place. And so can you tell me
a little bit about the stamps?
So stamps, I just like, I want people to be able to write themselves little
messages and make things a little fun.
And again, it is supposed to be fun. It's supposed to be silly and fun and easy
and I love to see when I go to fire things,
(10:34):
I love to see often people write themselves little messages in mugs and things
like that and it's just so nice to see people's little bit of personality in
their creations and I also love to create in that way.
I like to make commissions and yeah.
It's quite personal too. It's very personal. No, like I think that,
(10:55):
so the process is people would come to a class and then, and so do you have a kiln here?
Is that where you fire them or do you have your own little special kiln spot?
Yeah. So my kiln is located on my parents' property, which is not far because
it's just too big and hot to be in.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So kilns run at, you know, 12, 1300 degrees for 12 hours.
(11:18):
So they're very, very hot and they have a huge power requirement.
And, you know, they've got three-phase power and all the stuff.
So that's over at my parents' place, which thrills them, I'm sure.
They must love to see you coming regularly. They love it. With all of your friends.
Yeah, and so my lovely mother fires 99% of people's things.
(11:42):
So I will go over and load the kiln and get it organized and then she'll watch
it for the day and she fires and she loves to see people's things come out because
they're so different from how they go in.
So, yeah, it's lovely. And it's nice to have that little connection point with
her that she feels like she is really part of this space. Yeah, absolutely.
(12:04):
And so then all of those pieces are fired and then you bring them back to the
studio. Yeah. You kind of kick them up. Yes. Yeah.
So the only change to that is if people are interstate, obviously their things get posted back.
Sure. And also if I do a class off-site, So often I do.
(12:28):
Music.
So I run classes for kids through to doing hen's days.
(12:50):
I do public classes, which is a whole mix of people.
I do a lot of work with disability and I also recently started doing classes
with defence veterans as part of their art therapy program.
So, yes, it's very widespread. straight i've had you
(13:12):
know it's it's um five to
95 awesome awesome i
love that yeah i love it it's so nice and like i
think because i work on my own it's that's my connection point with people so
it's really nice to be exposed to so many yeah people absolutely and all of
those different energies and stories and you know what how even how they ended
(13:36):
up at your table yeah yeah yeah like how people find out about it.
And I love to hear just people's little stories along the way.
It's lovely. Absolutely. Very lovely.
If we talk about your own practice, so what sort of ceramics do you like to make?
I chop and change. So I primarily started as a wheel throwing artist because
(14:00):
I liked how perfect I could make things.
So it was all about getting my skill level to perfect.
Perfect now I think I primarily hand build and you'll see like lots of things
here that are hand built by me a lot of my commissions are hand built and I
love that they're they're so.
(14:20):
Expressive of me they're so me it's my fingerprints in it and they're yeah that's
that's what I really like to do I feel like I can be a little bit more like
artistically free when I hand build yes and And they're the classes that I like to run as well.
Like as much as wheel throwing's great, I feel like people can be more expressive
(14:41):
in hand building. Awesome.
So people who've listened to me before might know that I have a little bit of
an interest in history and heritage.
And, you know, there's quite a famous potter in the Barossa,
Potter Hoffman or Samuel Hoffman.
And he leaves, he not leaves anymore because he was a potter in the early,
you know, days of settlement.
But he always had a thumbprint in all sorts of different parts of his pots. That's so cool.
(15:07):
Quite often when he was, you know, very about like domestic,
you know, Yeah, pots and, you know, implements and things.
But quite often in the handle, there's a thumbprint, which actually now.
You know, 150, 180 years ago, it was actually kind of a cool thing.
Yeah. It's almost like a bit of a whisper of the past in there.
(15:28):
Yeah. That's so cool. I love that.
Yeah. And I love, like, domestic ways. Like, that's where I put most of my energy in.
I'm not, I try, I'd love to be a sculptural artist, but I just feel like.
The mix of practicality and art is so lovely.
So I find myself really drawn to making things that people put in their homes
(15:51):
and use rather than, you know, something that's just to look at.
Yes. But I think probably the next stage in my own personal,
like artistic journey is to look into sculpture more because I want to push
myself out of, you know, I'm so far out of my comfort zone.
I'm like, why not keep going? Yeah, yeah. We'll keep trying new things.
(16:13):
Let's keep going much forward.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's awesome.
So in terms of the clay and the materials that you use, and not everything can
be sourced locally, obviously, are you able to source anything locally?
Yeah. So I like to use Bennett's Clay, which Bennett's is a South Australian business.
We don't have any clay mills in the Barossa. If we did, I would jump to using them because.
(16:38):
But that's as close as I can get is Adelaide. Yes.
And I get 95% of my supplies from a South Australian, like family-owned wholesaler.
Again, it would be so much easier to just order online, but I think I have to
support other small businesses.
Yes. And both of those businesses are still quite small. So it's lovely.
(17:03):
Yeah. And I think it's that idea of lifting everybody up together.
Yeah. And as everybody grows, you know, I think that that's a lovely idea that they all grow together.
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And I think, you know, my wholesaler does retail as well.
And I refer people to him all the time because I'm like, I just, he's helped me so much.
(17:25):
And I'm like, if people, I understand that people can't always come to a class.
Like people want to move on and do it in their own time and their own space and their own way.
So I'm always like, don't, don't go online. like let me
refer you to him so that yeah he can keep going and they've been open i think
like 40 years it's it's like a generational business for them so oh fabulous
(17:45):
i love we need a wholesaler here okay maybe i could open up those yeah i'd love
to i love like other brossa.
Brossa companies yes so how did you did your parents did you grow up in the
brossa yeah yeah Yeah, so I grew up over in Kapunda.
Yes. And I was here until I was like 25. Yeah. Or 24, I think.
(18:09):
And then did the whole, you know, did the move that everyone does when they're
young and travelled a bunch and was drawn back here in 2020.
Yeah. Kind of like just before COVID. Yes.
My partner at the time and I were planning to, you know, have kids and build
a house and do all the stuff and I always thought that I would come back here. Yeah.
(18:30):
Yeah. It's really interesting the ties that pull us back as well.
And I did grow up locally as well and very similarly and often,
you know, did all the things that I had to do.
But there was really quite a strong tie. Yeah. Which I'm not even sure what it was in hindsight.
But, I mean, delighted to be back. And I think it's really interesting that
you came back just before that whole sort of COVID-y thing hit.
(18:53):
Yeah. Because, you know, like I do think that when the decades change,
I do think there is a shift.
And I think there was a big, you know, clearly in hindsight in 20 years time
ago, yeah, that was a really big shift then.
But I think there was, like there were all sorts of things that just sort of
started to change at the end of 2019.
So I think that's fabulous. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
(19:15):
So I have a question that
I've asked all of the people who've been doing this series and
we've been talking about keepers and the people who are creating
in the Barossa and the Barossa means something different to
everybody and I'm just wondering what does the Barossa mean
to you I think to me to me
it's just home like I can I've been so many places and like this is home if
(19:41):
there's something about this place that I don't know it did just it just draws
me back all the time it's like my as much as I said I'm I'm you know I'm out of my comfort zone.
I'm out of my comfort zone in my comfortable place.
Like I love it here. And I think...
To me, it is heritage. Like it's my family is still out here.
(20:02):
It's my little home and I always want to keep my studio here.
Yeah. I think it's, yeah, super important to bring some arts out here too.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
And I think that's a really interesting, I mean, I'd always thought,
particularly in the last five years, I've just seen so many more artists in
such a stronger arts community.
(20:24):
And so we were just talking before about, you know, how there's,
you know, when the sculpture part started on Menglis Hill and I'd never really
considered the steps that led to that.
And I hadn't considered how many of those same steps have been happening in our region.
Yeah. And, you know, I can only hope that as more awesome, creative people both
(20:48):
come back and come to the Glossa, I can only imagine what the next sort of phase
in that sort of arc will be. arts community development will be.
I can't imagine in like 10 years what it will be like.
And we need arts here. I think there's so many.
And, I mean, obviously like 100 Russell artists is huge when you're like,
I don't even know if there's 100 artists here.
(21:09):
And, like, there is. There absolutely are. There's so many artists,
but we just don't, they're just not highlighted enough.
Yeah, I'm excited. I think it's going to be good. I think it's going to be amazing.
And, yeah, you know, 100%, there's 1,000. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. Who knows, in 10 years' time there might be 10. Oh, God.
(21:29):
We need young artists too. Yeah. That's the thing.
Like I feel like it's so much easier to step into arts when you're,
you know, I feel like arts is to me in my mind like a city thing.
Yeah. Like I don't think that we have enough like young regional.
And do you think that's to a certain extent a pathways conversation?
Because, I mean, in a way you're quite unusual in that you, you know,
(21:53):
you were doing your 9 to 5 job and, I mean, you obviously were clearly creative
and you clearly had some skills in like this particular ceramic sort of area.
But you really gave yourself that space and you kind of created the pathway
for yourself, which is, you know, it's very entrepreneurial and it's amazing.
I think you've done such a fabulous job. But, you know, like that's a lot for.
(22:14):
It's huge. It's huge. Yeah. It's huge. And so, yeah, I would like to see,
you know, pathways for young people that it's not like you have to go away and
come back and do all those things.
But there might be some pathways for... Help them get back out here or come out here. Yeah. Start.
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Come and create in the Barossa. Yeah. Yeah. Amazing.
(23:00):
Music.
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