NSW government has singled out Fine Arts and Ceramics for funding cuts, effective 2013. Let your voice be heard and get the politicians to wake up to how this decision will impact the future of arts in NSW and Australia. TAFE provides hands on, industry linked tuition and training from a broad range of experienced industry professionals. Access has been for all students, providing our diverse communities with educational opportunities. Loosing support to these areas of the arts through TAFE has a flow on affect to all areas of the Australian arts community.
More info through these links
https://www.facebook.com/SaveArtInTafe
National Association of Visual Artists (NAVA)
Sign the petition and download, print and sign one here (the written ones have more weight)
Write to your political representative. Get the word out and effect change now!

The fabulous weather on Saturday, although a little chilly early on, set the scene for great results from the pit and raku firings at our annual Open Day.

We managed 15 or 16 firings in the two raku kilns with many successes. The pit firing is always surprising and achieved great results. It will be interesting to see the cleaned pieces.

Thanks to Barabara and Narelle we were spoilt with delicious organic sausage sandwiches. There were also plenty of yummy cakes and biscuits for morning and afternoon tea to fill in the gaps.

We had some very interested visitors who purchased and rakued some ceramic pieces to take home. They were fascinated with the process and delighted with the results of their pieces.

We were impressed with the fabulous results from Anniss' children's pottery class. They had the opportunity of rakuing some of their pieces and enjoyed seeing them come out of the kilns.

Check out the photos below - a snapshot of the pit preparation on Thursday last week and some of Saturday's results.

Particular thanks to Fay for her pit prep, Marienne, Claire, Anniss, Dean and Jean for running the raku kilns and everyone else for helping out. Together we had a great day - always enjoyable to experience raku firings with others, to work together and share unexpected discoveries.

You may even see some of our member's work from this day, in the Gosford Art Prize. Stay tuned.

On the 11th of August the CCPS Workshop was abuzz with activity at the Cameron Williams workshop. 15 participants thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
The day began with a demonstration of simple steps for centring on the wheel, then
Cameron began throwing his trademark large forms in various shapes and shared his very simple method of making very large platters.
One interesting technique was the use of latex as a texturing tool. Using a tree trunk as the mould, Cameron painted latex onto a section of rough bark, then
pressed a piece of chux onto the latex,
finishing with another coat of latex. This was left to dry then removed and
during the day.pressed on to the various forms thrown. The latex/chux can be used many times to simply achieve an interesting surface texture.
Cameron is very giving with his knowledge
and patiently answered the many questions. He left us all inspired to get on the
wheel and start throwing.
(Thanks to Anniss Seymour for the details of this post.)