Handmade in Australia

7 October 2014 | 3:43 pm | Stephanie Liew

Locally designed and handmade crockery and ceramics – art you can use!

Locally designed and handmade crockery and ceramics — art you can use!

 

SHIKO POTTERY

Sophie Harle of Shiko Pottery is inspired by the Japanese folk art movement Mingei (handmade crafts to be used in everyday life), and makes items such as plates, jars and cups with a minimal aesthetic focussing on form and soft surfaces. The warm and subtle flecks of colour on Harle’s pieces make them look different depending on how the light hits them. They’re the kind of things that feel purposely shaped to fit to the curve of your hand, no matter how big or small it is. 

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YIYING LEE

If anything’s going to make you happier than well-made ceramics, it could be well-made ceramics that smile at you. Yiying Lee, a Melbourne-via-Malaysia artist, is influenced by nature, travel, stories, outer space and dreams. Just try to look at her small plates, vases, cups and spoons with little faces and not feel immediately more jolly. The cups even have tiny noses! 

 

TAKEAWEI

Chela Edmunds of Takeawei draws inspiration from nature, beach culture and fashion. Her work combines organic, odd shapes and textures with bright colours and includes pieces like the Wombat Planter (it’s spotty!), Ice-Cream Wall Vases (shaped like a cone), origami-patterned crockery, hanging wall planters, candle holders, mugs with triple-hole handles, and more. Edmunds has also created an exclusive textile and ceramics pattern for Melbourne fashion label Dress Up’s Namaste collection.

takeawei.com // Instagram: @tkawei

 

TARA SHACKELL

Functional tableware is Tara Shackell’s specialty. She’s especially interested in the method of making things, and the relationship between form, line and surface. This all comes out in her pieces – plates, beakers and bowls that are white with gold edges, or speckled, or two-toned. She also makes delightfully pinched small dishes, plant-holders and vases of various shapes, sometimes dipped in or splashed with bright colours or decorated with line drawings, other times looking like they were plucked out from the ground.

 

MINNA GRAHAM

Minna Graham has lived in many a harsh environment – deserts and salt lakes, mining areas, snow country and dense forests – so it’s no wonder that her work is an expression of her emotional relationship to her surroundings. You can see all the extreme aspects of nature, the elements of fire and water and wind, in Graham’s textured and sculptured pots, tea/sake cups, bowls, sauce dishes, plates and other pieces; they look like they’ll last through anything Mother Nature throws at them.