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"I
have always been drawn to clay; chimneys made of terra cotta, building
facades
made of brickwork in multiple colours and textures, ceramic tile in the
most
intricate patterns in private homes and public places, stoneware
dinnerware, Villeroy & Bach , Wedgewood, garden pavers, garden pots,
ceramic wind chimes, cooking pots, art
objects, clay pipes. Clay is also used
in making musical instruments such as the ocarina, as well as in spark
plugs,
electrical switches, paper making, concrete production, chemical
filtering, and
the list goes on and on. Clay is a fabulous material!
Clay is
a malleable substance when
wet, which means it can be shaped easily with the hands. When dry, it
becomes
firm and when "fired," or hardened by intense heat, clay becomes
permanently
solid. And it last forever, unless you drop it, which is ok if you are
a
production potter - you can sell it again. The range of colour, texture
and
shape is virtually limitless.
I
have been working with clay for over four decades and even if I had
another
forty years I would still, no doubt, not discover all there is to learn
about
this wonderful medium.
My
first pottery class was in 1970 at Georgia State University in Atlanta.
They
used a natural alluvial red clay dug up at a swamp near Macon Georgia
(near the
home of Jimmy Carter) which was fired to stoneware and had a most
lovely purple
colour. I attended other classes over the years while working in
business and
law, notable are the few years spent with Mikhail Zakin, an American
teacher and
potter specializing salt firing and raku.
Upon
migrating to Australia in 1986 I started making pottery and selling at
the
Paddington Market in Sydney. A few years
later I moved to Coffs Harbour where I set up a studio and started
marketing
under the name of Southern Cross Pottery. Initially we made stoneware
domestic
ware and decorative vases and platters, selling from our
Studio/Showroom at
Boambee, and to hundreds of galleries and craftshops all over Australia. In those days I worked with Stephen Prince
and John Mawhinney. Later I spent a few
years working with terra cotta in conjunction with Martin Gill of Kangaroo Point Terra Cotta, a trade name
now owned by Southern Cross Pottery.
In the last ten years I have focused almost
exclusively on stoneware gravity water purifiers. I
no longer do any work on the wheel but
instead have hired several master potter piece throwers to make my
ware. Over
those years we won a bunch of awards as well. Southern Cross Pottery
now
wholesales purifiers to scores of Health food shops all over Australia
and
retails worldwide through the internet
and also to locals and tourists from its factory in Boambee.
Australia
has produced some wonderful potters; Peter Rushforth, Les Blakebrough,
Victor
Greenaway, Greg Daly to name a few and I have certainly been very
inspired by
all of them. But I have always liked
utilitarian ware and attracted to making things that have a
constructive use -
perhaps that is why I so enjoy making water purifiers.
I remember once reading about what inspired
Colin Levy - it wasn’t the Australian outback or its flora or
fauna, but
pottery itself. His inspiration came from “seeing pots...and the
more you make,
the more you’re influenced by the pots you make.” I can really appreciate that - all I want to
do is make better pots. Pottery is an intimate and creative craft where
you
continue the whole process on your own; from conception to production
to
marketing and all the time you are building on the past and trying to
improve
for the future. "
Jeff Sosower, January 2010
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Jeff will be giving a tour of his workshop and
gallery, and talk about his work and background at the
February members' meeting
at Southern Cross Pottery
14 Caba Close, Boambee, NSW
at 7 PM,
Friday 19th February.
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