EMILY'S UPDATES
personal pots
From birth plates to personal mugs and commemorative plates I can make it for you. more »»
Artists Statement:
Emily Laszuk
My studio is full of windows, full of light. My husband Steve and I built this lovely space so it is everything I could want. It has a lovely gallery as well as a kiln room and a large working area. Outside are gum trees and the river below full of life. There is always a number of projects underway, my domestic ware, lustre pots, sculptures, paintings and explorations. The studio looks out over the farm, so I am nestled in nature. Animals wander past my windows and the cats purr in the sun beside me. Somehow they seem to find their way into my work.
I love the skin like quality of clay, how it starts as a simple lump on the wheel and a notion in mind and then develops its own personality. It’s a joy, a creative flow.
I have been a potter for 28 years now, after growing up in an artistic traveling family. To have my pieces used and loved by people all over the world, feels like an honour and a justification of my chosen way of life.
I have been involved in the Inner City Clayworkers teapot exhibition for many years now as well as the Sydney Royal Easter Show. This latter I have won twice a well as taking out all the other categories of prizes. I have Craftmark accreditation and have taught at TAFE and school level over the years.
I have a Bachelor of Visual Arts from Sydney College of the Arts , a Dip Ed in secondary Art Education and am also a Registered Nurse, which I mix with my potting to give me a social life to balance with the solitude of the studio.
Technical; my blue and white pieces are made of porcelanious stoneware, thrown then turned and altered. I then decorate them with underglaze whilst they are raw. They are then fired, glazed and fired again.
The lustre ware is bisque fired, then glazed to cone 5 with a soft alkaline glaze. The last firing is to cone 017 with about 4 very heavy reductions where smoke billows out of the kiln and I pull out draw rings to test the progress of it all. The lustres themselves are made of silver ( yes the real stuff!), copper, bismuth nitrate and burnt umber along with other ingredients. It all smacks of alchemy and is equally challenging and unpredictable.