Dawn Dishaw Ceramics

We recently stumbled across the stunning ceramics from Dawn Dishaw whilst scrawling through pages of ceramics on Etsy on search - once again - for the perfect mug.

We had that rare quick fluttery-heart leap which makes trawling through pages and pages (and pages and pages) on Etsy so worthwhile. Eventually you will unearth the gold!

Wheel Thrown Ceramic Mug in pink navy and red - $36

The delicate hand drawn patterns, the slightly chunky lip, the mottled slight-grey of the ceramic base, the perfectly chosen colour combinations...

Wheel Thrown Ceramic Mug in red, blue and purple - $36

Wheel Thrown Espresso Mug in blue, orange and red - $28

And then we delved into her bowls. Bowls used to be our real ceramic weakness. For years they were hoarded, some too nice to ever be used. Some to simply hold flowers, some to hold one variety of fruit each and muddled in a haphazard way on the kitchen counter.
Bowls are still a weakness...especially when they're all scalloped edged and delicately patterned like this:

Ceramic Bowl in turquoise, orange and red - $58

Ceramic Bowl in salmon and blue - $58

Wheel Thrown Ceramic Bowl in blue, navy and purple - $62

Underneath detail of Ceramic Bowl in navy and salmon pink - $52

Each wheel thrown piece is a labour of love with the whole beautiful process from the painstaking hand drawn patterns to the series of glazes taking between one and a half to a staggering 12 hours to complete.

Now the impossible decision has to be made...which mug?
And, naturally, to take advantage of combined shipping, which bowl...

xo
g&j

For the love of...Martin Boyd Pottery

Some time ago when we were enjoying our first throes of 'pottery! How awesome is pottery!' we discovered the work of Australian ceramicist Martin Boyd. He is part of the Australian artistic dynasty of Boyd's including his father Merric Boyd, and brothers Arthur and David and so on. Talented family that one!

Guy Martin Boyd set up the 'Martin Boyd Pottery Studio' with his friend Norma Flegg (yes, how amazing is that name) in Sydney's leafy Cremorne in 1946. An lowly art student at the time, the business grew and grew and the range of pottery and ceramic grew to a staggering 177 catalogue items by the mid-1950s.

Classic Martin Boyd rammekins. Image: A Small Ferret vintage shop

The range was wide and varied - anything from figurines to table-wear - but my favourites have always and will always be the 'Harlequin' or two-tone glazed bits and pieces for the table circa 1950s...

Image: Australian Pottery at Bemboka

To be more specific, we were in love with his soft-pastel coloured, one-armed, shallow ramekins:

Once you start looking for these you'll see them everywhere...we started buying these many years ago from the Chapel Street Bazaar in Praharan on our first trip to Melbourne and have slowly grown the collection over the years. Recently we even added this tiny neat sugar bowl to the set!

It's a little chipped, but we still love it!

Boyd retired his ceramic career in the mid 1960s and focused instead on his career as a sculptor - his work can be found in galleries around Australia.


But we will never tire of his candy coloured confections.

xo
g&j