Artist: Anna Hepler + Studio Visit

Also last week I was incredibly lucky to spend some studio time with Anna Hepler, who is also exhibiting her work at the Anna Leonowen's Gallery and an Artist in Residence at the Ceramic Studio. Anna is a sculptor and print maker who creates large forms using a variety of media. When it comes to using different materials she believes it is very important to keep an element of unfamiliarity in her work, to keep her work more 'honest' or 'vulnerable'.

Double Hung
Anna Hepler

Anna's work is incredibly inspiring and there is a great interview which talks about her creative processes.

Whilst the work in the Anna Leonowen's Gallery are explorations in ceramics, she is continuing to explore the 'slumped' form, like in the image above.

List of Works

I have found the visiting artist studio visits incredibly insightful and helpful to give critical comment and feedback about my work as an external 'eye' provides clarity and a new way of looking at things.

We have been experiencing thick summer sea fogs recently - this is a view from my studio window.
It generally looks like this...

I think I may need to upscale these wire sculptures if I want to create more of a dramatic impact! 

Glaze tests with wire

I have been experimenting incorporating wire into and onto glazes. 

Loosely wrapping the wire around the already glazed object I was curious to see what would happen to the wire. Would it melt into the glaze? Or would it sit on top of the glaze? Would it colour the glaze?

Majolica with copper and steel wire test.
Cone 04

The test results were exciting and unexpected. The copper wire bleached into the glaze, creating a green tinge with a smooth surface, and the steel wire became rough and textured like sand paper. 

Shino reduction glaze with copper wire
Cone 6
and gold lustre

The results were completely different when fired in a hotter kiln (Cone 6) with a reduction atmosphere. The copper completely melted and turned black. 

I was also interested to see what would happen if I then applied a gold lustre glaze on top of this effect. Gold lustre fires at a very low temperature (Cone 022) which meant that it didn't affect the previous results from the reduction firing. 

I can't wait to try these effects on bigger pieces of ceramics!