Tea Service no.1

The 'Teaware' exhibition brings together works by outstanding national and International craft practitioners working in the fields of ceramics and metal, including Sandra Black, Prue Venables, Les Blakebrough, David Pottinger, Frank Bauer, Karl Millard, Leslie Mathews and Robert Foster in a leading event in the JamFactory's 2010 exhibition program. Melbourne Hollow ware has not received the same exhibition and promotion profile as Melbourne jewellery in Europe. Two exhibitions of Hollow ware (Australian Hollow ware, Victoria and Albert Museum 2000 and Australian vessels and objects 2007) in which I participated attest to the quality and standing of my practice. Galerie Marzee, a leading jewellery gallery in the Netherlands with a strong International following has recognised this and was keen to place the work in a more developed international context. Current Hollow Ware practice concerns itself with the craft object as a self contained entity. Tea Service no.1 extends this research by exploring how objects might be physically located in relation to one another within defined spaces and how these relationships influence perceptions of the work. In part it's about the reorientation of the experience of the craft object. This extends to the possibilities of the craft object as a trigger to engage the present through making, habitation and encounter. Underpinning all this is the process of material production, and in particular the use of refractory metals like titanium and niobium. Much research and experimentation has developed expertise in this relatively unseen use of these materials in hollow ware production.