Introducing Jennifer from Screaming Girl Designs. Where every item is handmade!! From her home in Mildura, Victoria, Jennifer both creates and designs her own ceramic and artwork.
Find out why Jennifer started creating and why she is so passionate about the value of handmade.
Tell us about your creations and your handmade process.
Screaming Girl Designs started in 2016 after I finally plucked up enough courage to have my first market stall. I had been making ceramic jewellery and small bowls for 3 or 4 years by that stage, all made by hand. I was also experimenting with making hand-made tiles featuring quirky hand-painted figures in scenes.
Screaming Girl Designs has grown to include Artisan Jewellery, Ceramics and Artworks. My ceramic jewellery and tile artworks have been hand-built starting from raw stoneware clay, and put through at least two firings, first to bisque around 960-1000°C and finally to stoneware around 1280°C, which vitrified the clay and is incredibly strong.
Working in clay offers a great deal of challenge and complexity to the creative process, allowing layers of exploration through drawing, texture, line-work, mark-making, colour and a variety of finishes. For me, this creative process bridges painting, drawing and printmaking with no guarantee of how the final piece will emerge from the kiln after the final firing. My paintings have evolved out of my tile artworks, so I start exploring ideas in clay and then extend those ideas through my paintings.
The pandemic had an impact on my artwork, and as a result of the many lockdowns and restrictions, I was unable to get to the local pottery club or the kilns to continue working in clay, and all markets and exhibitions were cancelled due to the risks of large crowds and the spread of infection. During lockdowns I made a decision to value-add some of the tile artworks from that exhibition, and set about designing a range of greeting cards and had oil-cloth printed with a selection of my tile artworks. I then created a range of oil-cloth lunchbags, each one hand-sewn and unique in its own right. With the easing of restrictions, outdoor markets started up again, and the cards and lunch-bags proved popular at my stall.
Tell us a bit about your journey to becoming a handmade artist.
From a very young age, I have made things by hand, drawing, painting, playing piano, sewing, hand-printing fabrics, designing basic patterns for clothes and hats and making small buildings out of recycled materials. At age 3 or 4, I even remember drawing on the walls in the hallway in my parents house, which didn’t seem to go down very well.
After completing Year 12, I deferred university and worked for several years in Mildura before travelling to Melbourne to commence a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Art – Painting at RMIT. After graduating university, I remained in Melbourne for many years working for several art dealers and galleries, art auction houses and did research for exhibitions and catalogue production.
There was little time to pursue my own creative arts practice at that time, and it wasn’t until I returned to Mildura in 2006 that I had space and time to again explore my creative expression - I enrolled in a short evening course in Jewellery Making at Mildura TAFE. The course covered jewellery construction in ceramics, metalwork, woodwork and various mediums, but I kept coming back to clay which had totally captured my imagination.
Following that course, I joined the Mildura Pottery Club, and I couldn’t stop creating pieces in clay. It took 4 or 5 years to pluck up the courage to have my first market stall in late 2015. From humble beginnings, I have continued to build my brand through regular attendance at local markets, through artwork donations to charity events, and I continue to exhibit my artworks in group shows in Mildura, Melbourne and interstate whenever possible.
I have also value-added my artworks by designing a range of greeting cards and having oil-cloth fabric printed for my range of unique lunchbags, as well as organic cotton tea-towels. My market stall now has a range of products including cards, handmade earrings and jewellery, small handmade ceramic bowls, oil-cloth lunchbags, tea-towels, and original framed ceramic tile artworks and acrylic paintings on canvas.
What is your inspiration or where do you find inspiration?
My jewellery pieces are largely inspired by colours and textures from the natural world and landscapes in our region. My tile artworks and paintings explore themes of social connection, the joys of friendship, human interaction in day-to-day living.
The often quirky figures are drawn from imagination with inspiration taken from observing day-to-day life - community events, markets, music performances, cooking, catching up with friends.
Connection provides the nourishment for all human beings and helps to sustain us through life - connection, communication and relationships with family, friends, community, the world at large, even companion animals and pets.
One of the loveliest ways to connect is through food - preparing nourishing food for others is one of the greatest expressions of love and brings people together around a table to enjoy a meal and conversation together. The rather naive figures in these artworks are inspired by medieval art with flattened perspective and blocks of colour. My CONNECTIONS series continues on, evolving in response to events and changes around me. The artworks have evolved over time becoming more textural, more patterned, and many moods expressed through the figures.
Where did you learn your craft?
I was always drawing and painting through childhood and secondary school, learned to sew, made small houses using recycled materials, and studied music learning the piano and singing in choirs. After attending a short course in Jewellery-making, it struck me how enjoyable it was to work with clay, and just how versatile this medium is - I was hooked.
It really resonated with me, as there are so many stages involved in creating each piece and it somehow brings all my passions together in one medium. Colour, mark-making, painting, form, texture, patterns, translucent layers of glaze. There are no guarantees how things will turn out until each piece emerges from the kiln. Rather than fearing this uncertainty, I have instead embraced this aspect of the medium and cherish the successful creations even more as a result.
Why is handmade artistry so important to you?
A hand-made object carries within a story and process told through the artist's hands. Handmade artistry can be summed up in the Japanese term wabi-sabi that finds beauty in imperfection, transience and simplicity. The unique signature of the maker is tied up in every stitch every mark, every brush-stroke, every process, as unique as a fingerprint, and knowing that everything about creation or object required a thought process, an idea and a physical action from a human being, not a machine. Creativity in motion. Ideas taking form. Creative alchemy. Handmade objects inevitably spark conversations and hold many stories.
Jennifer is a much loved member of the Madeit Collective, posting regularly in our Facebook Group ~ The Handmade Marketplace of Australia ~ and sharing her new creations as they are released. If you haven't connected with Screaming Girl Designs, make sure you join our FB Group and say hi !
