Introducing the very talented Artisan, Woven Earth. Branny loves to make mostly functional pottery from her home studio in the Gippsland Lakes, Victoria, bringing together earth, water, and fire to produce beautiful ceramics.
Find out why Branny started creating and why she is so passionate about the value of handmade.
Tell us about your creations and your handmade process.
I make mostly functional pottery, I love making things that are both useful and beautiful. Most of my work is made on the pottery wheel, and fired in a manual gas kiln - I'm old school. Pottery is a very elemental art form, bringing together earth (clay) water, and fire to produce ceramics. For me it is a meditative, even therapeutic process. It combines my physical skill on the wheel, my love of colour and texture, my creativity and my reverence for nature.
Tell us a bit about your journey to becoming a handmade artist.
I have always made art or craft of some kind, even as a kid, wending my way through many hobbies and learning new things throughout my life, drawing, painting, photography, crochet, weaving and music to name a few.
But pottery has been my love since I was a young girl living next door to a potter.
I used to visit her home studio and just sit for hours watching her work. It was always so calming and exciting to watch her transforming these lumps of clay into unique, beautiful sculptures.
What is your inspiration or where do you find inspiration?
I am very inspired by the natural world. The colours, textures and the way I feel in nature. I have lived most of my life in the country, growing up in the bush, living in and around the Yarra Valley, the Dandenong Ranges, and now on the coast in the Gippsland Lakes. Australian pottery has its roots in Japanese pottery, and I am inspired by the extraordinary artistry of Japan too.
Where did you learn your craft?
I started learning pottery at a class run by a local potter, and attended classes there for several years. I then studied ceramic arts at Box Hill TAFE, and have attended classes and workshops at various different studios over the last 25 years. During the pandemic I watched a lot of online tutorials and expanded my skills. I learned how to fire a kiln by just diving in and learning as I went along.
Why is handmade artistry so important to you?
When you hold a mug I have made in your hands you hold my love of the clay, my joy in creating, my 25 years of learning and honing skills, my creative ideas, and my desire to make an everyday moment in your life special. You hold how I felt making it, my love of colour and texture, my pleasure in sharing it with you. You wrap your hands around my artistry. That cannot be rushed, faked or mass produced.
Branny is a much loved member of the MadeIt Collective, posting regularly in our Facebook Group ~ MadeIt: Handmade not Massmade Australia ~ and sharing her new creations as they are released. If you haven't connected with Woven Earth make sure you join our FB Group and say hi!
