In 1995 Erl and Ros Happ invited me to take up a residency at Happs Pottery and Winery located on Commonage Rd, Dunsborough, Western Australia.
I worked at Happs Pottery, making a range of hand thrown production tableware, from 1995 until around 1997.
Jeremy Happ, Myles Happ, Kim Potter, Rika Rowe and Christine House were also working there making production tableware, and we all shared the responsibility of running the gallery which was under the same roof as the pottery studio.
It was a fantastic learning experience for me. We dug the clay on the property and used very simple techniques to wet screen the clay once it had been blunged into a slip and a few fluxes were added to the base clay to make a clay body that was suitable for domestic tableware. Simple reduction fired stoneware glazes were applied to the ware and the majority of our work was sold through the gallery and the winery tasting and sales area that was also located under the same roof as the pottery.
We paid a commission to Erl and Ros for all sales and this covered the costs associated with the use of the pottery equipment including kilns, pugmills, wheels and clay processing equipment. It was a very fair arrangement, and a very successful business for the potters and the Happ family.
During this time, I also had two successful exhibitions of thrown, one off, fine art works at the gallery alongside Kim Potter, Jeremy Happ, Rika Rowe and Christine House. Joan Campbell came down to Dunsborough and opened our first exhibition which makes this a very special memory for me. The first music concert the Happ family organized to promote the pottery gallery and the winery was also held while our exhibition was running which helped to swell the number of people who browsed, admired and bought our clay wares.
