Welcome to the TCA

Welcome to the Tasmanian Ceramics Association's new Blog page and our first post.

As of today entries are open for our upcoming Annual Members Exhibition, Elemental @ SOCIAL Gallery, Salamanca Arts Centre. The exhibition opens on Thursday the 17th of September and runs until Monday the 28th.

The TCA holds this Members Exhibition annually and presents prizes; the Award for Excellence, Highly Commended, along with awards for Best Functional and Non-Functional works, Best Interpretation of the Theme, Best use of Materials, the John Watson Award for Humour and an Encouragement Award.

All the prizes are either substantial cash or materials awards, donated by the TCA and our fabulous sponsors, Derwent Ceramic Supplies and Ratho Farm.

Exhibitions give our members the opportunity to really become involved in the TCA. Not only do they give our Members the opportunity to showcase their work, but it also allows them to offer help and become involved in a team effort of presenting the exhibition in a gallery setting.

There are many behind the scene jobs in preparing for an exhibition. What you see on the plinth or the wall on Opening Night has made quite the journey.

Of course we have to start with the bag of clay and how the artist rings this lump of clay to life. How it is formed and fired and decorated into the artwork that is presented in its humble cardboard box on Bumping In Day.

The artist is required to write about that journey - to put into words how it came to be, what story it has to tell, and how it resonates with the theme of the exhibition.

The artist also has to place a price on that piece of clay's journey - how time and thought processes created this thing that is now a considered piece of art. Sometimes that journey from lump of earth to vitrified clay is fraught with unexpected developments like explosions, melting, under firing, over firing, uneven glazes, pin holes, colour variations and then there are always the happy accidents that you couldn't repeat if you tried.