Get hands on with pottery creations

TONY Neylan, having trained in Japan, expertly centres a lump of red clay on the wheel while explaining exactly what he’s doing.

Within minutes, seven students rev their own pottery wheels amid laughs and expressions of joy as the clay slips through their hands.

By the end of the evening, these students will be producing pots. After several classes, they’ll have multiple beautiful and functional pottery pieces they made themselves.

The four-week wheel class is just one of many classes Prue Morrison offers at Australian Pottery Supplies in Torquay, in addition to selling quality supplies and kilns.

Prue is a potter. After friends and family saw her work on Instagram, she started teaching classes and selling pottery supplies from her garage.

She expanded her business when she realised at-home and commercial potters needed to access quality equipment.

Her business, Australian Pottery Supplies, has the exclusive right to sell UK’s KilnCare kilns in Australia. She’s also Australia’s second biggest supplier of Venco products and offers Australian-made quality glazes.

Even though she ships Australia-wide, she is locally-minded, offering classes, pick-up orders, and time to chat.

Local potter Deborah Burley says she visited the studio at 5 Boneyards Road just to pick up some supplies.

She gladly ended up staying for 45 minutes, where Morrison gave her a tour of the expanded space, showed her the newest kilns in stock, and highlighted some of the glazes on order.

In addition to handbuilding and wheel-throwing classes, Morrison helps outfit the pottery rooms of schools, TAFEs, universities, and retirement villages.

 

Brigitte Brocklesby recently bought a Kilncare ARTIZAN 139 litre kiln from Australian Pottery Supplies.

When Brocklesby first arrived as Head of Art at Mansfield Secondary College, she found a basic pottery room setup.

But the old kiln was filled with asbestos and hadn’t been run for more than five years.

Now she has a reliable, safe, beautiful kiln that fits a class’s worth of ceramics so the kids see results quickly. She says the process was simple.

“I trust Prue,” Brocklesby said.

“She takes the time to really research her products. I told her what I was looking for, and it turned out really well.

The kiln is the perfect size. And it’s wireless, so by the time the kids get to Year 12, they can learn how to control it and change things with their glazes.”

When she secures more funding, she hopes to purchase some wheels from Australian Pottery Supplies.

Students and customers at Australian Pottery Supplies can do more than take classes and buy quality products.

They can also rent a wheel and soon will be able to have their own work fired or get their hands back into clay during an open studio time or just stop by to chat with Prue.

It’s time well spent.

//SPONSORED CONTENT