Details
| First Name | Caroline |
| Last Name | Swinburne |
| Nickname | caroswinburne |
About Me
| Introduction | I live in Adelaide, Australia and have my own small place with a studio in a former bedroom and a kiln in the garage (which has been converted to a room). This is my third year making ceramics. My second favourite thing to do is make art. My first… buying art materials. |
| What I Love about Ceramics | I like when I can stick two things together and make it look like they were never apart. I like the diversity of ceramics in terms of clay types, firing options, the glaze rabbit hole and all kinds of interactions with other art like painting, sculpture and printmaking. |
| How I started with ceramics | I spent time at art school (1.5 years worth but over 2.5 years) and left because there was too much padding and not enough ceramics tuition. Although I enjoyed it, it wasn’t going in directions I wanted. Although I did some pottery at school, I didn’t really enjoy it and never did any more until almost 30 years later. I was at a teachers’ professional development day at the art gallery and the topic was the “Pure Form” exhibition of Japanese ceramics with a workshop following. I almost didn’t go. In the workshop I made a spectacularly bad slab-built vessel, and when I looked up where to get it fired, I discovered that despite my high school teacher’s warnings of doom, a kiln will in fact not kill you. Getting pieces fired locally is really expensive and I thought, “why pay off someone else’s kiln when I can have my own?” So I bought a kiln. Then I bought some clay. Then I signed up for a local class. And then I went to art school. |
| What inspires me | Colourful things inspire me, although I’m notoriously bad with putting colours together without visual vomit, so I try to restrain myself a little. I like to make sculptural objects that are also practical. Nature is an inspiration as it is for almost everyone, and with good reason, but I like to give it a bit of personality rather than try to mimic real life. |
| What I'm working on at the moment | I’m learning to throw larger amounts of clay than a mug, and make bowls. I’m about to delve into mould making and slip casting – I’ve got all the materials but need a bit of a push to get there. |
