Occasionally we like to talk about the other side of the commerical ceramics business of Robert Gordon Australia. While we are known in the business world as a designer, manufacturer and retailer of fine ceramics, and supplier to some of the world’s better restaurants of quality china products, we like sometimes to remember that, at heart, we are potters.

The main aim of this list is to provide a useful resource for anyone active in the pottery world. But its secondary aim is to keep us in touch with our past, with the artistic instincts born in the grassroots pottery community.

This list has been some time in the making — a lot longer than we expected when we conceived of the project. The reason for that is principally the response we have had from potters, a response which proves that there is a vibrant and generous potting community out there.

We would like to offer sincere thanks to the following for their contributions to the list:

Des and Jan Howard
Graeme Anderson
Ellen Appleby
Kirk Winter
Ian Hodgson
Michael Keighery
Ryland family
Gary Odgers

And, especially, Julie Vaux, whose bookswellread blog gave us the idea for this list in the first place.

POTTERY GUIDES

Robin Hopper
Functional Pottery
Subtitled: Form and Aesthetic in Pots of Purpose

Published 1986 by Chilton Book Co.

Description at alibris.com: “Through a wide display of functional pottery, this reference book offers information and practical tips as well as international coverage of both the design and aesthetics of ceramics and artists’ work.”

Recomended by Australian potter Julie Vaux. Part of her review of the book here http://www.bookswellread.net/functional-pottery/ says: “This is an essential reference book for teachers and students. Every school or arts centre that teaches ceramics should have a copy of this work. t covers the practical mechanics of applying geometry to proportions to get a balance functional item of ceramics. There is an excellent selection of historical examples and the practical forms covered range from handles to casseroles.”

Find it here.

Mel Jacobsen
Pottery: A Life – A Lifetime

Published in 2004 by American Ceramic Society.

Recommended by Australian potter Graeme Anderson.

Review (anonymous) at betterworldbooks.com: “Mel Jacobson’s book is a real pleasure to read. His experiences as an apprentice potter in Japan are delightful not only for the pottery experience but also for sharing his experience living in a different culture. There are plenty of technical pearls all through the book making it helpful to any potter seeking progress in their craft. In a way the book reads like a long chat with a great and inspiring teacher. I hope he writes a new one!”

Find it here.

Mimi Obstler and Robina Simpson
Out of the Earth, Into the Fire: A course in ceramic materials for the
studio potter

Published 1996 by the American Ceramic Society.

From a review by Australian potter Ian Hodgson: “If you are interested in where glazes come from and why they do what they do, then I certainly recommend you look at this book. I wish I had had copy 10 years ago.”

Find the 2001 edition here.

Daniel Rhodes
Clay and Glazes for the Potter

First published in 1973 by Pitman Publishing. Revised and expanded edition (paperback, 352 pages) published in 2000 by Krause Publications.

Recommended by Australian potter Gary Odgers who is ceramic designer/mould maker at Robert Gordon Australia, and who says: “This is a reference book. It’s not an exciting read, but has lots of useful and good information.”

Find it here.

Robert Tichane
Celadon Blues

Published 1998 by Krause Publications.

Recommended by Australian potters Des and Jan Howard.

Description at alibris.com: “The definitive reference for potters of all skill levels who want to duplicate celadon glazes, one of the oldest and most beautiful high-fire reduction glazes, this guide carefully dissects Chinese glazes and reconstructs them with modern materials. The author offers explanations of the results and techniques.”

Find it here.

Robert Tichane
Copper Red Glazes

Published 1998 by Krause Publications.

Recommended by Australian potters Des and Jan Howard.

Description at alibris.com: “A reference guide for potters who want success with copper-red glazes without doing extensive and frustrating experimentation. Robert Tichane’s approach provides a clear account of the processes involved in the production of copper-red glazes that has a relevance for potters beyond copper red.”

Find it here

John Britt
The Complete Guide to High-Fire Glazes
Subtitle: Glazing & Firing at Cone 10

Published 2007 by Lark Books.

Recommended by Australian potters Des and Jan Howard.

From the description at alibris.com: “With hundreds of recipes for some of the most popular and enduring high-fire glazes, this reference will prove a boon to ceramists who want to master this complex and versatile aspect of the art.”

Find it here.

Michael Bailey
Oriental Glazes

Published 2004 by University of Pennsylvania Press.

Recommended by Australian potters Des and Jan Howard.

From the description at betterworldbooks.com: “Oriental Glazes offers a complete overview of the art of high fire reduction glazing, which can be notoriously difficult to master. Michael Bailey has provided in-depth research to bring a wide variety of Oriental glazes to the reader with explanations, notes, and direction where needed. He discusses recipes, chemical make-up, and troubleshooting, and examines current artists’ use of these unique glazes. A wide variety of techniques and glazes are presented, from celadons and tekmokus to the more specialized tea dust and hare’s fur.:

Find it here.

Nigel Wood
Chinese Glazes
Subtitle: Their Origins, Chemistry and Recreation

Published 1999 by A&C Black.

Recommended by Australian potters Des and Jan Howard.

From the description at alibris.com: “Chinese ceramics and their glazes have delighted and enthralled the world for centuries. In this book, Nigel Wood traces the development of Chinese glazes from the Bronze Age to the present day. He carefully describes how Chinese glazes were made, and how they evolved over some 3000 years of continuous production.”

Find it here.

Steve Harrison
Rock Glazes: Geology and Mineral Processing For Potters

Published 2005 by Hot & Sticky Press

Includes a CD.

Recommended by Australian potters Des and Jan Howard.

Find it here.

Greg Daly
Glazes and Glazing Techniques

Published 1995 by A & C Black Publishers Ltd

Recommended by Australian potters Des and Jan Howard.

Description at betterworldbooks.com: “The author takes a straightforward, empirical approach to the subject of glazes. He shows the reader how to develop glaze recipes by the trial and error” method. He also helps the reader to understand the function of the materials in the glaze, how they affect the colouring oxides, and how variations in application and firing can alter the final outcome. The process sequences and finished works are illustrated in the text. The aim of the book is to provide a simple guide to the subject which will educate as well as inspire.”

Find it here.

Ian Currie
Stoneware glazes: a systematic approach

Published 1986 (2nd Edition) by Bootstrap Press.

Recommended by Australian potters Des and Jan Howard.

Find it here

Ian Currie
Revealing Glazes: Using the Grid Method

Published 2000 by Bootstrap Press.

Recommended by Australian potters Des and Jan Howard.

Find it here.

ARTISTIC INSPIRATION

Leonard Koren
Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers
Published in 1994 by Stone Bridge Press

Recommended by Australian potter Kirk Winter, who says the book looks at the ways we see and perceive things.

From the book’s introduction: “Wabi-sabi is a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. It is a beauty of things modest and humble. It is a beauty of things unconventional.”

Find it here

Soetsu Yanagi
Unknown Craftsman
Subtitled: A Japanese Insight Into Beauty

Published in 1972 by Kodansha International Ltd (Tokyo)

Recommended by Australian potter Kirk Winter, who says: “A way of looking at handcrafts.”

Find it here

HISTORY

Janet Gleeson
The Arcanum

Published 1998 by Bantam.

Description: The invention of European porcelain.

Recommended by Australian potter Michael Keighery, who says: “Skullduggery involved even makes the NSW ALP look good.”

Comment by an amazon.com reviewer: “Janet Gleeeson takes us on an intricate and spellbinding tour of 18th century Saxony as she breathtakingly relates the history of porcelain through three of its major players. The story of the aracanum produces a history lesson and detective novel in one as court misdemeanors and everyday life are revealed in all their glory. Everything is revealed from sexually transmitted diseases to the swapping of a vase for a dragoon of soldiers.”

Find it here.

Anthony Burton
Josiah Wedgwood: A Biography

Published 1976 by Andre Deustch.

Recommended by Australian potter Michael Keighery, who says: “The story of the genius, scientist, scholar and industrialist who revolutionised ceramic production.”

Find it here.

Dorothy Johnston
The People’s Potteries: Stories of the Art Potteries of Sydney

More People’s Potteries Stories

Self-published (?), 2002
Description: Pottery history, New South Wales, Australia

Recommended by Australian potter Anna Ryland.

Find both books here or write to: Dorothy Johnson, PO Box 175, Cooranbong NSW 2265, Australia

Michael Cardew
Pioneer Pottery

Published 1971 by St. Martin’s Press (New York).

From the description at alibris.com: When he went to West Africa in the 1940s, Michael Cardew found himself ‘in a land where the potter’s art had been flourishing for centuries without the use of wheels, or kilns, or glazes’. This book grew out of his desire to share all that he had learned from the African pioneers of pottery.”

Recomended by Australian potters Des and Jan Howard.

Find it here.

THE BUSINESS OF ART

Peter Timms
What’s Wrong with Contemporary Art?
Published 2005 by University of New South Wales Press.

Recommended by Australian potter Kirk Winter.

From the description at alibris.com: “In this provocative book, Peter Timms asks confronting questions. Why is contemporary art so in thrall to spruikers and promoters, and why do their extravagant claims so rarely match the reality? Why does the market have such power, and how does it dictate the sort of art we are allowed to see? Why are art schools, museums and the media apparently so eager to fall in line with commercial expectations?”

Find it here.

Harry Davis
The Potter’s Alternative

Published 1987 by Methuen Australia

Recommended by Australian potters Des and Jan Howard.

Description at alibris.com: “Divided into 2 parts: Part 1 is aimed at potters who would like to be independent of supply companies by first finding, then processing their own raw materials using pug mills, blungers and ball mills. Part 2 teaches both potters and others the ‘how to’ of tool and machine making, much of it by hand.”

Find it here.

Out of the mouthes of babes, cooks and food critics come these entertaining observations about one of our favourite subjects.

A fruit is a vegetable with looks and money. Plus, if you let fruit rot, it turns into wine, something brussels sprouts never do.
P.J. O’Rourke, The Bachelor Home Companion

Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread and pumpkin pie.
Jim Davis

After all the trouble you go to, you get about as much actual food out of eating an artichoke as you would from licking 30 or 40 postage stamps.
Miss Piggy

It’s difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato.
Lewis Grizzard

A bagel is a doughnut with the sin removed.
George Rosenbaum

I don’t think America will have really made it until we have our own salad dressing. Until then we’re stuck behind the French, Italians, Russians and Caesarians.
Pat McNelis

If organic farming is the natural way, shouldn’t organic produce just be called “produce” and make the pesticide-laden stuff take the burden of an adjective?
Ymber Delecto

There is a lot more juice in a grapefruit than meets the eye.
Author unknown

No man in the world has more courage than the man who can stop after eating one peanut.
Channing Pollock

One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating.
Luciano Pavarotti, Pavarotti, My Own Story

We love collecting kitchen tips. It doesn’t take much research to find hundreds of handy, interesting, space-saving and time-saving ideas. And everyone has a good tip or two or three, which we hope to collect and present the best of them here.

If you have a handy hint or a safety idea or any other kitchen innovation, share it with our readers by clicking on the Comments tag below right. We’d love to hear from you!

Calcium in kettles

No doubt your grandmother taught you the method for “defurring” a kettle, but if you’re like us, the lesson has grown a little hazy over time. Here it is again for the record: add 1 tablespoon of vinegar to the kettle and half fill with water; let the vinegar mixture sit in the kettle for at least two hours; rinse out calcium deposits with water. Any remaining calcium can be scrubbed gently with a scourer to loosen.

Oven cleaning

If you clean your oven while it is still warm, grease comes off more easily. Just make sure the oven is warm, rather than hot!

Cleaning the cleaner

Steel wool is an indispensable cleaning aid but, being steel, it has a tendency to rust. To prevent this, keep your steel cleaning pads in a jar of water to which has been added half a teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate. Change the mixture once a week. As a matter of interest, sodium bicarbonate is also officially known as sodium hydrogen carbonate, and is commonly called bicarb soda, sodium bicarb, or simply bicarb. It is a chemical compound with the formula NaHCO3. It is a component of the mineral natron and is found dissolved in many mineral springs.

Laminex

While you have the bicarb soda out, here’s another handy tip for its use — it’s great for cleaning laminex benchtops. Create a thick paste of bicarb soda and water. Spread it on and leave for one hour before wiping off with a damp cloth. This method is also good for stains on white stoves.

Versatile furniture polish

Kitchen tiles are easier to clean if, after a good wipe down, you apply some furniture polish. Buff the tiles to a shine, and you will find that grease will not stick to them, and they will be easier to clean in the future.

For anyone who has never tried Asian cooking, you need two things for guaranteed success. The first is hoisin sauce. The second is a serving bowl from the new David Golightly dinnerware range commissioned by Robert Gordon Australia.

But let’s talk about hoisin sauce, possibly the best-known culinary ingredient in Asia and so common in Australia that it is now stocked in the regular condiment and sauce sections of major supermarkets, on a par with mayonnaise and mint jelly.

Anyone who has not tried their hand at Asian cooking, however, probably has not heard of it, and therefore is unaware that this is a magical kitchen aid which can guarantee an eye-opening, how-good-is-this response from everyone.

Hoisin traditionally is made from water, sugar, soybean, sweet potato, white distilled vinegar, rice, salt, wheat flour and garlic. Red chilli pepper is also commonly used, but the spicy heat level is never more than mild.

Hoisin can be used in several ways: it is a traditional dipping sauce for Chinese and Vietnamese dishes such as spring rolls, dumplings and barbecued pork; it is widely used as a flavouring in Cantonese cooking; and it can be used as a marinade.

For anyone interested in trying to prepare an authentic Chinese dish and watching the family’s eye-opening and head-nodding response, we offer the following magic recipe for a noodle stir fry which is healthy, wholesome and guaranteed.

You will need
Hoisin sauce
Main ingredient (eg, meat, tofu, chick peas)
Udon noodles
Vegetables
Oil

What to do
Cut main ingredient into bite-size pieces and combine in a bowl with a tablespoon or two of hoisin sauce. Seal bowl with cling wrap and place in fridge. Marinate for at least two hours, but overnight is better.
Prepare noodles. Udon noodles (available in all major supermarkets) usually need nothing more than a quick soak in warm water to separate.
Garlic and onion is optional, but recommended. If you wish to add these, prepare them now by chopping finely and cooking in oil in a wok or frying pan over a medium heat until soft and translucent. Remove from pan.
Cook the meat in oil over high heat, stirring constantly. Remove from pan.
Prepare vegetables. Experienced stir fry cooks will know that the trick is to cut the vegetables into assorted sizes so that, when thrown together into a wok, they will all be ready at the same millisecond. For the less experienced Asian cooks, we suggest cooking the vegetables separately. They will only take a minute or two each over high heat. Stir constantly. Don’t overcook.
Throw everything back into the pan and heat through, before serving in a warmed David Golightly serving bowl, a heavenly setting for a hoisin meal.

Out of the mouthes of babes, cooks and food critics come these entertaining observations about one of our favourite subjects.

If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973), Lord of the Rings (1954)

Anyone who tells a lie has not a pure heart, and cannot make a good soup.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Food to a large extent is what holds a society together and eating is closely linked to deep spiritual experiences.
Peter Farb and George Armelagos, Consuming Passions: The Anthropology of Eating (1980)

For the millions of us who live glued to computer keyboards at work and TV monitors at home, food may be more than entertainment. It may be the only sensual experience left.
Barbara Ehrenreich, author, social critic

It is illegal to give someone food in which has been found a dead mouse or weasel.
Ancient Irish law

A gourmet can tell from the flavour whether a woodcock’s leg is the one on which the bird is accustomed to roost.
Lucius Beebe, Quotations for our Time (edited by Laurence J Peter, 1977)

Never serve oysters in a month that has no pay check in it.
P.J. O’Rourke, The Bachelor Home Companion (1987)

Boiled lamb brisket … is either the national dish or just what everything is Australia tastes like.
P.J. O’Rourke, Holidays in Hell (1988)

Salad. I can’t bear salad. It grows while you’re eating it, you know. Have you noticed? You start on one side of your plate and by the time you’ve got to the other, there’s a fresh crop of lettuce taken root and sprouted up.
Alan Ayckbourn, Table Manners (1975)

Shake and shake
The catsup bottle.
None will come,
And then a lot’ll.
Richard Armour, Quotations for our Time (edited by Laurence J Peter, 1977)

We love collecting kitchen tips. It doesn’t take much research to find hundreds of handy, interesting, space-saving and time-saving ideas. And everyone has a good tip or two or three, which we hope to collect and present the best of them here.

If you have a handy hint or a safety idea or any other kitchen innovation, share it with our readers by clicking on the Comments tag below right. We’d love to hear from you!

Cast iron
Cast iron kitchen utensils can outlive us all if treated correctly. This involves basically two things: always season them correctly, and never wash them in soap. Cast iron is interesting in that has pores, and minuscule bits of food can get trapped in those pores, making the utensil’s surface sticky. Seasoning fills the pores with tiny amounts of fat, which has the same effect as a non-stick coating. Correct seasoning of cast iron starts with a rinsing and thorough drying. Now grease the inside of the pan well with a solid shortening. Place the utensil upside down on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for an hour at 175°F (350°F). If you intend cooking with acidic foods (such as tomato sauces), it will pay to repeat this process three or four times first. Also repeat the process periodically through the pan’s life. If you do, that life will be a long one. Always wash with water, a damp cloth and, if necessary, a brush or salt (as an abrasive). Always dry thoroughly.

Broken glass
This is always a concern. What if you miss a bit and the kids run through the kitchen in bare feet? What if you miss a bit and you walk through the kitchen in bare feet! While the big bits of broken glass are easy to pick up, the rest is a problem. A dustpan and brush is obviously the next best step, but it can always move rather than gather small pieces. One thing will, with patience, get everything — a slice of bread.

Glass kettles
Talking of glass, a glass kettle comes up like new when you boil water and a teaspoon of boracic acid.

Tea and coffee cup stains
The world can never be quite right if your favourite tea cup or coffee mug is stained. But stains are inevitable and, once there, they can resist the hottest of water and hardest of scrubbing. Here’s a trick: clean with a damp toothbrush dipped in salt.

Stained steel
It is almost, at times, as if stainless steel rebels against its name. When your stainless steel gets that stained look, one thing restores it to its sparkling best better than anything — a damp cloth soaked in vinegar.

We love collecting kitchen tips. It started, oddly, with a discussion about colanders, about which alone there is a world of handy uses. If you haven’t seen our list, look here and be prepared to be surprised at how many things you can do with a colander!

Kitchen tips, however, are a much bigger world. Everyone has a good tip or two or three, and it doesn’t take much research to find hundreds of handy, interesting, space-saving and time-saving ideas.

So, starting tomorrow, we’re going to present some of the best for you. We’ll keep researching, and periodically present more tips.

Most of all, however, we’d love to hear from you. If you have a handy hint or a safety idea or any other kitchen innovation, share it with our readers by clicking on the Comment button below. We’d love to hear from you!

There is a fine line between beauty and utility, and if Robert Gordon Australia has been successful over many decades it has been because it has understood that in our world you can’t have one without the other.

The artist is free to pursue beauty with single-minded determination. The artisan, however, must find a harmonious connection between form and function.

Back in 1955, Ragnar Grimsrud, ceramic designer and general manager of the Norwegian earthenware factory Figgjo, was invited to write a feature for Norway’s leading design magazine, Bonytt. The subject he was asked to discuss was design management and design strategy, from a manufacturer’s point of view.

“One must offer,” Grimsrud wrote, “something for everyone.”

We agree.

Out of the mouthes of babes, cooks and food critics come these entertaining observations about one of our favourite subjects.

Let your food be your medicine, and your medicine be your food.
Hippocrates (c. 460-370 BC)

Food is the most primitive form of comfort.
Sheilah Graham, Hollywood columnist

The discovery of a new dish does more for the happiness of mankind than the discovery of a new star.
Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826), Physiologie du Goût (1826)

Enchant, stay beautiful and graceful, but do this, eat well. Bring the same consideration to the preparation of your food as you devote to your appearance. Let your dinner be a poem, like your dress.
Charles Pierre Monselet, French author (1825-88), Letters to Emily

Food is not about impressing people. It’s about making them feel comfortable.
Ina Garten, The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook

Food is an important part of a balanced diet.
Fran Lebowitz, American author

Once, during Prohibition, I was forced to live for days on nothing but food and water.
W.C. Fields (1880-1946), US comedian

Cheese it is a peevish elf
It digests all things but itself.
John Ray (1627-1705), English Proverbs (1670)

Parsley
Is gharsley.
Ogden Nash, Further Reflections on Parsley (1942)

The mountain sheep are sweeter
But the valley sheep are fatter.
We therefore deemed it meeter
To carry off the latter.
Thomas Love Peacock (1786-1866), The War Song of Dinas Vawr (1823)

We offer today a fabulous recipe which is brought to you courtesy of possums.

The possums, specifically, are those which, when they aren’t chasing each other across our roof in the middle of the night, are eating our lemons.

There can’t be too many wild animals who like lemons, and even possums don’t eat the whole thing. It’s the peel they seem to like. You could say they have a zest for it.

So we took a picture of one of our poor post-possum munch lemons, all the while pondering what to do about the problem. Then we had a brainwave. Bake a cake with the lemons the possums haven’t attacked yet!

The following recipe is the one we chose, and we can vouch that it is brilliantly scrumptious. It comes from Molly Wizenberg’s book A Homemade Life, and we found it at Helen Randell’s Rough Cooking blog.

FRENCH-STYLE YOGHURT AND LEMON CAKE
by Molly Wizenberg

For the cake
1 1/2 cups unbleached plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1/2 cup natural yoghurt
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 cup canola oil

For the syrup
1/4 cup icing sugar, sifted
1/4 cup lemon juice (about two lemons)

For the icing
1 cup icing sugar, sifted
3 tablespoons lemon juice

Preheat oven to 175 degrees C. Grease a 12-inch round cake tin. In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the lemon zest and whisk to mix thoroughly.

In a large bowl, combine the yoghurt, sugar and eggs, stirring to mix well. Add the flour mixture and stir to just combine. Add the oil and stir well.

Pour into your prepared pan and bake for 25-35 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Cool the cake on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then place a tray underneath the rack and slowly spoon the lemon syrup over the cake. Wait for the cake to cool completely and then ice.

Don’t leave unattended outside or the possums will eat it.

Credits: A Homemade Life, By Molly Wizenberg; cake image: www.roughcooking.com