Australia Archives

To me this is amazing. Someone in Australia wanted to buy a couple of my creations, and they like them! They sent me back some photos of where the bowl and plate is in their house (see below). To use a word that seems pretty common here in the UK, I’m “chuffed”. I have some pots in Aus.

I keep thinking of myself as a scientist who’s not good at art. That must be what I thought was true about myself when I was young, and it has stuck. Today, I believe that everybody has art within them, and it’s just a question of if and when it’s allowed out. However, I still don’t think I’m good at art (maybe I’m wrong?).

The lady who bought these items from me also had an interesting story. She told me that she’s keeping them on a sideboard next to some other pots about which she said – “They are created by an Australian lady named Philippa James in the 1920s. She studied with one of the Boyds. These jugs are now on their third generation of our family. I rescued them from the OP shop pile my sister-in-law created when mother-in-law went into a Nursing Home. Her comment was ‘They are only worth what someone will pay for them’. Now I love my sister-in-law, but…”. Here’s the photo of the pots by Philippa James;

pots by Phillipa James — Philippa James’ pots.

It’s hard to find much information about Philippa James, but she definitely made colourful earthenware pots with inspiration from Australia’s flora. One of her pots was featured on the cover of the October 1983 edition of The Australiana Society Newsletter (see the links below) where a little bit of her history starts to come through.

So back to the main point of this post, I’m chuffed that I have some pots in Aus and that somebody really likes them. Even further, to have my pots beside Philippa James’ beautiful creations is more than an honour. Philippa’s work is so nice that they’re inspiring me to try some new things, so it’s back to the pottery studio for me.

Some of my pots in Aus

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