Clay Hand Building Workshop: Mud and Merlot

Diana Ceramic - 3/6 Duffy St, Burwood VIC

Diana Ceramic

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A couple of years ago on a cold winter's night, I wanted to distract myself from my run-of-the-mill professional life and decided to take a wheel throwing class. Straight away I was hooked! It was a unique experience - a feeling like nothing I had ever known or heard before!

I touched the clay, and it felt as if I was under a spell… Something as mundane and earthly as mud, yet so out of this world.

I became obsessed with pottery as an after-hours passion, and within a few months, it began to poke my creativity. Pottery became a way for meditation, reflection, and self-expression for me.

Only a few weeks into it, and I realized I had a unique set of tools to shape the clay into extraordinary forms: my background in science, my feminine delicacy, my curiosity, and a keen passion for experimenting with new things, all of which have been shaping the concepts behind my works.

My current practice ranges from tableware to decorative bowls and vases, all of which are typified by elegant imperfection, playfulness, and simplicity. A perfect whole with all my imperfections!

My approach to work is experimental, investigational, and sort of perky as I see this to be the very essence of my view of artistic activity. That said, I don’t like to follow any fixed procedures. I love to step out of the traditional pottery and give my own unique modern touch to it.

I relish playing with different types of clay and enjoy developing new glaze recipes. I’m always ecstatic with the results every time I open the kiln.

I see pottery as a form of expression, a language of the hands. It has helped me to express who I am, my roots, and my cultural identity - an aesthetic blend of Australian simplicity with a root to my Persian background.

As a woman who was born and raised in Iran, faced with lots of cultural taboos, censorship, and "do’s and don’ts" in daily life, a lot of my work focuses on the female form, which I believe helps to break cultural taboos on body and gender.

Diana Ceramic Studio is my lifelong dream that has been made a reality - a space to shape, reshape, and fulfil my love for pottery, and share my skills and passion with others. The studio is a cosy, friendly, and inspiring space, welcoming anyone who shares a passion for clay and ceramics, from absolute beginners to seasoned artists. “The studio gives access to equipment that is otherwise unavailable or too costly for individuals to afford and provides a fun and relaxed environment to learn, create, and chill out.”