RIDGELINE
POTTERY
“My way of working is a response to place.”
I was born in Hobart and now live on the South Arm peninsula on the south-eastern edge of Tasmania/Lutruwita, the southern island state of Australia - on the edge of the Southern Ocean, this is a place of eroded cliffs, refracted ocean swells, rock stacks and the linear natural and human patterning of the tidal zone.
After university studies in Economics and time involved with making surfboards, I left resin and fibreglass for clay and fire to begin a now 40-year long obsession with craft making.
My way of working has a strong emphasis on using local materials and wood firing, responding to the revealed potential of the materials, while exploring the transforming power this ancient firing method offers.
I also use gas and electric kilns to make tableware for local and interstate fine-dining restaurants and private clients. The restaurants offer a creative stage where form and surface developed with sustaining usefulness in mind can be explored, enjoyed and appreciated.
BEN RICHARDSON
