By NICOLE VALICEK
A NEW exhibition celebrates seven years of work with a selection of unique and quirky pieces hand-crafted by the Hoppers Potters group.
Hoppers Potters are a group of potters who have been creatively potting for seven years under the watchful eye of Francesca Franze- an experienced potter with more than 40 years’ experience.
Francesca has taught hundreds of aspiring students over the decades and has worked with some of Australia’s best with her own pieces finding homes all around the world.
The groups work as a collective went on display and on sale to the public for the first time last week.
The exhibition by potters from Melbourne’s West will display a diverse range of clay objects including bowls, sculptures of comic book heroes to crazy-faced ‘egg separators’ and anything in between.
The group meets once a week and comes from a varied range of backgrounds including data programmers, teachers and the occasional architect.
Group member Robert Falzon said he was looking for a hobby and was attracted to the process but quickly got hooked.
“It’s such an old art form you can zone out from the modern world and get back to something basic.”
Robert admits that skilfully shaping clay into creative ceramic artworks or functional objects in so easy feat, but finding your groove is half the fun.
“You get a lot of pieces that don’t work to amass enough for an exhibition that is pretty good.”
He said the exhibition will go back to basics and be full of colour, shapes and be relaxing to view.
The exhibition will run until Thursday 29 August 10am-4pm at the Louis Joel Arts and Community Centre, 5 Sargood St Altona.
