Crafts display

Press, 10 March 1982, Page 5

Crafts display

Exhibition of Invited Potters and Guest Craftworkers at Studio 393 until March 14. z Reviewed by David Brokenshire. < ’ This exhibition features the work of 12 invited potters- with Noel Gregg, blacksmith. and Robin Royds, fabric printer. The highlight of this show is Robin Royds’ work comprising bedspreads and quilts, and what a sumptuous group they form. Robin Royds has explored the theme of “doors and windows" and these are freely worked into designs — almost painting with applied fabric. Texture, colour, and form are all investigated. Words are inadequate to describe these art works. You must see these visual treats. Noel Gregg’s work, turning that intractable material, iron, into robust objects of flowing lines, is in lively contrast to both the pots and the quilts. This is certainly one of the most masculine of art forms yet in Noel

Gregg’s hands objects such as gates, screens, and pokers become works of art. I thoroughly enjoyed perhaps the simplest of the exhibits, the pokers with their different “heads,”; they are “beauties." Of the pots, again there is something for everyone in pieces of earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain. Of the many nice things I thoroughly enjoyed the following: the gentle domestic ware of Mari Tothill, the luscious "landscape” plate of Lawrence Ewing and Judith McMillan, the trinket boxes of Esma Lyon with lovely glaze, form and texture. It is good to see Michael Trumic’s work again — what a magnificent jug! The. egg forms of Robert Wagoner are full of interest, and the bowls and vigorous swelling form of the vases of Aina Apse are completely admirable. This exhibition is quiet, gentle, and well worth seeing.