Colourful, crazy characters in clay

Press, 8 May 1985, Page 22

Colourful, crazy characters in clay

By

KAY FORRESTER

There are dragons at the bottom of Joy Swafford’s garden — and frogs, and gnomes, and birds, and frogs.

All are the products of the imagination of the Christchurch potter, whose first encounter with potting left her disillusioned.

“I did pottery at school but didn’t like it all,” she said.

Seven years ago, when she returned to New Zealand from the United States, she decided to try pottery again.

“I like the idea of working with clay, but when 1 tried using a wheel it wasn't successful. “I didn't like the mechanical aspect of the wheel. It was a third thing intruding between me and the clay — so I turned to handworking

the clay, which wasn’t very common then.”

Joy Swafford felt at home working the clay by hand. It fitted her sense of naturalness of the clay. Seven years later she is still experimenting with clay - strong, earthy clay, finer clay, and porcelain. She fires her work in an electric kiln.

The earthy clay she first used for the dragons and frogs that have become something of a trademark. The idea for dragons came from her G.P. when she lived at Amberley. “He and his wife bought 10 acres and moved out into the country, which had always been a dream of theirs. He complained of things eating all the vegetables in his garden, particularly his cabbages. He wanted me to make some creatures to put under the

cabbages to eat the things. “For a long time I didn’t make anything. I could see the creatures in my mind but couldn’t make them. I thought cabbages . . . cabbage munchers . . . and suddenly it clicked. The finished creatures looked a bit dragonlike and since then have evolved to become dragons.” The dragons now range from the slightly clumsylooking variety to detailed and delicate porcelain creatures with wings. Two of them have a permanent home under a bush in the garden of the Innes Road house Joy Swafford has recently moved into. As well as the dragons there are the frogs — insane frogs, Joy Swafford calls them.

“I was watching some frogs one day. They are very, very still, then suddenly launch into a great

leap. I think frogs have a great sense of humour and that is what I try to show in my frogs. They are just a lot of fun.”

A pond of frogs used to inhabit the garden at Joy Swafford’s Amberley house. She intends to establish another pond at Innes Road. The fascination of shaping dragons and frogs that first addicted Joy Swafford to creating from clay spread to other characters. Some were animal; some people. Often the idea for a clay creature takes some time to mature. The dragons were three years in the mind of their creator before she came up with a form she was happy with. Even now, the dragons are still changing.

The last two years or so have seen the evolution of a large Chinese lion, one of a pair commissioned by a couple who lived in China.

The lion has been carved and moulded in a Nelson clay and is ready for firing. He was a creature that Joy Swafford loved working on.

“The people gave me freedom to make my own lion but with a Chinese concept. I gave him a Maori rafter pattern on his collar which fits naturally with the curls of his wig.”

The latest commission is from the State Coal Mines and is of a coal miner perched atop a chunk of coal. The State Coal Mines are supplying the coal, Joy Swafford the lifelike miner.

“I coiled up a skeleton to work from and built up his body. Then I dressed him and filled him out.” The miner is an extension of a series of colonial New Zealand figures that the potter made early in her career. They dealt with rural subjects and comple-

mented a series on colonial country equipment. Similar works have been commissioned by the Hurunui County Council as presentations to retiring councillors. Joy Swafford was inspired to make the colonial series because the figures epitomised a unique “New Zealandness” to her. As well as the larger pieces she makes the bread and butter pieces such as toadstools, the frogs, and, perhaps, a new line in sheep, being worked on at the moment. These are sold through the Gefn Craft Cooperative shop in the Cashel Mall. The potter also supplies a shop in Queenstown. Later this year she will be the guest exhibitor at the annual exhibition of the Fiordland Arts Society. Quite what the future holds Joy Swafford is not sure. One thing is certain: it

will contain clay creatures of one sort or another. She would like to travel to South America and China to see the primitive art of those countries — not just the clay sculptures, but also the weaving. And she would like to take up photography again. While in the United States she worked in the photo lab at N.A.S.A. with space photographs including shots from Skylab. “I would never be able to afford that kind of darkroom but I still have the camera equipment. What really appealed to me with photography was the colours.” It is colour that Joy Swafford plans to pursue in her pottery. She has started by using coloured clay for the frogs. “I like the thought of turning out colourful, crazy characters.”