Art in the country

Small towns are often full of surprises and one little place not far from where I live - but over the state border in New South Wales - is a little beauty. It is as small as a postage stamp and yet it attracts bus-loads of visitors every day and bigger crowds at the weekends. The town's name is Stoker's Siding. The little town started life as a dairy farm but a railway siding gave the necessary impetus for the town to grow. The reason the visitors love this place is due solely to the marketing skills of a very talented potter, everyone who comes here goes in to see the pottery and crafts that are for sale in a building that is close to 100 years old.

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The old building was once a general store and it has been lovingly maintained in its original form and is a photographer's delight! The panes of glass decorating the space above the main windows are not seen like this any more.

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I was rather taken by the unusual glass creations that were hanging inside the main display window. It was a bit difficult to take a photo of them with all the reflections on the glass - and even the circular polariser did not help very much.

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Inside the place is filled with the most exquisite pottery, paintings and works of art. If you want to see unusual glazes and huge platters and special pieces of pottery - this is the place to come!

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The train that converted Stokers Siding to a town has ceased to run and the grass grows tall between the rail lines, there are no noisy trains to disturb the peace any more neither to stop here nor to travel further north to Murwillumbah. The cows can graze in peace and quiet once again.

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The children must travel by school bus to Murwillumbah every morning and some creative parent has decorated the bus shelter. This must be one of very few bus shelters that does not have graffiti all over it.

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Even if you have visited Stokers Siding before, it is always worth another visit. The artwork in Stokers Siding Pottery is always changing and always interesting - and a new business that will attract visitors has opened next door.
AJ

Empty Bowl Luncheon

Today I attended a fund raiser organised by the local pottery society to raise much needed funds for the homeless who live here on the Gold Coast of Australia.

A beautiful handcrafted bowl could be chosen from a huge selection - arriving a few hours after the start of the event the selection was quite depleted but what was left to choose from was definitely not poor as you can see. Colin and I chose a bowl each and I was surprised to find that we had both chosen bowls created by the same potter!

After picking a bowl we made our way across to where there was a huge selection of soups and other foods to choose from. I chose minestrone soup and Colin, pea and ham. This bowl is for pumpkin soup.Out in the grounds of the Pottery Society's studios the crowd of people enjoying their soup were chatting comfortably with each other and making new friends of the public who were encouraged to come along and join in this commendable event.

Tables loaded with all kinds of edible goodies that had all been donated were displayed and if no one was hovering over them, enterprising people were carrying trays of things around the seated people and selling items as they roamed. This tactic was evidently very successful because the trays of items were being refilled as I stood and chatted to one of the potters I had recognised.

As the people were seated they were being entertained by two young and very talented musicians, Bree de Rome (with the guitar) is a singer/songwriter and has a lovely voice. She performed solo to start with and after a solo performance by violinist Sophie Mathison, she sang and played with Sophie and the sound was quite lovely.

The local businesses had got behind this event and had donated all sorts of expensive prizes to be given away as raffles.

I could not resist taking a photo of a gentleman who was arriving as I left. He looked so smart and so colourful. He didn't mind my attention at all!

AJ