Posts tagged ‘Australian Studio Pottery’

Mar 7

Rhonda Boehm, Early Piece

I discovered this striking large piece by South Australian Potter Rhonda Boehm recently. It is signed Rhonda Longbottom (her married name, used early in career) indicating it was made in the early to mid 1970s when she had just begun her career as a potter in the Barossa Valley.

It is a substantial piece around 25cm tall x 15cm diameter. Inside it is glazed with a glossy black glaze, and the outside has been iron oxide decorated to accentuate the impressed design. The iron oxide would have been applied to the bisque fire pot, then wiped back, leaving it in the deeper parts creating this effect which was a prevalent look of Australian pottery in the 1970s into the 1980s. The large ridges down the outside appear to have been impressed with a thumb mark while the clay was still wet.