A couple of lovely ying ching tea cups have gone to the British Royal family as a gift from the Australian Duke of Edinburgh Awards.

Leading Us Where? I am a potter. I do not consider myself a ceramicist. I have been working with and developing my skills for the past 30 +years. It has been for me a source of enjoyment and frustration. It has been a lonely journey which at first I enjoyed but as I grow older I find that it has isolated me and taken me out of the mainstream of public profile. It is becoming clear to me that one must remain in the forefront of people?s minds if one is to earn a living AND get any kind of feed back that is required to move onwards. Since I began to pot with my father Ivan McMeekin in 1978 the world and the pottery world has moved on a pace. With the ease of internet communication and the access of so much knowledge available on the world wide web it seems that the technical base which I held in great respect ,has to a certain extent, been diminished and has taken away the devotion and commitment that the producers of great glazes of quality and beauty *had to have. The re emergence of China as an international ceramic manufacturer that produces high quality ,cheap, if not particularly aesthetically beautiful china again deals another blow to those of us who have spent our working lifetime at the wheel making domestic ware for discerning clients to purchase and use. The craft/hippie movement of the 60?s and 70?s lies in tatters and debate still rages as to why the general public no longer seem to care or take much interest in hand made quality goods? Is it the demise of the education institutes particularly in ceramics, or is it that we have failed to keep up with changing trends and fads that come and go faster than our ability to perform the necessary research and development to produce the latest trends. I must at this stage put up my hand and say that I am not interested in doing any such thing. We live in a world where it seems that most things are throw away quality, even to my amazement power tools. Tools that I used to grave and save for to make my work a little easier are now in cheap abundance. But it does seem that this place our community is in now, so far as commodities goes, is eating into our artistic soul and is leaving us reeling and confused about our place in society and our expression. Do I now see at the shows of our art schools a leaning towards the quirky rather than the quality? Is it *the curriculum and the change of the necessary ?outcome? that has moved the schools in this direction. Is it that the teachers at these schools are trying to break new ground and if so why and where has the simple skill base gone? Do we now accept that we as craftsman will only be treated as ?artists? in the rarefied world of contemporary art? Is that actually what the new generation of potters want? I pose this question with absolute sincerity and hope that we can open up some form of communication on this subject because it causes me a great deal of consternation and I want some answers not only from the teaching profession but from the students undergraduated and graduated, from buyers and camp followers. I await the following issue of the magazine with interest and hope that people will take the time to write some thoughts on this issue. Susie McMeekin

The opening on Friday night the 8th October on a beautiful spring night in Sydney was a success.I sold well and the pots were well recieved and that did much to bring up my happiness levels. The show remains on display until the 26th of October and I have been asked to speak on a radio show called Arts and Tarts, I believe some time in the next few weeks. It is on a station Triple R which covers a good chunk of Sydney. I would like to thanks Piers Laverty for opening the show and being so supportive in the last few months. Also to thanks all those who came on Friday night . It was lovely to see you and to those of you I met for the first time it was great to meet you and meet new people interested in pottery. Also thanks to my family for putting up with my moodiness during the preparation for the show.

New pots are in the process of being finished for this show. I have been working on the double gourd shape and I am fairly pleased with process.

This year has flown by. The show that Su Hanna and I had at the Clay Energy Conference in Gulgong was quite the success. Su and I spent most of our time talking to interested potters about our work and for me it was pushing the barrow that wood fired work does not have to be brown. We were interviewed by a couple of students for assignments and basically sold pots and talked our heads off.

I am now in the process of preparing for a show at the Kerry Lowe Gallery at Newtown in Sydney in early October and then a group show at the Cudgegong Gallery in Gulgong in November. Between now and then I will be in a group show with the people who I worked with in China. The show is at the Masterworks Gallery in Ponsonby , Auckland , New Zealand opening on the 21st of July.