Ceramic artist Bev Leversha has found her niche. By Liane Arno
IT’S A wonder Bev Leversha is even here given how she started as a ceramicist. After studying for her diploma of pottery at RMIT, she went to gain some industry experience and was employed in a small factory in a tin shed in Abbotsford.
It didn’t augur well when the boss found out she was left handed and so kept smudging the designs that he had created to be applied by right-handed people.
But when he found that she could create better freehand designs herself, she was given carte blanche to do whatever she wanted.
IT’S A wonder Bev Leversha is even here given how she started as a ceramicist. After studying for her diploma of pottery at RMIT, she went to gain some industry experience and was employed in a small factory in a tin shed in Abbotsford.
It didn’t augur well when the boss found out she was left handed and so kept smudging the designs that he had created to be applied by right-handed people.
But when he found that she could create better freehand designs herself, she was given carte blanche to do whatever she wanted.
Because of her skill, she was placed in the segregated male area, with her only companions being those recently arrived from European war-torn countries. They couldn’t speak any English and took great delight in watching this feisty young five-foot tall (152-centimetre) woman lift the casts onto the shelves on wobbly plaster boards. And all the time covered from head to foot in a fine red dust that was sprayed onto all the ceramics before they were fired.
A strike at the factory – in which she couldn’t participate because she couldn’t understand what her colleagues were saying – found her out of work. She found a job at Sale Technical College prior to attending the Technical Teachers College in Toorak.
She worked in many technical schools over the years, and throughout all the time continued to pot – mainly utilitarian wheel work – in both earthenware and stoneware clays using a home-made gas kiln and a wood-fired kiln.
Lately, Bev’s attention has been drawn to ceramic jewellery and colourful ceramic bells, which she sells at a prodigious rate at ArtSpace.
Bev’s philosophy is simple. “I know what I like, and I like making what I like.”
The Artspace Gallery, 5-7 McBride Avenue , Wonthaggi, Ph 5672 1415, is open Thursday to Monday, 10am-4pm.
A strike at the factory – in which she couldn’t participate because she couldn’t understand what her colleagues were saying – found her out of work. She found a job at Sale Technical College prior to attending the Technical Teachers College in Toorak.
She worked in many technical schools over the years, and throughout all the time continued to pot – mainly utilitarian wheel work – in both earthenware and stoneware clays using a home-made gas kiln and a wood-fired kiln.
Lately, Bev’s attention has been drawn to ceramic jewellery and colourful ceramic bells, which she sells at a prodigious rate at ArtSpace.
Bev’s philosophy is simple. “I know what I like, and I like making what I like.”
The Artspace Gallery, 5-7 McBride Avenue , Wonthaggi, Ph 5672 1415, is open Thursday to Monday, 10am-4pm.