MY STORY
Buzzby and Fang are my two beloved dogs who are just delightful and bring me a lot of joy. Pets, past and present, feature in the names of lot of my forms.
Clay and I go way back to my early childhood in Canada. Two members of my immediate family derived their sustenance from ceramics and I was exposed from an early age. That was forgotten for a period and I completed a PhD in Chemistry in 1991 and came to Australia in 1992 to work as a research scientist.
My passion for ceramics was reignited and in 1998 I managed to secure an order from a major Australian retailer. So ended my science career. Shortly after I joined forces with another David (Golightly) to form Elliot Golightly P/L. We wholesaled sculptural ceramic forms to high end retailers in Australia and overseas. The business exhausted me and I sold my interest in 2006 and swore I would never make ceramics again.
My recent ceramic renaissance began when I commenced making pots for my garden in a bid to eliminate all black plastic pots. Gardening is my other passion and it informs and inspires my forms and finishes.
SUSTAINABLE PRACTICE
Making ceramics is resource intensive and I have carefully considered buzzby and fang practices to reduce their impact.
Almost all packaging has been repurposed. This includes the use of 2nd hand, food grade, buckets to ship orders and they can be re-used as food storage or compost containers or as pots to grow edible/ornamental plants. The packing tape I use is completely compostable. The electricity for kilns will be largely generated from the solar panels about to be installed on my roof.
Another consideration is that buzzby and fang products are meant to be cherished and not disposable like so much of the mass-produced goods whose price tag does not reflect their toll on the environment and the people involved making them.
