Ella Bendrups / Ceramicist

Tuesday 19th April - a typical wet Autumn day in Melbourne. It's the Easter School Holidays, and I've enrolled my seven-year-old daughter Hannah in a ceramics class for kids run by Ceramicist Ella Bendrups.

As I pick up Hannah from Northcote Pottery Supplies, her face and arms covered in clay, she's beaming and is excited to tell me about her morning adventure. 

'Daddy, that was SO much fun! I can't wait to see my creation once it's glazed. I chose the Chun glaze, which is a light blue colour...'

We're told her 'creation' will need to be dried before doing the first firing - then glazed - before firing it again. The process takes a few weeks, and we'll receive an email when it's ready to be picked up.

The waiting process reminded me of the analogue photography days, the nerve-racking anticipation of processing the film and the delayed gratification of seeing the results. I'm glad to expose Hannah to an alternative life experience versus today's fast-paced, immediate gratification world. 

On the way home in the car, Hannah says, 'Daddy, that's a cool hobby Ella has.'

I explain that Ella is a full-time Artist and her job is working as a Ceramicist and teacher. 

Surprised, Hannah replies, 'I want to be an artist too when I grow up...'

Hannah's enthusiasm is somewhat reminiscent of Ella's childhood. 

While Ella's parents weren't practising artists, they always encouraged her to be creative. Her mother was a Naturopath, and her father was a media teacher.

'When I was young', says Ella, 'I was always messing around trying different things. My parents always supported me, buying me nice paint sets and sending me to art classes - we often went to the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). They always supported that I could be a creative child.'

In High School, she chose design-based subjects in Studio Arts Photography and Visual Communication and Design. After graduating, she completed a Bachelor of Communication Design at RMIT University. However, she discovered two years into her studies that it wasn't what she wanted to do because she realised it was a computer-based discipline. 

'Letterforms are a great art form - but it was a bit depressing sitting in front of the screen all day. I kept wishing I was using my hands more to be creative in other ways.'

After finishing the course, she searched for alternative careers and looked into Textile design but did not pursue it. She then completed further studies at TAFE with a Diploma of Interior Design and Decoration at RMIT. However, she again discovered that she would be doing the same - sitting in front of the computer.

'I don't struggle with technology and computer stuff, and I'm pretty proficient in it; that wasn't the issue. It wasn't what I wanted to do with my life (sitting in front of the computer)...'

Not feeling satisfied, she stumbled upon another career - in Photography Styling. 

'A stylist was sharing details about her life, how she spent every day differently, and how she worked in teams - she made it sound exhilarating. I thought that's what I wanted to do! So I contracted stylists I admired and asked if I could assist them.'

As a stylist's assistant, she noticed beautiful ceramics from local and overseas artists that the stylists were sourcing and utilised as props for photoshoots. This experience exposed her to many talented makers and inspired Ella to try ceramic art herself.

'It just opened up something in my head. I would've loved to have tried ceramics in high school but missed out on the chance. And I was like, why not have a crack at it now? So in 2015, I did my first workshop in Handbuilding, and I found it SO much fun!'

Being a former perfectionist and self-proclaimed high-achieving student, she discovered a degree of newfound freedom and personal expression. She just had a go, and whilst the results weren't technically perfect, they had a personality - and they were uniquely hers. 

'I was inspired by Cécile Daladier, a French ceramicist whose works were wonderfully chunky, beautiful and not perfect. Coming from that perfectionist mindset, I thought the best pottery was always symmetrical, thin and very detailed, which I still think is beautiful. However, I never wanted to create that style because I was trying to move away from being a perfectionist and into something that felt more personal.'

I tell Ella that when I think of traditional pottery, I visualise the iconic pottery wheel scene in the movie Ghost.

Ella educates me: the pottery wheel technique is called Wheel Throwing.

'I tried Wheel Throwing, but I could not come up with anything successfully. There can be a perceived hierarchy in ceramics, with Handbuilding seen as inferior to Wheel Throwing, but they're all just different techniques. When I was learning on the Wheel, I found that you have to set out to make something specific. You have to have a mindset of following through with your intention; it's a beautiful skill, but it wasn't for me. The only Wheel I work with now is a banding wheel, basically a manual turntable on a pedestal that allows me to spin my pieces around when I'm working on them.'

Before ceramicists invented the Wheel, Handbuilding was the only way they could create functional and artistic ceramic forms. According to Ella, Handbuilding is a more forgiving creative process, which suits her working methodology. 

'I like to stop, take a minute, think and wonder what it might look like if I cut the clay in half, turned it upside down, or squished it in a bit more? I want it to be that part of my creative expression, seeing where I can take this piece of clay.'

She has since embraced a more expressive nature of Handbuilding, pinching, coiling and carving clay. She doesn't indulge in surface decoration like glazes; instead, she celebrates the clay's raw textures, preserving the natural colours of the fired clays, speaking to the earth from which they originated. Instead, she applies subtle treatments that emphasise how light plays on each piece. 

'I mainly use the coiling technique now, which is my happy place, whereby you roll the clay, like a coil of rope, and then attach them to create a shape. I also work in composite forms and not on a singular piece, building it from the bottom up. I like to work in parts to continue to adjust and manoeuvre as I'm creating'.

She also likes to leave evidence of the maker's touch.

'The pottery that I found most affecting during my travels overseas were objects I saw in museums - quite old, everyday things with the maker's finger marks. You could see that someone had tried something a little different even though they were making the same form. The evidence of their touch, by an artisan - the maker's touch - really appealed to me because I think it humanises the work.’

At 32, Ella is now a full-time artist. Her initial foray into ceramics was through studies at Guild of Objects and Northcote Pottery Supplies. Her newfound career, progressing to a self-led explorative practice, was fast-tracked when Modern Times (a design store in Collingwood, Victoria) approached her to have her work stocked in their store.

'That was the biggest thing for me. In 2017, I was selling my pieces at the Melbourne Ceramics Market; one weekend, I met the owner of Modern Times. She loved my work, thought they were beautiful and original, and wanted to stock them in her store. It gave me an accelerated career start, so I'm thankful for that.'

Many of Ella's creations have an earthy, tactile, organic feel. Often, they don't appear human-made and are reminiscent of what you'd discover in nature. Unlike classic 'glossy glazed pottery' for display, her work encourages human interaction - to be handled, felt and touched. 

'Nature is an enduring influence in my work. I love nature, and I think that some of the most beautiful things are naturally occurring - that's been a constant in my life. Growing up, we had a beach house on the Mornington Peninsula; I would love to go to the beach to explore for shells and rocks. When I met my partner, he took me up to Mount Buffalo for the first time, and I saw big blocky stacked stone formations that I thought were the ultimate. You cannot beat nature; it's my muse...'

Her quaint little studio in the backyard of her parent's home in Melbourne's inner North is camouflaged beautifully by foliage and trees. Ella says the deal with her parents was the studio had to be partially invisible. Custom-built with 3-Phase power to run her kiln; it's a far cry from her humble beginnings when she used to work on her parent's back porch.

Observing Ella at work in her tiny intimate 1.6m x 4m studio, I notice that she likes to work in silence with no other distractions, such as music.

'I like to have silence in my life; I'm affected by music. Certain moods in songs will throw me, and I would start to feel that - often affecting my work. Without the distraction, I can listen to the sounds of nature around here and the birds - it centres me. I love that about my practice because I use it as a kind of meditation to centre myself and feel calm and relaxed. It's a wonderful state to create...'

Spending a few hours with Ella, I felt 'that' calm and relaxed atmosphere: observing her intimate interaction with clay is like experiencing a 'visual massage'. The soft 'tap, tap, tap' sound of her tool tapping against the clay - a technique she uses to create a dimpled texture in her works - was surprisingly meditative.

'I have a real connection with clay', she says, 'it's the one I stuck with the longest. I've dabbled in many things, and I now have a medium that allows me to communicate, work through ideas, and explore. It's also stress relief and makes me present. I get into a flow state when I'm working with clay, and I can do all the things I want to do with it - there are always more possibilities...'

I ask if she likes using a particular type of clay?

'I like using clay with some grog (crushed brick or other fired ceramic aggregates added to clay), which helps build up body - so not a very fine clay. They are better for Handbuilding because it builds sturdier, which means I can work faster and larger with more structural integrity.'

Speaking of building more significant works, Ella had an idea during Covid Lockdown in 2021 to create large monumental sculptures inspired by old civilisation.

'Due to lack of space, I knew I couldn't make large pieces in my own (tiny) studio. So I applied for a three-month Guest Art Residency at Northcote Pottery Supplies. I knew that I could work through my ideas, increase the scale of my work and build my confidence and technique with time and dedication. To answer your question before you started, I had to commit my brain to one idea fully, and that's the first time I've done that...'

She named her new body of work, Domestic Talisman. The large-scale sculptures reference ancient bone, horn, terracotta, glass and wood beads. Ella explains that the series of totemic sculptures reinterpret ancient protective amulets. Her practice now focuses on old clay and stone artifacts, and she explores their ability to transcend the times and cultures. 

'To live my best life, I need to keep working with clay, which is part of what makes me. Doing meaningful work means that I am happier, engaged, and challenged. The main thing for me now, with the pieces I make, is that I make them because they're meaningful to me; I want it to be a part of my creative expression.'

With a baby on the way, I ask Ella what her future holds?

'I'm looking forward to seeing what inspiration might come from motherhood; I'm open to where my new path might take me...'

Saturday 07th May. After receiving an email that Hannah's work is ready for collection, we head back to Northcote Pottery Supplies. As we scan the shelves for her 'creation', we notice many have cracked and broken during the firing process. I nervously pick up a perfectly intact light blue-coloured piece. With my fingers crossed, I flip it over to check the engraving on the underside, hoping it belongs to Hannah...