Five Minutes with ... Peter Andersson

Peter Andersson Wheel Throwing at JamFactory Ceramics Studio, 2023, Photo: Connor Patterson

Peter Andersson is a practising South Australian ceramicist and potter. With an extensive history and connection to JamFactory, we sit down with Peter to discuss his ceramics journey and his work in the latest JamFactory exhibition GOLD: 50 Years 50 JamFactory Alumni

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I grew up in a family that encouraged the notion of “not to ask why, but why not”. That simple but powerful idea would go onto drive me to completely change the trajectory of my life from one of relative “ordinariness” to one of exploring a world of making, exploring, questioning and realising ideas around form, beauty and function.

Your journey with JamFactory first started in the Ceramics Studio completing the Associate Program in 1979/1980. You then became Studio Director in 1989 - 1990. Can you tell us about your experiences at JamFactory and how this has shaped your path in ceramics?

My initial “training” was with Rod Pedlar at McLaren Vale Pottery and at Cherryville Pottery in the Adelaide Hills which gave me a solid grounding in the making of pots in a production sense. When I started the Associate Program at JamFactory I was given the opportunity to take those skills and refine and build on them to the point where I was able to make decisions as to the future direction of my career. It would be fair to say that the experience of both my associateship in the first instance and as Studio Director were significant milestones in my life.

Left to right: Christopher Headley, Bronwyn Kemp, Lorraine Lee, Nicola Purcell, Peter Andersson, Smithie, Jeff Mincham as Associates in 1979.

Peter Andersson, *Vase*, Glazed Earthenware, 250mm, Photo: sourced from Theodore Bruce Auctioneers and Valuers

Your career in ceramics has spanned over the course of 30+ years, what have been the highlights so far?

There have been many highlights over the 30 plus years of making pots. Just running a successful small business for that time supplying pots to many galleries and shops all around Australia has been an achievement. Teaching has also played an important part of my career and I have gained an enormous amount of pleasure imparting the knowledge I have gained over the years to interested students.

You have now joined JamFactory as a tutor in the JamFactory Ceramics Studio, teaching Advanced Wheel Throwing and Introduction to Glazing courses; what do you hope to bring to the short course program?

In a word, knowledge. Having made a lot of pots over many years its easy to forget just how much one knows if for no other reason than one just does it. Teaching forces me to evaluate just what I do know and then to work out how to share that knowledge in a digestible way that doesn’t intimidate, especially when it comes to a subject like glaze development. Very satisfying.

“ It would be fair to say that the experience of both my associateship in the first instance and as Studio Director were significant milestones in my life”

— Peter andersson

Your work Two Sugars Please is featured in JamFactory’s 50th Anniversary exhibition GOLD: 50 Years, 50 JamFactory Alumni. What do you hope the audience takes away from your work and the exhibition as a whole?

That JamFactory has succeeded in navigating 50 years of delivering the services it does is a truly significant achievement. Those that are fortunate to view this milestone exhibition will be able to see the breadth and depth of many of JamFactory’s alumni. And it is this diversity of ideas that is so important, that hopefully will both challenge and delight the audience.

For my own contribution, I simply want to show the value of considered and valued making skills, rooted in the traditions that initially informed me, but with an eye very much on the future and delivered with a bit of a twist.

Get along and see it.