Issy Parker — 'Friday Fish Fry', Sculptural Ceramic Dish

Sharing Is Caring is a collection of gas-fired stoneware plates that use glaze painting as an expressive and evocative form of storytelling. Through layered surfaces and personal motifs, each piece offers a deliberate and intimate reflection on experience, place, and identity. Created in solitude on new land, the works capture quiet moments of observation and emotion. Transforming everyday encounters into contemplative, tactile expressions. Every stage of the process was completed by hand, including the firings, each lasting over 17 hours in a gas kiln I built and operate myself. This total immersion in making is central to the work: a physical and emotional investment that deepens the connection between form, story, and surface. The result is a body of work that feels lived-in and intentional, rich with presence, care, and emotional resonance. 

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Shelley Simpson Ceramics Prize 2025

 2 – 30 August

Mud Australia is partnering with Craft to present this year's Shelley Simpson Ceramics Prize. Now in its fifth year, the prize is open to all Australian ceramicists and awards innovative, sustainable and emerging talent with a $10,000 fund to support and accelerate their practice. This year, for the first time, the selected finalists are celebrated in a four-week exhibition in Craft's Atrium gallery space.

The SSCP was established in 2020 by Shelley Simpson – Mud Australia’s Founder and Creative Director – and continues to recognise and support emerging and early-career ceramicists working across the spectrum of contemporary practice.

Since 1994, Mud Australia has designed and hand-crafted elegant and timeless porcelain homewares. Founded and designed by Shelley Simpson, their collection, available in 19 shades, is as much about self-expression as it is about functionality. Mud Australia is 100% handmade and is a proudly climate neutral business.

Read more about the exhibition here:

Material: stoneware, glaze

Dimensions: approx.  29 x 21cm