Potter, teacher and craftsman supplier, Margaret Burgess Lloyd became a dental technician in the airforce when Jamie Linton would not take her on as an apprentice. She was a friend of pottery owner Jean Darbyshire.
As a twenty eight year old mother she enrolled c1949 with Erna Manners at Fremantle Technical College in pottery and found her studious preparation very useful. She was much younger than the other members of the group. When classes were started up again in 1954, under Francis Kotai, she returned.
About 1955 she commenced potting in a shed on her Nedlands block. She soon found selling her pots could not support her and five children so around 1957-58 she started teaching herself, running her popular Riverside Studio from 1958 to 1969 with some 150 students each year. This grew from 43 to 120 students and so she bought the house next door and expanded.
She held nine major selling exhibitions. Her students included Joan Campbell, Robert Bell, Ray Sampson, Joan Piggford and the first teachers of pottery for high schools Fred Stewart and Mel Livesey. Very soon there were pottery groups throughout the State.
She was described by the head of art in the Education Department, Ray Sampson, as “Head of the Studio Movement in Western Australia”. She taught one year at the University Summer School but was replaced by Eileen Keys the following year. Both were part of the Craft Association and there was a little rivalry. 1969-70 she opened Meg Sheen Craftsman Supplier in Hay Street, Subiaco until c1997. She also ran the Hyde Park Festival for some years.
- Writers:
- Dr Dorothy Erickson
- Date written:
- 2010
- Last updated:
- 2011
