Peter and Janine Pilven share a studio at Ross Creek, 10 kms from Ballarat, which they set up together in 1984. Peter first became interested in clay while working as an apprentice at the Sovereign Hill Pottery in 1972. He went on to train at the Ballarat School of Mines and spent a number of years travelling and working in Australia and overseas before returning to Ballarat in 1982 and taking up a position at the University there.
From the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, both made high quality wheel-thrown functional ware from white clays. Peter's work featured underglaze slips, in-glaze painting and glaze-trailing with lustre. In 1996, he took long service leave to build an anagama kiln and he is now also well-known as a woodfirer. Janine's work featured colourful in-glaze brushwork decoration. In recent years, she has also experimented with shino glazes fired in the anagama kiln and slab-built panels and vessels made from heavily-grogged clay.
Peter continues to teach at the University of Ballarat (now Federation University Australia) where he is Visual Arts Program Coordinator. They have an entry as a couple in the 1996 potters' directory and they both featured in the Skepsi exhibition Celebrating the Master in 2004. Peter's work is signed 'P Pilven or 'Peter Pilven'. Janine's work is signed 'Janine Pilven'. Works may also be signed just 'Pilven'.
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