Gus McLaren (1923-2008) worked as a cartoonist on the Argus. In the early 1950s, he and his wife Betty moved to Warrandyte where they met the potter Reg Preston. McLaren had made some chess pieces out of clay. Preston offered to fire them, and, in 1955, the two started to make wares under the name Regus, with Betty trained by Reg to help with the slipcasting and decorating. The couple lived with Preston for a time, then set up their own Yarraridge Pottery in Bradleys Lane, where they made animal figures designed by Gus and slipcast by Betty. In 1958, McLaren and Preston became founding members of the Potters' Cottage at Warrandyte. McLaren then turned his skills to animation, and spent the next three decades interspersing periods of pottery with animation projects. Working increasingly in stoneware, his ceramic work became abstracted and sculptural, with dry ash glazes and forms inspired by his love of science fiction. When Betty moved to Merimbula in the early 1980s, Gus remained in Melbourne, but returned to live with his family before his death in 2008. McLaren's ceramic work is signed 'Gus McLaren'.
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