Natalie Ward: Hi, my name is Natalie Ward. I'm a local Townsville ceramicist. I'm really excited to be working on my entry for Ephemera 2025.

The theme of Trace-less really resonated with me because of the work I'm doing to create glazes using geological waste, so I've partnered with Sunshine Metals, a local exploration geology company to be using their drill core samples.

These samples from their exploration are then sent away to a lab, come back here and I have access to their excess samples, a finely ground powder that I've been able to mix with ash from local woodfire restaurants to create a series of glazes.

My installation of vases each uses a different consecutive metre of the dual core waste, so the variation in colour is all from the different geology in the region.