This tea set with teapot shaped and coloured like a Tasmanian tiger was designed by Jiri Bures. It is currently a feature of my ‘outside office’ (aka the back veranda), together with a Dino Riders brontosaurus, a set of Redbyrne Pottery canisters and a planter in the characteristic relief style of Graham Masters of Sweenies Creek Pottery.
Jiri Bures trained as an architect then managed an interior design studio in Prague before establishing his own graphic design studio in Germany in 1979. He moved to Australia in 1982 and set up a studio and gallery at Bondi Beach in Sydney. In 1989 he was invited to exhibit in Los Angeles and stayed there for five years. On his return to Australia, he and his wife Ivanka moved their business to the Rocks. The JB Studio Rocks outlet still has a web directory presence but the website was taken down in 2005, and Bures is now based in the UK.
Bures realises his ideas in a range of visual media and uses industrial production techniques to make three-dimensonal wares. His ceramics are slip-cast and press-moulded earthenware pieces, decorated using a low-fire range of glazes and underglaze colours. His works are influenced by the Memphis Design Group, which, in the 1980s, challenged the need to conform to design conventions, with often humorous and witty results.
Bures signs his work ‘Bures’ or ‘Bures Australia’. Some pieces are marked ‘Handmade by J.B. Studio Australia’.
References
- Ivanka Kazdova, “Jiri Bures,” Pottery in Australia, Vol. 25, No. 2, May, 1986, p. 31.
- Jiri Bures art and design: painting, prints, glass and ceramics (viewed 12 August 2008).
- Jire Bures, “About me,” Jiri Bures Portfolio (Internet Archive copy dated 22 January, 2002).
Australian Pottery 
Hi Judith,
I’m really impressed with your work on the Ellis ceramics. I am hoping to publish an article about the Kratochlivs and was hoping that you might be interested in contributing.
Best wishes,
Veronica