Megan
LightNews LightNews
banner
meganchapman.bsky.social
Megan
@meganchapman.bsky.social
510 followers 650 following 420 posts
Weekday IMH Clin Psych. Weekend improving, not quite so novice, potter.
Talks health, research, social justice, arts & crafts, occasional scifi fangirling, & African travels.
DPsych(clinical) PhD
Posts Replies Media Videos
meganchapman.bsky.social
Please indulge me momentarily while I show off this magnificent loaf of sourdough spelt bread that has just emerged from the oven.

#sourdough
A very delicious looking loaf of sourdough bread on a cooling rack
November 15, 2025 at 3:08 AM
meganchapman.bsky.social
Went for a wander at Melbourne Zoo this week. Met a lemur with some serious attitude.
A lemur with a stern expression flexing his biceps
October 25, 2025 at 2:36 AM
meganchapman.bsky.social
Thought it was important to catch you up on the final outcome of term 3 of pottery. Pretty good, I reckon. I’m really enjoying carving, and the glazes worked pretty well. The bowls are proper salad bowl sized, which is good to see I’m managing bigger pieces of clay. Onwards to term 4.

#pottery
Four different hand thrown pots. Two carved mugs, one is blue and one in mustard. A large mustard bowl, and a pink with blue misting plate. 4 handthrown pieces of pottery. A mustard squat rounded form, a faceted mug with blue breaking over black, a light blue carved mug, and a large bowl, with the walls being a light camel but the bottom has pooled to blue 4 pieces of pottery. A faceted short form with lots of colours. A small dish that has two tones of glaze, a faceted and spot carved vessel in green, and a slip decorated large bowl in blue breaking over black.
October 22, 2025 at 9:36 AM
meganchapman.bsky.social
Did I mention the showbag? Made from recycled signage that used to cover the fences during construction. It’s going to be a great shopping bag.
A brightly coloured shopping bag, with the contents in front of it. There’s a cardboard train I’ve put together, some pamphlets, some post it notes, and a badge. There’s were some jubes…. Mark ate them.
August 31, 2025 at 3:53 AM
meganchapman.bsky.social
Summing up - it was worth a look. And the organisers made people welcome on a chilly rainy Melbourne day, with hot drinks, hot food, and hot jam donuts. And music, and a showbag made from old signs. Thanks to everyone who made it happen.

4/end
A harpist and a trumpet player, with the odd emu pink puppet in the foreground Dad and I, checking on the platform. Complete with orange entry stickers, and wearing anoraks like proper trainspotters. Except we didn’t see a train.
August 30, 2025 at 4:23 AM
meganchapman.bsky.social
The platform itself has mosaic indigenous artwork of footprints on the platforms.
A footprint mosaic on the platform. A view of the tunnel
August 30, 2025 at 4:23 AM
meganchapman.bsky.social
They had an audio guide explaining the architecture, design, construction, and art within the station. The colour scheme is designed to reflect a Melbourne sunset. 2/

bigbuild.vic.gov.au/use-metro-tu...
Entrance to Arden station. Arched roof is evident, and the entry gates. And a puppetry emu creature, for good measure. Lights, skylights, escalators inside the station. The trim of the lights is yellow, they refer to them as cockatoo lights. Yellow and white. A view from the concourse looking up the escalators to the main entry.
August 30, 2025 at 4:23 AM
meganchapman.bsky.social
Today was the day for a sneak peek at the new Arden train station, part of the soon to open Metro tunnel project in Melbourne. It was really well organised, lots of staff answering questions, and a lovely atmosphere with curious trainspotters taking a look, dad and I included. 1/
A sign saying “queue here for Arden Staion sneak peer” with an arrow pointing a large red prick building to the right. The front of the new Arden station, with a mural of two hands reaching for each other, and a big cavernous entry A sign saying “Arden Station” and a view of the back of the station, with the curved roof and entry evident.
August 30, 2025 at 4:08 AM
meganchapman.bsky.social
Week 2 of pottery. Time to attempt throwing a bigger piece of clay… and as if by magic, a big bowl appeared. Twice! Let’s see how they trim up next week. And there’s a couple of forms that will become mugs, for good measure.
A large pottery bowl, just thrown, sitting on a pottery wheel. 2 large pottery bowls, sitting on throwing bats on a bench. 3 smaller pieces of hand thrown pottery. 2 might turn into mugs. One is a rounded type thing… too small for a bowl, too tall for a dish, I’ll try to think of a better name for it….
August 16, 2025 at 4:43 AM
meganchapman.bsky.social
Dunno. I’ll ask when I go back. This is it on its own. I played a lot of faceting last term.
A pair of small faceted pinch pots. Glazed in “tea dust” which is brown, and has broken to a slightly different colour over the facets. They’re really small. Dunno what I’m going to do with them. Might be good for a shot of something warming for the soul?
July 7, 2025 at 2:32 AM
meganchapman.bsky.social
Sitting here trying to percussion a stuck fast lid off a dodgy looking teapot…. It’s not looking promising at the moment.
A collection of pottery items. The teapot on the right has a stuck lid after glazing. It was a bit of a dodgy teapot anyway, that caused no end of trouble…. It may find a home sitting outside as a garden ornament.
July 7, 2025 at 1:27 AM
meganchapman.bsky.social
I got my vessels confused. This one is the chrome pink over tea dust. I glazed a few with this combo because last time it was a beautiful combo, with a very subtle pink coming through. This time, still beautiful, but it’s blue. Has done the same on the unfaceted vessel too.
A faceted pottery vessel, with iridescent pink glaze which has turned out blue instead, breaking through a brownish/green base. It’s lovely. A more traditional, handleless drinking vessel. Same glaze combo as the faceted vessel. Again, the pink has turned out as an iridescent blue instead.
July 7, 2025 at 1:20 AM
meganchapman.bsky.social
Collected the pots this weekend. Some interesting firing results. Chrome pink has turned out iridescent blue on a few pots. Not what I expected, but nice all the same. Here is a sample of what appeared.

#pottery
A faceted vessel. Different glaze breaking over the facets. It’s blue over a black. It was supposed to be pink. Definitely not pink. It’s rather lovely A mug. Faceted, with a good handle. It’s a light green, and just glows. It’s rather lovely too Finally, something that was supposed to be pink actually turning out pink. It’s a lidded jar, with ridges on the body and lid, which as caught the pink glaze with a sandy coloured base. It’s pretty cool. Finally, the glazed teapot. It’s got a rather large spout, glazed in a celadon green. Curvy lines along the body of the teapot and a curvy knob. It’s small, just enough for a single cup of tea.
July 6, 2025 at 12:45 PM
meganchapman.bsky.social
Dad gave me mum’s recipe books. This was the one I remember from when I was little. Mum still had it marked open with rubber bands on the biscuit page. She called these “Megan’s biscuits”. Favourite bickies then, favourite bickies now.
Miss you mum.
Picture of old hand written recipe books and three biscuits. A pile of home cooked biscuits. The recipe. 1 cup sugar 2 cups SR flour 3 oz butter 1 egg 1 large tablespoon golden syrup 1 large cup desiccated coconut 1 tablespoon of milk 1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda dissolved in the milk A few walnuts. Cream the butter and sugar. Add egg, golden syrup, milk and soda. Add flour, coconut, and nuts Bake moderate oven 350F for 10-15 minutes.
May 31, 2025 at 6:43 AM
meganchapman.bsky.social
What my house sometimes looks like after collecting my pots after firing… lots of pottery waiting to work out what home it might go to, and which pieces turn into favourites that stay.

The cartoon is an old one by Joseph Farris from the New Yorker.
Cartoon by Joseph Farris from the New Yorker of a man sitting in a chair surrounded by pottery, and a woman coming in holding a pot. Caption says “look honey, I made another pot”. He does not look enthusiastic.
May 21, 2025 at 5:18 AM
meganchapman.bsky.social
Back to pottery today. Core strength isn’t quite up to throwing yet, so Kevin got me playing with imprinting slabs, which have turned into freeform plates.
A clay slab with leaves rolled into it. A rolling pin, and a finished imprinted freeform clay plate can be seen in the background.
May 10, 2025 at 4:29 AM
meganchapman.bsky.social
Yes. When we were down last year we met Margaret Sonnemann at the book fair, who was helpful. Of course, it was the weekend before the huge Aurora event…. but we didn’t do too badly in Victoria.
Any local tips are always welcome, Bronte.
Aurora Australis glowing green, red, and pink, as seen through an old bluestone viaduct
May 2, 2025 at 6:31 AM
meganchapman.bsky.social
Just taken these out of the oven. Sourdough spelt, they’ve been on the go about 36 hours. Just brushed on the glaze, and we’ll have hot cross buns for breakfast.
A tray of freshly baked hot cross buns, straight out of the oven. 16 all up, some are a little wonky….
April 17, 2025 at 11:54 AM
meganchapman.bsky.social
Next stage of the hot cross buns. More waiting…..
Four rows of round soon to be hot cross buns, on a baking sheet set aside to rise for the next two hours or so. You can see the currants and the pecans poking through the dough.
April 17, 2025 at 12:31 AM
meganchapman.bsky.social
Hot cross bun making is in full swing. Sourdough spelt, and FODMAP friendly. It’s about a 24 hour labour of love, but they are delicious.

#fodmap #hotcrossbuns #sourdough #baking
April 16, 2025 at 5:11 AM
meganchapman.bsky.social
Just a timeline cleanse of a couple of photos from the Kusama exhibition at NGV in Melbourne. It’s the last week, and it’s open until midnight. Go if you can, it’s pretty speccy.
#ngv #kusama #art
Infinity room of coloured balls of light as part of the Kusama art installation. They are purple, green, lilac. It’s like looking at balls of colourful glow worms. An installation of black and yellow spotted huge curving pipes from the Kusama exhibition An infinity room of yellow pumpkins with black dots reflected endlessly in mirrors. Part of the Kusama exhibition.
April 16, 2025 at 4:53 AM
meganchapman.bsky.social
A black cat with folded ears and big green eyes, looking judgy.
April 10, 2025 at 7:24 AM
meganchapman.bsky.social
Survived and home! Not bad at all. I do like how the knob turned out.

#teapot #pottery #wheelthrown #ceramics
February 25, 2025 at 10:35 PM
meganchapman.bsky.social
Pottery gods were somewhat mediocre, but I got two potential teapot bodies, really for Saturday.
Rounded out freshly thrown pottery vessel, sitting on a pottery wheel
February 18, 2025 at 9:54 AM
meganchapman.bsky.social
Extra pottery session tonight. The aim is to make some more teapot bodies. Let’s see whether the pottery gods are with me or not….
A pottery wheel, some clay, and tools, ready to start throwing
February 18, 2025 at 7:08 AM