Inside - NZ Potters Inc

Glaze tests
CERAMICSQUARTERLY
volume 32 NO 4
DECEMBER 2012
NEW ZEALAND POTTERS’ NEWSLETTER
Inside
Installation Wins Supreme
Ceramic Award
Left: Jim Cooper with “Millbrook Holiday”
Above (l to r): Fran Maguire, Jim Cooper, Kate McLean
Jim Cooper’s psychedelic, 30-plus piece installation
‘Millbrook Holiday (the league for spiritual discovery)’
has won the country’s supreme ceramic art prize.
The 2012 Premier Portage Award, with a value of
$15,000 was presented to the Dunedin-based artist at
a ceremony at Auckland Viaduct’s ’The Cloud’ recently.
This year’s Awards judge, UK ceramic artist, Dr Paul
Scott described ‘Millbrook Holiday’ as a “bonkers”
work of immense skill.
“Cooper’s work is the stand-out winner. It’s hugely
ambitious and works on so many different levels. On
the one hand it is very childlike and makes you smile,
on the other it is clearly the work of an experienced
artist who knows a great deal about glazing.
“There’s a sense of wonder about the work which
grows the more you look at it,” says Dr Scott.
Two Portage Merit Awards winners were also
announced tonight. The first to Blenheim resident,
Fran Maguire, for her installation ‘Impulse’ which Dr
Scott described as visually stunning.
“‘Impulse’ is clearly the work of a skilled practitioner;
it’s an outstanding piece of work.”
Grey Lynn’s Kate McLean took the second merit award
for her work “Double Ended Form – House” series
which impressed Dr Scott by the virtuosity of the
work’s printing.
“To print well on clay is difficult. This artist has
succeeded in producing a beautiful, subtle print and
the 3D aspect means the work has multiple variations.”
Each merit award winner receives $3,000.
The 2012 Portage Ceramic Awards winners and
finalist works were on exhibition at ‘The Cloud’ for
one week, from 27 October – 3 November 2012.
Dr Scott, says he wanted to ensure there was
connectivity between the works in the exhibition.
“I have tried to curate this exhibition with a
narrative. It was no easy task though; it was like
being a DJ in a world music programme where
you’ve got everything from Hank Williams to the
Blunder Boys from Zimbabwe!”
The 38 works in the exhibition vary in size from
fingernail minute to multi-piece, metre-high
installations and range in colour from porcelain
white to eye-popping psychedelic. They were
selected from 237 entries by clay artists all over
the country.
Established in 2001, The Portage Ceramic
Awards are New Zealand’s premier showcase
for the ceramic arts. Administered by Lopdell
House Gallery and funded by The Portage Trust’s
Community Foundation, the awards are the
country’s best known barometer identifying our
finest ceramic artists.
Late News! Congratulations to Rick Rudd, winner
of the People’s Choice Award at the 2012 Portage
Ceramic Awards.
p2:
My Portage Choices
Peter Lange
p3:
Return to Form.
ASP Annual
Exhibition
Suzy Dünser
p4:
Chester Nealie Part II
Suzy Dünser
p8:
Community Hearth
Project.
Helen Perrett
p10: Subversion
Nicola Dench
p11: Akio in Adelaide
Kate Fitzharris
p12: Where It All Began
Nicole Kolig
p13: The Pot I Would
Never Sell
Mark Goody
p14: Regional News
Blenheim, Otago,
Northland
1
My Six Favourite 2012 Portage Award Pieces
Peter Lange
Imagine you were the judge of the Portage and didn’t know any of the
entrants so that you couldn’t be “unfriended” ... what would be your
prize list? Here’s mine (all the rest came 7th equal):
My Premier Award, “A Step” by Charlie Seakins, encapsulates the most
fundamental qualities of this material that we are all manipulating and
sometimes torturing. Dug from Mt Messenger and fired without too
much modification it is elemental, strong and structurally assertive.
Geology fast-forwarded - who knows, it might have turned out this way
in some distant future anyway.
It will resonate with anyone whose clay has dried in the bag and who
has taken out their frustration by firing the whole block after kicking it
to teach it a lesson (bad idea). It is a thumping great, good-humoured,
full-stop to the exhibition.
The others? Well, they all have timeless qualities that grow from their
quietness, their mystery or their absurdity. Any of these pieces would sit
happily on my shelves, once I clear a space, for a very long time.
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If I step back and try to find a link between these choices it is
probably one of considerable and quiet relief at the absence of
ceramic fireworks and technical tours de force which have been,
and continue to be, a very common means used by ceramic artists to
make various statements. I am more guilty than most of this approach
and I do happily admit to being ever-curious about technique and I’ll
be working out how to make a slip-cast ceramic flame-proof coffin as
they take me out. But sometimes you just need some quiet time.
(Clockwise from top left)
My Premier Award:
Charlie Seakins: “A Step”
My Merits (in no particular order):
Amanda Shanley: “Francis”
Kate Fitzharris: “A Family Arrangement”
Ann Verdcourt: “A Quiet Group With a Fat Packet on a Wooden Base”
Margaret Ryley: “Vortex”
The Auckland Studio Potters’ 51st Annual
Exhibition, “Fire and Clay”, opened on 19
November at the Pah Homestead, TSB Bank
Wallace Arts Centre. The implications of this are
several, but mostly, those of us at the ASP are
chuffed to be there, and the more so because
our show has been well-received by Sir James
Wallace, the staff at the Centre, and so far (as I
write at the end of the first week), the public.
The return to a more central, prestigious venue
after years of exhibiting at the lovely but out-ofthe-way Mairangi Arts Centre meant that we had
more entries this year, as well as the return of
some established artists who hadn’t submitted
for a while. This raised the issue of selection
philosophy: inclusive, to reflect the membership
and variety of approaches being practised today?
Or with excellence as the top priority, in keeping
with the venue?
The ASP Committee was leaning quite heavily
towards excellence, but the selector, Philip
Clarke, curator at Objectspace, wanted to be
as inclusive as he could while still keeping the
quality of the show high. For the majority of
entries, he chose one work from each person,
although some people didn’t have anything
selected, and a very few had more than one.
Having seen the unselected entries all laid out
beforehand, and then seeing the final show, I
felt vaguely unsettled. Although Philip had been
very thoughtful with his selection, and the show
was well laid out, in a few instances I missed the
one or two other pieces that had been standing
on the selection tables with the one that was
eventually chosen. I felt a sudden compassion
for Scott Chamberlin, the 2009 Portage judge,
who engendered the wrath of many people for
changing the way the show was selected and
curated, so that fewer people were chosen, but
more of their work was put on display.
How do you decide which way to go? And what
sort of judge do you choose? A practitioner? A
curator? A collector? At the end of the day, the
committee can give the selector a direction, but
the background and perspective of the person
who is chosen will also affect the final exhibition.
The days of earning a living as a craft potter
are over, but clay is finally establishing itself as
an artistic medium to be reckoned with. There
is a case to be made for putting one’s best foot
forward at annual exhibitions, to show that our
members are keeping pace with what is going on
in the rest of the world.
Can this be justified, when the opportunity
to exhibit their work is one of the benefits
the ASP has always offered our members? I
believe it can be, especially if you look at
the range of opportunities that have been
evolving at the ASP over the past number
of years. For starters, there is an unselected
Students’ Show, (thanks to great support
from the Monday night class), which all
students are encouraged to enter. Then
we have the Big Clay Day Out – not an
exhibition, but a chance for members to
get their work out in front of the public.
We hold an annual Domesticware
Exhibition, which this year for the first time
was held in a public venue rather than at
the Centre. And finally there is Fire and
Clay, our major show. With this variety of
options, members of all levels of ability
and interests have a chance to self-select,
show their work, and get feedback.
One might think these considerations are
unnecessary, since the show has been well
received. But we are ambitious. We want
the show to continue to improve. We hope
to increase interest in ceramic art, and to
entice those members who have stopped
entering the show, or have not yet started,
to participate. If we are successful, there
will be more choices to make, and more
thought needed about how to make them.
RETURN TO FORM
Suzy Dünser
Right top: CCG Industries Premier
Award, Helen Perrett “Jester”
Right: Tanya Wilkinson Cake I and II
Right lower: Double Merit Award
Nadine Spalter “Untitled”
Right bottom: Suzy Dünser, Teapot I,
II, III.
Left: Christine Thacker,
wall plaque “Mona
Sleeps Like a Log After
Sitting All Day Trying
To Keep a Straight
Face”
Double Merit Award
ASP Fire and Clay
Exhibition
3
CHESTER NEALIE
interviewed by
Suzy Dünser
This is the conclusion of an interview with Chester
Nealie held earlier this year, during his exhibition
at Masterworks Gallery. (For Part I, please see
Ceramics Quarterly, Volume 32 No 3.)
In this issue of CQ, Chester Nealie discusses the
techniques he uses to create his work, and the way
they inform his aesthetic. He also talks a bit about
his life in Gulgong, Australia, and what he hopes to
achieve there in the future.
If you have ever used shino in a salt firing with
unexpected results, had a pot distort from the
heat, or wondered how to get the best ash
effects in an anagama firing, your questions
may be answered here. More fundamentally,
learning about Chester’s working process
shows how integrating process and aesthetic
contributes to producing authentic and
beautiful pots.
SD: When did you start using leaf patterns on
the surfaces?
CN: Not as long ago, maybe 20 years? I’ve
been doing the shells since the 70s, but the leaf
patterns maybe just the last 20 years. But I just
love it, it gives all sorts of interesting patterns
on the work. The leaves don’t go into the firing,
they’re peeled off first.
And you’ll see lovely patterns under the pots,
which I really enjoy. Underneath the pots are
some of my favourite spaces. I’ve rubbed the
bottom of this little pot (left) back a bit with
the deburring wheel, and it just takes off the
rough stuff. And you see how it highlights the
shino, and just makes it a little bit like ivory,
and you can see the leaf patterns. I’ve used a
wattle leaf – wattle leaves remind me of fish
backbones and the fossils I get from round our
home in Gulgong. So I’m trying to say little
things about where I live, and the things that
I enjoy.
It’s painting with the technique. The technique
is in the making, the technique is putting on
the glaze and the surface, and then there’s the
technique of how you place the pots in the kiln.
You see, the technique leads on to the aesthetic. The
aesthetics only happen if the technique works.
I have to think about what I want showing on each
pot, so I spend at least 7 days loading the kiln. See
this little shino bowl (left), there
was a leaf pattern in there,
and I’ve covered the leaf pattern
with a bit of wadding, so it gives
you a different effect.
SD: And the wadding just comes
off?
CN: It just lifts off – because
the wadding’s very crumbly. It
can’t be too tight or dense. You
can put sawdust with it too, of
course, that helps it crumble.
SD: And what keeps it together
when you’re putting on the wad?
CN: Spit. It’s very difficult to get
the wadding to stay on bisqued
pots, because it doesn’t stick.
And I don’t use this spotted dalmation dog technique
I see being used sometimes, where they roll little
tiny wads and then glue them on with PVA. You
see, big pots need big wads. The shape of the wad
isn’t a little round ball. You pick it up in lumps and
put it on so you’ve got much bigger surface areas
of wadding happening. They’re not little fiddly little
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things. If the shape of the pot is narrow at the top
and wide at the bottom, then you’re likely to put
littler wads at the narrow side, and bigger wads at
the bottom. And it’s an aesthetic, choosing to place
three things or two things. And you make the shape
of the wadding suit the quality of the pot.
So there are all sorts of aesthetics you’re playing
with. This is not just casting a fishing line. There’s
all sorts of fiddling. For example, I break my shells
up – I don’t use whole shells, because I think the
shapes of broken bits of shell facing each other can
be used as a dynamic between the pieces. And that
adds another dimension.
SD: Do the pots deform at all from the tumble
stacking?
CN: Yes, sometimes they do, but you have to
consider that in the making. First of all, if you leave
wide open tops, they’ll collapse on you. So I have
a return on the tops of all the pots. If I’m lying a
pot on its side the rim has to have a return, so it
doesn’t collapse inwards. Or a thicker piece on the
top. You have to consider that, or you do end up
with squashed pots.
You’ve got to have strength, and so sometimes you
have to make the pots a bit heavier. See this little
bowl (below), it just has a white slip over a dark
body. We don’t have a name for that colour, but
the Japanese call it nezumi shino, “grey mouse”
shino. It got so hot with the flame hitting it that it
got pulled, melted down a bit, and that’s why it’s out
of shape. I quite like the out-of-shapeness of it, in
this case it works well, but it had to have just a little
return there to give it the strength - I knew it was
going to melt in the firing, because it’s made of a
lower temperature clay – just the straight clay out of
the bank of the dam. That clay tends to melt because
it’s got a lot of iron in it.
These two slab platters (next page top right) were
fired in Mike O’Donnell’s kiln. I love making these.
This one shows the very rich greens of the NZ pinus
radiata, which is a superb wood to fire with. It’s
one of the best timbers, and I always used it in the
nz firings. That green is just from lots of pine ash.
We side stoke, so you have to make sure you give
the ash time to melt. If you just let the ash keep
building up, the pot will only be 900-950 degrees
underneath. But by stopping putting wood on top
of it and letting it melt down, to a glass, I’ve got
this beautiful rich green. Another pot of the same
slab platter kind, was fired upside down, so the ash
wouldn’t form on the pot. That gives you more of the
bright orange of the flashing shino.
There’s a scar on this pot on the right (the greener
slab platter), where the ash has flowed and melted
through the wadding. Gone right through. I ground
it down with a diamond grinder first, and then softly
rubbed over it with a deburring wheel. I don’t mind a
scar on the pot, as long as it’s aesthetically pleasing.
In this process there’s a pretty high accident rate
– you’re going to get scars, and movement on the
work. It tells a story of the process of the firing, and
the heat, and the catastrophe, and it’s part of my
aesthetic. I enjoy it – I don’t completely wipe things
out, but there is a method to it all.
These slab platters are a specific shape – I say it’s
the shape of the South Island, and I love that quality
of the width at the bottom. They’re made as a food
serving dish, for a feast, where you have beautiful
food, and when you’ve finished the food you’ve got
this lovely aesthetic platter with a painterly quality
on it. But predominantly I’m thinking about the
shape. I like the softness of the clay to be always
present, I want the sensuality of clay to remain in
all my work. It’s got to have a softness, squashiness,
and so in the making, I like to leave the essence of
clay there. And then in the firing, I like to get that
same sort of movement. You’ll see in all of my pieces
there will be movement: of glaze running, flame
flashing, ash firing through the kiln, salt
fluxing through the kiln – so everywhere
there’s movement. And if you can freeze
that movement, it gives you the ultimate
beauty you’re looking for, which is
freedom. I can’t think of anything more
beautiful than that freedom. And so I’ve
frozen time in most of the pieces.
Some pieces are fired more than once.
Maybe the first time you fire a piece it
doesn’t give the full effects you’re looking
for, so I’ll fire it again. It does tend to
take you outside your preconceived idea
of what the work was going to be like,
and often, the pieces are richer because
of it. It can be too much, but in this case,
this big slab platter has been fired twice,
and look at the subtlety of the greens
from the ash landing on it – it’s just a
myriad different greens. I try to cover
the wadding marks in the same place, so I still trap
that orange and the path that existed in the past.
Actually I think I did do something to this piece… I
sprayed it with a thin coat of shino all over.
We were talking before about second-firing a piece
with kiln wash. This pot (lower left) has been fired
once and then dipped it in kiln wash, all over – you
see it has the lovely dry surfaces here on the right
side from the kiln wash, and here, on the left side,
it’s fluxed through the glaze that was there from the
previous firing. It gives you unique stuff that you
never would have thought of. You’re creating new
surfaces and patinas, by refiring many times.
This little pot (below) is New Zealand Matauri Bay
NZ Potters
Council Members
President:
Jim Pollard
[email protected]
Vice Presidents:
Duncan Shearer
Sara Schotanus
Secretary/Treasurer:
Trien Steverlynck
[email protected]
REGIONAL COUNCIL MEMBERS
Northland:
Susie Rogers
[email protected]
Central:
Duncan Shearer
[email protected]
Auckland:
Suzy Dünser
[email protected]
Wellington:
Sue Scobie
[email protected]
Nelson/Marlborough:
Sara Schotanus
[email protected]
Canterbury/Westland:
Jane McCulla
[email protected]
Otago/Southland:
Nicole Kolig
[email protected]
Immediate Past President:
Wally Hirsh
[email protected]
china clay, which you can’t actually buy in New
Zealand. I’ve found it in Japan, and now I’ve found
20 tons where I live – a clay company had imported
it from New Zealand, and they no longer use it, and
I’m negotiating to get it. That pot was fired in the
very front of the kiln – all those blues are carbon
trapping. Nothing on it, straight clay into the kiln.
SD: And it flashed like that? I thought you needed
iron for flashing…?
CN: China clays do flash like that. You need highalumina type clays, but it’s the firing that gives the
flashing. I reduce from 850 onwards – heavily – right
the way through. And when I go to finish the firing,
I’ll load the kiln up with more wood – remember
I’m getting water through the kiln floor from 1000C
onwards.
SD: You’re getting that water in naturally?
CN: Yes. But if it’s been dry weather for a long time
before I’m firing, I’ll hose down the bottom of the
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kiln before I load so the ground below the
kiln is wet. Then when I want to reduce I’ll
use damper wood, or you can drip water
into the firebox as you’re firing.
Sodium can affect the quality of shino
considerably. If you compare these two pots
(left), the top one was in the firebox and
the one below it was farther back where it
got salted. The salt will affect the work, and
you won’t get as bright an orange. Water
will do the same sort of thing. The pots I
have in the chimney of my kiln give me the
most stunning celadons, but it’s absolutely
no good for shinos, they’re just white,
pale, with oxidised qualities. Celadons
love reduction, and they love the salt. It’s
a tricky manoeuvre... you can never win it
all at once!
SD: How did you get the red on that pot?
CN: That’s just from the effect of the
wadding around it, and the narrow space
where it didn’t get as much salt. And also
the result of blushing form the wadding on
the kiln shelf – a little bit of iron in your
wadding does help.
SD: How many pots do you lose in the
firing?
CN: Well, unless they break, they can go
back in again.
SD: Right, I mean, how many break?
CN: Well, not too many, very little breakage
- I’m too mean to break a pot! A lot of love
and life’s gone into making a pot, and to
break it – I think I might break one pot a
firing, and I am devastated.
SD: (laughs) One?!
CN: That’s the loss of a kid! In the family!
There’s an enormous amount of effort – I had a
little chip off a big pot in the last firing, and I’m
still looking for that chip, and I’m going to glue it
back on when I find it. It’s somewhere around in
the kiln, amongst the ash... I don’t want to lose
it! It’ll be there, somewhere…
There’s a lot of work here. They start off with
drawings, and watercolours, and they grow from
there.
SD: So you draw first?
CN: Yeah, just to get ideas… quite often when
I’m working on a new shape. This (2 photos,
left) is that new shape I’m playing with, a bit
softer quality to the clay making. Which I’m
trying desperately to do. Every time I learn
something more. It’s a slow change, I’m not one
who swings to something different.
I like the classic form. While I was making
this pot, I softened the clay by compressing it
inwards, just with a rib. And the same with the
little lugs and handles – they’re put on with as
much freedom as I can. Try not to look at what
you’re doing as you put them on.
This has all come from early Tang pots that
the Auckland Museum used to have, that I just
lusted after. They were superb things. And I’d
spend hours at the museum, easy, every month,
just to observe the qualities of these ancient
pots. And even though the museum no longer
has those pots, I still observe and I still have
that memory in my head, of the freedom these
guys have captured in their pots. My tours to
China over the last few years have been to try
and understand more of what they were doing.
But unfortunately, China no longer has all of its
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heritage pieces there to see. Most of it’s overseas,
or it’s been demolished in the Cultural Revolution.
(Looking at the photos on-screen in the gallery)
Those are my wheels. A Leach wheel and a big
flywheel. For a lot of the big pots I’ll put a coil on
and then throw the rest, the next day, and the next
day. With round pots I’ll often throw the shoulder,
and then put a coil on and throw the rest.
SD: How many pots do you get out of each firing?
CN: I get 10 huge pots in the kiln, plus another
250-300 smaller ones. It’s a big kiln. But as I said,
loading is a process of putting the pots in so you
get the spaces and the direction of the flow through
the work. I’ve put really good pots in here, in the
bottom of the chimney, and got some lovely things.
See there’s that big round pot, right in the front.
A lot of wood is used during the firing. Side stoking
occurs over a lot of the pots, and a lot of ash goes
onto the front of the pots.
SD: Where does all your wood come from?
CN: Off my land. We have 250 acres of forest, and
we cut all our own dead trees up into blocks, and
hand-split them with a blockbuster – a lot of work. It
takes a month or so to prepare the wood.
SD: How often are you firing?
CN: Once a year. Maybe twice, but the older I get it’s
getting closer to once a year… It’s a critical thing to
get a firing right, because that’s your year’s income.
So that’s this kiln I’m building… I’ve got two more to
build, and then we’ll have enough. (SD: You think?)
We hope.
SD: So what are the advantages of living in Australia?
CN: Where we are at the moment, we have all the
facilities for wood, and I have a lot of peers who are
doing the same thing as I am. So we have a think
tank of 5 woodfiring potters, who have all done
close to 50 years of firing. 250 years of experience
is a pretty potent learning curve! We’re all close
mates, and we fire together.
SD: Did you move to Gulgong because that
community already existed?
CN: No, we started the community… Janet
Mansfield’s always been living in Gulgong, for 30odd years. She’s a close friend of mine, just over the
hill, not far away from us. It was the right kind of
land for the wood, and there are good clay deposits
there, and so it’s a very good place to work. But of
course I work here in New Zealand as often as I
possibly can, as well. Because that’s where my roots
are.
SD: You mentioned building sleepouts so people
could come and stay with you - are they going to
work with you?
CN: Yes – but I don’t want people to think they can
come there, and make masses of their bloody pots,
and stuff them in the kiln. I’m not interested in that.
I like the technique where people learn by helping,
and watching. I’ve got smaller kilns where people
can do it all by themselves, after learning – there’s
no use me telling them answers if they don’t know
there’s a question. So I’m going to work that way
with them. It’s more like the Japanese technique,
having somebody watching, and watching, and
learning, that process.
I’ve had too many people who have come, and they
just want to fill the kiln with their stuff and have
me fire it for them, and they go away saying “Yeah,
look at my work I’ve made!” That’s not happening.
They’ve got to learn the whole aesthetic of it.
They’ve got to learn drawing, they’ve got to learn
splitting wood, reading wood, they’ve got to learn
different kinds of timber, different types of clay…
When you’re self-taught you learn a hell of a lot
more, because you make all those extra mistakes.
That’s the best way to learn. But then, once you’ve
found the question, then talk to somebody.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
I want to say how much I enjoyed reading the first
part of the interview with Chester Nealie in your
September issue. It reminded me of things I haven’t
thought of for a long time.
When I was a young woman, way back in 1963, I
built my first kiln. It was a small Barry Brickell ‘test
kiln’, rectangular in shape, which drip-fed diesel
onto a piece of pumice with flow-grooves cut into it.
It had a demountable tall iron flue. I had never fired
a kiln, nor made up a glaze before, so using a recipe
out of Leach’s “Potters’ Book”, I was astonished and
delighted when it actually worked.
Some time in the 70s I bought from a show at the
Dowse Gallery, a greenish, softly salt-glazed bowl
made by Chester (below).
Yes I am still potting. I now have reduction firings in
a gas kiln producing both stoneware and porcelain.
Pottery has been a huge, challenging interest to me
all these years.
Thank you so much for including the article in CQ.
I really look forward to reading the second part.
CQ Editor
PETER LANGE
16 Carrick Place, Mt Eden
1024
09 6306942
[email protected]
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always very welcome.
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reflect the views of the
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7
I had been following the
progress of the Waikato
Helen Perrett Society of Potters “community
hearth project” under the
direction of Susan St Lawrence on
http://prometheushamilton.wordpress.
com and https://www.facebook.com/
PottersCommunityHearthProjects, so
it was exciting to finally arrive at the
firing field on a Saturday afternoon on a
balmy spring day that felt like summer,
to see three large ceramic fibre kilns in
a neat line in front of a milling crowd
sheltering under sun umbrellas while
enjoying live music. I thought I knew
what to expect, but this was more than
I had imagined.
I had helped Susan with her “Adam”
and “Phoenix” firing projects at Unitec
last year so I had a fair idea of the large
amount of work involved in getting
this project going. Susan ran the fifteen
week sculpture project at Waikato
Potters with students whose experience
ranged from 30 years
to none at all. They
were each given a
pattern of a horse
based on the South
Indian
terracotta
horses, and, week by
week, they worked
through the technical
and
emotional
challenges of making
a 1.2 metre high
sculpture. The aim
was to fire the large
works in custom-built
kilns and to ‘reveal’
the fiery herd after
dark.
Pyrotechnic
theatre. But not just
that, also to create
a community event
and bring people
together around a fire. Celebratory stuff.
As I looked at the three fireboxes I felt the pain of
carting all the bricks out to the rural location near
Hamilton. I looked at the impressive mountains of
firewood and I could imagine the hours of sourcing,
cutting and stacking it. I looked at the three large
fibre kilns and remembered cutting that evil stuff
and wiring it onto the steel mesh for “Adam”. I
knew how much Susan had put into making these
things happen, the endless checklists, phone calls,
asking questions, answering questions, the sheer
physicality of it all.
These weren’t small
sculptures!
The students and
Susan had created
eight raw clay horses
which were large
and heavy – over a
metre tall - they had
to be modular, and
assembled on the
three fireboxes. The
fibre kiln sides and
top had to be wired
together around the
COMMUNITY HEARTH PROJECT
(above): The “reveal” at
top temperature.
(below): Three fibre kilns
full of horses
8
works on site, and of course it was all dependent
on weather. They were so lucky. After weeks of
gale-force winds and torrents of rain, they had four
straight days of perfect weather.
The kilns were lit in the morning and stoked gently
throughout the day. When I say gently, it is still hot
and hard work, it also takes concentration. Each
kiln had its team of workers; its pile of dry wood.
Susan walked between them keeping everyone on
track and monitoring progress. Food and liquid
were available to all in the usual generous tradition
of potters. A group from the local folk music club
played in the background and added to the happy
atmosphere. Children galloped about on colourful
hobby-horses.
From my spectator’s vantage point it all went
smoothly and the removal of the kiln fronts was
done with a minimum of fuss but great drama. As
the horses were revealed their eyes and nostrils and
mouths glowed, it was a fantastic sight. Awesome in
the true sense of the word.
The horses have been part of an exhibition at
Gateway Ceramic Art Studio in Kaipaki Road near
Ohaupo.
Check out the photos on the websites mentioned at
the start of this article.
Can anyone help? ....
I’m after a copy of Claynews, the predecessor to
Ceramics Quarterly. We seem to be missing a copy
of Vol. 21, no. 5 (2001) and would like to get hold
of a copy to replace this missing issue.
Many thanks, Alexis McCullough, Library Assistant,
Serials Unit, University of Auckland Library,
Private Bag 92019, Auckland Mail Centre, 1142
MOUNTAIN DREAMING
ARTS WORKSHOP
SWING INTO AN EXCITING CREATIVE
ADVENTURE ON YOUR OWN DOORSTEP –
WORK WITH TOP TUTORS IN CLAY OR GLASS.
But don’t be slow, enrolments close soon! Great
tutors in a great environment (and great students
from all over) and at the most competitive price!
Tutors:
Peter Collis - “Paper clay structures and pit firing”
Susan Flight - “Take clay and colour, and join up
with Alice”
Julie Collis - “Cast Glass and Netsuke”
All courses are suitable for beginners, though
experience will be no disadvantage!
You will need a sense of adventure and fun ...
Dates: Sat 12th to Tues 15th January 2013
Place: Mountain Dreaming Arts Workshop, Raglan.
Brochures can be picked up from Waikato Society
Potters, or from Waikato Ceramics- or phone Susan
on 0272716157 for brochures or information.
Thursday 28 February to Sunday 3 March 2013
Maureen and Dennis Allison’s farm,
2294 Waihi Whangamata Rd, Whangamata
Workshop 1
Tutor: Fiona Tunnicliffe
An exciting opportunity to learn the secrets of making your favourite
animals using textured clay slabs. As an additional part of the workshop
your first pieces will be fired in the unique bottle kiln built by Gyan
Daniel Wall for the Woodstoke conference. This kiln will be fired by the
students for approximately 40 hours before being cooled for you to take
home your work.
Cost: $250 includes clay
Workshop 2
Tutors: Janet Smith & Duncan Shearer
Based around firing salt kilns this rapid fire workshop will enlighten
students in the variety of finishes possible in a salt kiln. Students will
need to bring bisque fired work, some pieces will be used to experiment on, others will be glazed using the results from the first firing.
In addition there will be demonstrations on the wheel and a wood
fired raku kiln firing.
Cost: $250 includes materials and firings
For more information see: www.woodstoke.co.nz
(left): Once again the kilns at
the Woodstoke Conference
site near Whangamata will
be fired up for a summer
school of fire and clay.
Maureen Allison will have
her anagama kiln roaring
away at the same time that
Fiona’s class will be cooking
off Gyan Daniel Wall’s
unique bottle kiln. Janet and
Duncan will be busy firing
the small salt kilns and a
new wood fired raku kiln.
Making demonstrations, slip
and glaze recipes, technical
advice and great company
will make for a memorable
4 days.
Participants
are
most
welcome to camp on-site
and we’ll have the barbecues
fired up for shared meals.
Please see the Woodstoke
website for more details and
a booking form: www.woodstoke.co.nz
or phone Duncan on 07 8626974.
CELEBRATING CERAMICS
54th NZ Potters National Exhibition
venue and dates have been confirmed:
23 March 2013 - Sunday 12 May 2013.
Mt Marua Gallery
“Expressions Arts & Entertainment Centre”
Upper Hutt
Entry form with this issue of CQ
Above: “Horse” by
Susan St Lawrence
bought by Sir James
Wallace from the ASP’s
Fire and Clay exhibition.
This is one of the pieces
fired in the spectacular
kilns on the opposite
page.
9
SUBVERSION!
Nicola Dench
Work by Julie
Bartholomew (right) and
Mark Valenzuela
(below) at the Adelaide
Conference
I recently attended the Australian Ceramics Triennale
conference in Adelaide thanks to New Zealand
Potters travelling scholarship. As I had received the
scholarship almost 2 years before the conference,
I eagerly awaited information as it came online.
When the name and theme of the conference was
announced, Subversive Clay, my anticipation levels
soared, this was going to be right up my alley.
I enrolled for the Hyperclay teachers’ workshop on
the Thursday before the main conference started. We
were asked to bring along clay tools, an apron and
a towel. There were three workshops, one involving
claymation, and a tour of the Hyperclay exhibition. I
wasn’t able to attend either of the three day workshops
so I was looking forward to the claymation and the
thought of getting messy with clay. By the end of the
day my clay tools and apron were untouched and my
towel clean, my hands had only touched the silky
velvet surface of the clay when I asked to use clay for
my claymation! One workshop by Jacqueline Clayton
had been a lecture on different clay bodies, mainly
her adaptation of face powder and materials used
in the manufacture of
surfboards, to make her
delicate flowers. The last
workshop was on the use of 3D printers which doesn’t lend itself to a hands-on
approach.
Hyperclay is an exhibition of eight Australian artists seeking to challenge the
traditional perceptions of clay and forge new pathways in Australian ceramics.
For anyone who is interested in viewing the Hyperclay exhibition here is one
link:
http://urbismagazine.com/articles/clay-art-at-sydneys-object-gallery/ There is a
lot of information on the web including interviews with the artists.
Adelaide as a location was compact and easy to access, and the organisers
had put together a programme of 35 exhibitions running over the time of the
conference, so it was a rigorous schedule attending the openings, but a great
opportunity to see so many different styles of work.
My thoughts, as I sat through academic presentation after presentation where
the presenters posed more questions than answers,
constantly returned to the conclusion that the
reason people are drawn to clay, whether in the
visual arts departments of universities or as hobby
potters, is the simple need to make and express
themselves, to embrace and connect, to join in the
tactile dance of clay on hands, to ground themselves
in the seductive nature of clay and for all those in
academia this simple fact should never be lost.
The highlights of my trip were the wonderful array
of work on display, the great conversations that were
had with other potters staying at the YHA, as well as
those met during the breaks and at the exhibitions.
I also enjoyed hearing Gus Clutterbuck talk about
the wonderful work that is being done to help
the indigenous children connect with education
through clay at the art centre at Ernabella in the
outback. Akio Takamori’s discussion of his work
was inspiring. Demonstrations by Graham Hay
and Laura McKibbon were informative and Penny
Byrne’s presentation of her work was enlightening.
Thank you to NZSP for giving me the opportunity to
take part in this experience.
A man takes his Rottweiler to the vet. “My
dog’s cross-eyed, is there anything you can do
for him?”
“Well,” says the vet, “let’s have a look at him”.
So he picks the dog up and examines his eyes,
then checks his teeth. Finally he says, “I’m
going to have to put him down.”
“What? Because he’s cross-eyed?”.
“No, because he’s really heavy”.
10
With the help of the NZP Travelling Scholarship fund I was able to travel to Subversive Clay, the
AKIO IN ADELAIDE
Australian Ceramics Triennale, held in Adelaide in September. One of the main drawcards for me
Kate
Fitzharris
to choose to attend this particular conference was to hear Akio Takamori talk about his work, so I
jumped at the chance to also attend a three day masterclass with him there
before the conference proper started.
Akio is well known internationally for his ongoing exploration of the human
form in clay and themes relating to relationships, memory, narrative and
nostalgia. His work expresses complex ideas whilst also invoking strong
emotions.
He is a Professor at the University of Washington in Seattle so he is a practised
teacher. The masterclass worked really well with a great balance of watching
Akio work, the students having lots of time to work and also looking at and
listening to Akio showing images and talking about his practice. We were
given three figures to make, involving developing our brushwork and using
this to give detail to flat surfaces and 3-dimensional forms. The culmination
was making a large figurative sculpture with a painted underglaze surface.
Those of you familiar with my work will know that I work to a maximum
height of around 15cm when I make figures, so making a kneeling figure
sitting about 50cm high was quite a revelation for me. I was even lucky
enough to have the figure I made crash dried and bisqued, so that I could
bring her home in my hand luggage!
Akio is a very generous teacher, freely talking about his working processes
and ideas. He really encouraged dialogue and critique with his own and
other’s work.
Akio’s more recent work, and that which I am most drawn to, is sculptures
of figures, often in groups. The forms themselves are quite simple and
contained, with all the detail being added by brushing on underglaze colour,
including a defining black ‘outline’ of features. In this way he is playing with
the interface of 2-dimensional drawing and 3-dimensional form. Recently
he has been pushing this play further by then photographing the painted
3-dimensional sculpture and exhibiting the resulting close-up, larger than
life image, with the original much smaller sculpture. Or else adding further
drawing to the image and creating lithographs as the final artwork. This
exploration of mixed media and representation encourages new ways of
looking at and thinking about sculpture and how we view ourselves within
the world. And this, coupled with the figures’ very real sense of humanity, is
what I find really exciting about Akio’s work.
Akio works very fast, coiling his figures, which are often quite large (about
1.4 metres tall) obviously his body is well used to making these forms. And
he is very confident and quick with a brush, yet his work itself is often very
still and quiet. Akio used words like ‘curious, awkward and beautiful’ to
describe the feelings he wants to convey in his work, and these seem very
apt to me. Although Akio’s work communicates complex ideas around
identity and nostalgia, he said he really considers himself to be a maker,
with concepts perhaps only becoming apparent after some time. He also
talked about the need for the work to sit within reality, for the work to be
believable, but not necessarily accurate.
It was great to see Akio’s work in the real for the first time, the dry, thirsty
texture of the surfaces, the nuances of form and just the sheer presence that
the one work he showed in Adelaide - Young Boy with Red Cap and Shoes
- had in the room. His watery underglaze application which is very evident
in this piece, he said, is a sort of relief for the dryness of the clay.
Akio also talked about leaving the clay a bit porous so it could still breathe his clay body is a rough, dependable stoneware which he fires to a maximum
of cone 4, often just to cone 3. His technique of pushing the coiled form
out from the inside to add definition really added to this sense of the body
breathing, so there is always a sense of expanding from the inside and a real
humanity to the figures because of that.
Akio’s keynote address to the conference was entitled ‘Culture and Identity’
Top: Shin Koyama
in which he showed us images of several series of his work and how his ideas have developed. He started
(Australia) on left and
to think about his racial identity when he travelled to Kansas City to study in 1974 and he was the only
Akio (on right) with
Asian student there. Akio has continued to live in the U.S since then and ideas around culture and identity
the pillow vase he made
continue to inform his work today. His practice has been enriched by further travelling to Europe and
during the masterclass.
undertaking residencies there; opportunities like this to travel and work, Akio says, have been great catalysts
in developing his work.
Detail of Akio Takamori’s
And the opportunity for me to travel to Adelaide has been very enriching also, to step outside NZ for a
‘Boy in Red Cap and
moment and to get a sense of something of the international ceramic world has been really valuable. The
Shoes’ 2010.
conference itself was full of stimulating discussion and exposed me to new ideas, and also to see so much
work in the real, to get a sense of surface and scale, not available through seeing reproductions, has been a
Subversive Clay’s website
real eye-opener. But of course my time with Akio in the masterclass and hearing him talk about his work was
has transcripts on it from
the real highlight for me. Thanks again NZP for making this great trip possible.
some of the speakers’
presentations
11
WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
Nicole Kolig
Glaze tests from
Oswold Stephens
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12
The Otago Potters Group recently celebrated its 50th anniversary at the Dunedin Community Art Gallery.
During its members’ exhibition some other seldom-seen work was on display. Platters of varying sizes, a
vase and a little lidded box with words and numbers neatly handwritten and placed were drawing me closer.
These were testers of Oswold Stephens’s glazes and underglazes. Next to them two vividly red vases, one
with appliqué decoration, stood out. A shallow dish in rich celadon and a flange on top seemed to suggest
another lidded box. Perhaps the lid never got fired or had a mishap
later. At the back were two smaller items, one being a rich brown
beaker and the other a white round bowl with a gleaming turquoise
glaze inside which made me think of a Polynesian lagoon.
For those who only ever saw Oswold Stephens’s work behind glass in
Museums or Te Papa it was a wonderful opportunity to come face to
face with it. However, I did not dare to pick them up.
On the wall a biography by Kate Coolahan gave me an overview of
his life and work. A black and white photograph of his potter’s wheel
was also shown.
In the course of trying to find out if the Otago Potters Group had
Oswold’s glaze recipes Josephine Waring forwarded me this
information:
“Now all that I can tell you is that a Mr Johnstone (I think that is
his name) who lived next door to Oswold in Clyde Street, had the
most extensive collection of Oswold’s pieces and probably had his
glaze recipes too. He used to work with Oswold and help him fire
his kiln. We were researching Oswold at the time and Frank Hakkaart
and I went to visit him on several occasions. At the time he was
very unwell and not really happy about seeing us. He showed us
into his dining room where Oswold’s pieces were set out on tables
and cupboards along with quite an extensive collection of early
Moorcroft! Unfortunately he died soon after we visited him and I
think his wife passed on a few years later. We did manage to rescue
Oswold’s wheel from a car lot in Anderson’s Bay Road and brought it
back to the OPG rooms. It was put in the shed there - with the hopes
that the group would restore it, or if not, give it over to the NZSP for
their collection. So I don’t know what has happened to that. There
should be a cabinet in the rooms with very shallow draws containing
some of Oswold’s glaze tiles. There was also a canister of film in the
drawers!
That is about all I can help you with at the moment. I wish we
did have Oswold’s collection and his recipes – they are of historic
significance for the potting fraternity in NZ and especially for the
OPG.”
I couldn’t agree more with her sentiments. Kate Coolahan in her
biography, mentions that Oswold Stephens later published his glaze
recipes in the New Zealand Potter (which he helped establish in
1958). It is very likely only a selection of recipes as he is reputed to
have developed over 2200 earthenware and 180 stoneware glazes.
So here is my request: would anyone have these copies of New
Zealand Potter or his glaze recipes? I think it would be appropriate
to publish them again as so many clubs and groups are celebrating
their 50th anniversary about now. As a co-founder and life member
of New Zealand Society of Potters it
would be a small token of tribute to
the contribution Oswold Stephens
made to the development of Studio
Pottery in this country.
To
read
Kate
Coolahan’s
biography on Oswold Stephens
see
<www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/
biographies/5s42/1>.
STOP PRESS: I have by chance
located Oswold Stephens’s wheel
at the Ceramics Department of
the Dunedin School of Art. It is
cramped in between kilns and
somewhat exposed to the elements.
Neil Grant would prefer it if
someone could house it better, and
possibly restore it - they have really
no space for it. Is there anyone who
could come to the rescue?
When I was asked to write a little piece on my favourite pot, my immediate thought was to
THE “POT”
scan our cabinets in the lounge and pick out the sexiest, best thrown and glazed piece that
Mark Goody
I could find, something that really rocked my socks, had special meaning to me and would
interest readers.
And yep, there were a couple that hit the spot, but at the back of my mind was this particular section of vintage
kiln shelf with a pyrometric cone holder fused to it, that I feel is a thing of beauty and is worth some page space.
About a year ago I was helping two friends of mine, Jenny and Brendan Quinn, clean up their property in West
Auckland. Jenny’s husband Richard had led an extremely interesting life ( to me anyway) researching the history
of the early pottery manufacturing industry in NZ.
This meant that he had made it his mission/obsession in life to glean as much information, documentation and
examples of the wares produced, along with
the materials needed to accomplish the task
of running a functioning ceramics business in
the 19th and early 20th centuries.
So back to the cleanup, there were literally
hundreds of glazed and terracotta bricks, loads
of salted pipes some whole, others chipped,
cracked or maimed beyond recognition ...
Tiles, salt glazed Victorian garden edging with
names like Carder Bros, Clark and Exler. For
Brendan and Jenny this was a real chore as
they’d been living with this clutter for years,
but as far as I was concerned it was another
step along the path for me in discovering
NZ’s pottery past, and the beauty and
unpredictability of the saltglaze firing.
If saltglaze is your thing or even just a
passing interest then imagine a summer’s
Saturday morning, perfect weather for a day’s
work outside, being surrounded by these
glistening salted objects. Some with subtle
tiger patination, others having been coated in
many variations of iron bearing slips. But the
most prized by me, the pieces with huge drops of ‘kiln snot’ that are
semi transparent and shimmer in the sunlight.
So it was on one of these weekends that I spotted a lovely, glossy green
hued slab of ceramic shelf protruding from beneath a fern and a dirty
great sewer pipe in the corner of the shade house. I made a beeline
for this bit of treasure and managed to prize it loose from the aforementioned sewer pipe, and what a beauty it was! I couldn’t believe
that it still had the pyrometric cones and clay holder attached to it. I
sat down to marvel at this piece of ‘precious’ when Jenny came over
and gently said “would you like that Mark? cause otherwise it’s going
in the skip”
Why did I choose this broken, unloved piece of clay to write about?
Because it reminds me of warm summer days, spent helping my friends
out, because it reminds me of NZ’s early ceramic history, which is very
often forgotten (along with the workers that made it happen!)
And because I love saltglaze!!
I WOULD NEVER SELL
Mark Goody is an Auckland
pottery student and
collector - recent winner of
first-time exhibitor award at
the ASP annual exhibition.
“Three Bellies” by Mark Goody, salt=fired in a diesel kiln won
him first-time exhibitor award at the ASP annual exhibition.
13
On Saturday 15th
September 2012, Janet
Sara Schotanus
Green of Masterton
ran
a
coiling
workshop at Marlborough Community Potters, Blenheim.
Ten members of the club attended, and although there was
not time to complete a whole piece during the 5 hours of the
workshop, they all learned a great deal about Janet’s method
of coiling, which involved the use of a banding wheel, some
sculptural clay, a toothbrush, a bowl of water, 2 small metal
kidneys, a great deal of hand control and perfect timing.
The whole group then moved off to The Millennium and were
joined by another 20 or so members of the public, where Sara
Schotanus, Fran Maguire and Janet Green gave a floor talk
about their work at THREE, running alongside Mirek Smisek’s
60 Years/60 Pots until 29 October.
BLENHEIM NEWS
Work by Yvonne Jordan at the exhibition
(top, l to r): Janet Green, Fran Maguire and Deb Hall at Janet’s workshop.
(above, l to r): Wendy Mein (MCP’s Treasurer), Bill Ward (Exhibitor) and
Ursula Edwards (MCP teacher) at the opening night of the exhibition.
QUALITY POTTERS’ MATERIALS, TOOLS & EQUIPMENT
USUAL AND UNUSUAL MINERALS, FRITS etc
SPECIALISTS IN ECONOMICAL BULK SUPPLIES
DIRECT IMPORTERS OF SPECIAL CLAY BODIES
TRANSLUCENT PORCELAINS, RAKU and HANDBUILDING
CLAYS
LIQUID UNDERGLAZES AND POWDER STAINS etc.
BISQUEWARE and PORCELAIN-PAINTING SUPPLIES
COWLEY POTTERY WHEELS, SLAB ROLLERS, EXTRUDERS
DOLL MAKING and MOVIE INDUSTRY SUPPLIES
NEW ZEALAND WIDE DISTRIBUTION
Warren & Kate Fransham
2 CASHMERE AVE, KHANDALLAH, WELLINGTON
Phone 04 939 1211
e-mail: [email protected]
14
Then for the first time in about 15 years, Marlborough
Community Potters held an exhibition of their work in a public
gallery, the Marlborough Art Society, in Blenheim from Friday
12th October for 16 days. From the beginning of 2012 onwards,
9 potters from the region were mentored by Fran Maguire, in
order to give them an experience of what it is like to exhibit
their own work and put themselves in the spotlight. They all
found it rewarding, exhilarating and slightly terrifying at
the same time.
On opening night, the gallery was crowded with family
members, fellow potters and gallery or shop owners, and
was made doubly festive by the gallery next door hosting
an exhibition of the Marlborough Art and Craft Trail which
featured (along with 11 other artists or crafts people) potters
Fran Maguire, Renate Von Petersdorff and Sara Schotanus,
(all NZ Potters members).
A total of 454 visitors came to the galleries over the
subsequent 16 days, and many of the works that were for
sale, sold. Fran Maguire said that she was ‘blown away’ by
the professional attitude and hard work of her little team,
and although they all deserved a prize, she was pleased to
be able to award the following:
Award for Excellence to: Deb Hall, sponsored by Primo
Clays with a Gift Voucher for $100.
Award for Development of Work to: Ann Gutsell, Gift
Voucher from Primo Clays for $75.
Merit Award to: Ross Dalton, Gift Voucher from Primo
Clays for $50.
Merit Award to: Bill Ward, Gift Voucher from Primo Clays
for $50.
The others exhibiting were: Susan Marks, Yvonne Jordan,
Frank Graham, Wendy Timpson and Valerie Maynard.
Fran was very grateful to Primo Clays for their generous
sponsorship of gift vouchers totalling $275 and to Peter
Burge, photographer, who was so generous with his time
on opening night. There was great newspaper coverage
appearing at least three times. Fran was placed in the
spotlight herself during the course of this exhibition, as
she was called away to win a Merit Award at Portage,
Auckland, flying back down to Blenheim just in time to
help dismantle the MCP exhibition.
OTAGO NEWS Liz Fea
NORTHLAND NEWS Susie Leigh Rogers
AROUND the REGIONS
NZSP website:
www.nzpotters.com
webmaster
Lawrence Ewing
1015 Ellis Rd
Five Rivers
R.D.3, Lumsden
North Southland
Ph 03-248-6068
e-mail [email protected]
(left): Susie Leigh Rogers
in the Northern Advocate
next to her “Nikau”
Inset: “Ladder” by Mark
Mitchell, bought by the
Whangarei District Council
(Above): Premier Award winner Jane Armour with
her “Lemmings” installation.
The Otago Potters Group (OPG) celebrated its 50th
anniversary in November 2012 with a list of events
as well as holding its annual exhibition.
A raku firing was conducted in the Octagon area
on Saturday Nov 10th; members of the public were
invited to glaze pre-bisqued cylinders and watch
these being fired, cooled and cleaned. The works
were then available later for pick-up in the exhibition
gallery. Club members worked hard asking people
to ‘have a go’ and those that did enjoyed a unique
experience.
The exhibition was held in the Community Gallery
where a display of historical ceramic works
belonging to the OPG was set up with accompanying
photographs of rather famous potters who had made
some of these pieces including Jeff
Oestreich and Peter Lange!
Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull opened
the exhibition and showed he had
done his research into early Dunedin
ceramics. DCC Arts Advisor Cara
Patterson had judged the exhibits,
choosing mainly sculptural work,
and prizes were awarded to Jane
Armour, Liz Rowe, Liz Fea and Gary
Anderson. Guest exhibitors were
Marion Mewburn and Nicole Kolig.
And then there was the auction a fundraiser for the group. Many
generous potters donated beautiful
pieces and former television
presenter and long-time Dunedin
resident Dougal Stevenson, acting
in a familiar role (in Dunedin) as
arts auctioneer, did his best to solicit
as many dollars as possible for each
of the works.
The committee summed up the two
weeks of activities as very successful
with lots of buyers for exhibition
pieces and comments that it was a
particularly strong show this year. With many of the
sold items winging their way north it seems ceramics
originating in the far south is in good shape.
Major thanks go to Marion Familton, chief organiser
for the exhibition with deputy Ro McQueen; Tina
Grubba for putting the auction together and to
everyone else who helped out.
WANTED URGENTLY: kiln bricks, castable,
insulation materials for a wood-kiln building project
on Great Barrier Island in January. Transport to
island is sorted.
Ph Sarah (09)4290455, [email protected]
15
IS THIS THE LAST
SUPPER?
Domesticware
Competition 2013
Mr Ian Smail from Gisborne has recently taken up pottery
(again) - these are some of his works from a small gas kiln
fired in quick time.
16
Masterworks Gallery is
delighted to announce
an exciting project
aimed at invigorating
the contemporary
domesticware scene in the
field of ceramics.
Submission requirements:
 Submissions must be
functional domesticware
for the 21st century. This
should be a combination of
form and surface.
 New work to have been
made in last 12 months.
 CV and artist statement.
 All of the above
requirements must be
fulfilled for a submission to
be valid.
 Submissions due Thursday
28th February 2013.
High resolution images and
dimensions to:
77 Ponsonby Rd Ponsonby,
Auckland (09)378 1256
exhibitions@
masterworksgallery.com
www.masterworksgallery.com