After graduating Art School, I had an outdoor covered studio in front of my seaside flat in Island Bay, where I would throw on the wheel with hot water bottles strapped to my tummy to keep warm when the ‘Southerlies’ struck. I’d make artistic rocking shapes that became affectionately known as my ‘weeble wobble’ phase. Then, when it was time to go on the obligatory ‘OE’, I applied to throw tableware for a potter in Iona, Scotland and got the job. It was here, in the Scottish Inner Hebrides, that I truly learnt the skills of throwing conventional cups and bowls on the wheel under the eye of a famous local potter. Then in Dublin, I was lucky enough to work in one of Ireland’s best pottery studios.
After creating functional tableware overseas, back in New Zealand I was drawn to elevating functional forms with an element of fine art. Over time, my cups and bowls became stocked in several outlets throughout New Zealand. Then with a child on the way, I became the primary care-giver and chose to put ceramics on hold for a few years.
But I never lost my calling. In late 2021 the time to return to ceramics was right. I’d forgotten how much I delighted in the ceramic processes from making slip to loading the kiln. My days are now spent on the wheel tumbling back into creative vice.