Five pieces in the All Fired Up Exhibition

21 October 202421 October 2024 by Theo

The Hakatere Ceramics and Pottery Group’s annual exhibition, ‘All Fired Up’ is currently on at the ASA Short St Studio and I have five pieces in the exhibition.

Awards were given for hand and wheel categories for Novice – 0-3 years, Intermediate – 3-6 years and Open – 6 plus years experience. I received a runner-up award for my Blue Drip Bowl, a piece that I had thrown on the wheel. I find wheel work very challenging and so I was very pleased with this result.

I was not totally happy with the result of the first glaze firing of this bowl, so I used a rotary tool to remove the glaze I was not happy with. I then touched up the glaze and refired it.

Likewise, I did the same with these two vases. The original mandarin glaze on the inside of the vases was too weak and so these were reglazed with red.

All three of these vessels were still in the kiln when I left for a holiday two weeks before the exhibition opened so I am glad they all survived the extra firing and came out well.

*Tall Red & Brown Vase, hand built ceramic*

My experiments with extruding clay through a cookie press led me to create these squid figures.

*Squid with Big Yellow Eyes and Squid with Small Eyes, hand built ceramics*

This work is being exhibited in Hakatere Ceramics and Pottery Group’s 2024 All Fired Up Exhibition at the Ashburton Society of Arts Short St Studio, 53 Short St, Ashburton from 12-26 October 2024. Open daily 10am-3pm.

From the Earth

10 November 202321 October 2024 by Theo

I joined the Hakatere Ceramics and Pottery Club at the beginning of the year and I entered six pieces in their exhibition as well as creating and donating a tile for the group project.

You are here, Tile

My, You are here, tile is a reasonably accurate hand drawn scale map of the Ashburton District featuring State Highway 1 (red), State Highway 77 and State Highway 79 (yellow) as well as the major roads and rivers. It was created from a slab of Whitestone clay with the features inscribed and painted with oxides and underglazes and then fired with a clear glaze.

*You are here, Ceramic Tile, approx 200x200mm*

*You are here tile, before bisque firing*.

*Tiles, Hakatere Ceramics and Pottery Club group project in their From the Earth exhibition at Ashburton Art Gallery.*

Nest vessel

I squeezed clay through a cookie press to create fine coils and formed them into a nest shaped vessel. Colored with red, blue and yellow underglazes and fired with a clear glaze this pot won the Best Novice Hand Work in the exhibition.

*Nest vessel, after glazing and final firing.*

Blue vessel

My first attempt at creating a vessel on the wheel, this simple pot has a turquoise glaze.

*Bowl and blue vessel (right) after final firing.*

House of neglect

A slab work tower resembling a ruin decorated with black glaze.

Hexagon vase

A slab work hexagon shaped vase with oxides on the exterior and black glaze interior.

Flying pig money box

A functional sculpture of a hollow flying pig with a slot to accept coins. Coins can be retrieved through a hole on the underside covered with a ceramic stopper.

Ring

A fleur-de-lis extruded from a cookie press and joined to a coil of clay formed this large wearable ring fired with a black glaze.

The Hakatere Ceramics and Pottery Club’s exhibition “From the Earth” is at the Ashburton Art Gallery from 18 October to 19 November 2023.

Pocket

13 July 202313 July 2023 by Theo

This year, I joined Hakatere Ceramics and Pottery Ashburton to learn more skills and make art with clay.

Pocket is a handwork piece that I formed after the noticing the canvas pattern left from rolling the clay. I carved the stitching and added clay for the stud features and after drying, I bisque fired the piece.

The club held a Raku Firing day and so I glazed Pocket with a copper glaze on the studs and another glaze I have forgotten the name of. Raku Firing is exciting. The work is heated to over 1000 ºC and then quickly removed from the hot kiln and placed into a combustible material and starved of oxygen to produce a myriad of colors in the glazes and black where the clay was unglazed. The results are often unexpected.

*Pocket, ceramic, approx 20 x 20 x 4 cm*

Pocket has been entered in the Ashburton Society of Arts’ 59th Annual Exhibition and is available for sale at the Ashburton Art Gallery from 4-28 July 2023.