Potters
Brian Halstead
Brian Halstead began potting, as a hobby, around 1975 and was taught by Patricia Perrin. He has returned to pottery after a break of some thirty years, as he pursued his career in architecture and landscape architecture. He now pots full time and specialises in domestic stoneware, concentrating on oriental glazes with some work salt glazed. He is a member of Auckland Studio Potters, where he is mentored by Peter Stichbury and Peter Lange. He is particularly interested in the firing process and fires with oil, gas and wood, sometimes in combination as he seeks the glaze results he desires. He has exhibited locally and won awards for his pottery
view worksPetra Molloy
Petra completed a Diploma in Art(ceramics) at the Australian National University in Canberra in 2003. She has also spent a number of years under the tutelage of Peter Stichbury at Auckland Studio Potters. Her focus, since graduation, has been the exploration of porcelain, its translucency and ability to transmit and reflect light. She also enjoys domestic ware, with its contrast to the ephemeral characteristics of porcelain. Here she likes to focus on the earthy origins of the materials used. The clay she uses is often grogged. The glazes are an attempt to reflect the colours in the natural world. Her work is reduction fired in a gas kiln or salted in a wood-fired kiln.
view worksPeter Lange
Having spent 10 years between 1960 and 1970, travelling widely overseas, working in a variety of occupations, including driving a London cab and cleaning silver at Buckingham Palace, Peter returned to New Zealand where he began potting and making domestic ware. He has worked, taught and exhibited in New Zealand and throughout the world. He was a foundation member of the Albany Village Pottery retail cooperative in 1976. In 1978 he moved to Auckland and joined the Potters Arms Cooperative. In the early 1980s Peter travelled to the United States and it was then that he came across the work of Richard Shaw (b.1941) in San Francisco. This brought about a change in direction in his own practice. In 1994 he was awarded a Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council award to 'explore new directions' and during that year he was an Artist-in-Residence at the Christchurch Polytechnic. Lange has exhibited widely throughout New Zealand. Highlights in recent years include being an official demonstrator at the 2002 Aomori Wood-fire Festival in Japan and being selected to take part in a terracotta and brick symposium in Eskisehir, Turkey in 2003. In 1997, he taught at the Dubai Art Centre in the United Arab Emirates. Peter has twice received the Merit Award at the Fletcher Challenge Art Award in 1985 and 1986. His work features in a number of collections, including in the Auckland Museum, Christchurch Art Gallery, the Beehive, Suzhou School of Art in China, and the Aberystwyth Arts Centre in Wales. He was awarded a Craft Object Fellowship in 2005 and has used it to further develop his adventures in brick sculptural pieces. Currently, Peter is a popular tutor at the Auckland Studio Potters complex.
view worksCarol Stewart
Carol moved to the Waitakere ranges from New York in 2002 and very quickly became immersed in mud! To her great delight, she also discovered a vibrant potting community in Auckland. Her approach to clay is eclectic – anything is worth trying at least once and she has found that persistence can often lead to success, which leads to overconfidence, which leads to ….. Almost all her work is thrown and based on vessel forms, functional and, she hopes, beautiful to look at and to use. She has started hand-building recently and finds herself fascinated by boxes. Boxes contain surprises – the winning lottery ticket, out of date coins, that missing button – your past, your present and your future.
view worksElena Renker
Elena's focus has been on making shino-glazed bowls and cups. To her a bowl is the ultimate domestic item, representing nourishment and sustenance. She aims for her bowls to be strong yet subtle with a timeless quality, as if they had been on the kitchen table feeding the family for a long time. She is fascinated with the compelling nature of the Japanese shino glaze. The crazing, pin-holing, crawling and the way this glaze shows every mark are all characteristics that provide a challenge no other glaze can match. Elena lives on a farm north of Auckland, which gives her the opportunity to use clay from her own land. Faceting the exterior of the pot opens up the clay and exposes all its impurities and creates an interesting surface with which the shino glaze interacts. She loves the unpredictability of this glaze, the interplay bwtween glaze and clay and the fact she never knows what she will find when she opens the kiln. Elena has a Diploma in Ceramics.
view worksGretel Halstead
Gretel does primarily hand-built work, most often in porcelain. She gathers much of her inspiration from nature and is constantly searching out new forms, patterns and textures. Most of her work is high fired porcelain but she often uses low fired alkaline glazes, for the brightness of colour they give. She is a member of Auckland Studio Potters and is mentored by Peter Lange. Gretel has exhibited and won awards with her pots.
view worksPatricia North
Patricia lived in Hamilton for a time and, while there, gained a certificate in pottery, under the tutelage of Don Thornley, at the Waikato Technical Institute. She moved to Auckland and after a number of years away from pottery joined Auckland Studio Potters, where she is presently tutored by Peter Stichbury. Patricia enjoys making domestic ware, fired under reduction and finds salt firing an interesting and rewarding technique.
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