Featured Artisans | Pottery Month in Parnell August 2022

    Michelle Bow

Born in New Zealand of mixed heritage, Michelle’s love of clay began over 30 years ago at university. Michelle spent 15 years as an art director and designer in the media industry before becoming a full-time ceramic artist in 2001.

A graduate of the Otago Diploma of Ceramics, Michelle loves to throw contemporary vessels, as well as to hand make wall art and sculptural pieces exploring the icons and patterns of New Zealand and the pacific region.

Michelle has received several awards for her ceramics and has exhibited in galleries and exhibitions throughout New Zealand.

   D'Aunoy Clarke

Hey, there! I'm D'Aunoy (don-wah), but I just go by Doni (doe-knee).

I was born in New Orleans and just three months later moved to Auckland, New Zealand. After ten years of life there, I moved back to New Orleans, where I finished high school; and later attended Louisiana State University. There, I completed my BFA in ceramics in 2015. 

​After graduation, I made the journey back again to New Zealand, where I worked full time in administration and event coordination for just over three years. During that time, I found that art and a life of creating art was my true passion.

​In all of my artworks, exploring new textures is my main driving force. Making art that people want to touch is a goal. Following a close second to texture is colour. I hope that the bright & fun colours of my pieces help bring joy and colour into the lives of the viewers. 

   Jino Jeong

  Muddy Fingers

Tom Somerville works from Helensville north of Auckland.

When I took up pottery in 2016 I was taken with the idea that anyone could take up a bit of mud, fashion it into something, cook it and hey presto there you have it. pottery & sculpture. The fun thing is what to do with that mud . I realised I wanted to make stuff that people would cherish. that would add a bit of art into their lives and so Muddy Fingers was born. My inspiration comes from my life experience. As a young man I spent may hours swimming among coral reefs in Tonga. I met my wife there in Tonga. Jointly we share a passion for gardening and family. I have decided that all the lines, shapes and designs we love are all to be found in that diverse incredible realm we call nature. My work simply tries to capture some of this and repackage for your enjoyment.

  Touchstones

We create functional and decorative pieces from clay and stone that evoke the spirit of the places in New Zealand that we travel to and experience.

Our collections are made slowly nurturing mindfulness in the process of their creation, and are designed to encourage a sense of grounding in their use.

The pieces are designed to be tactile, imperfect and evocative, often with honed surfaces created for touch.

They try to capture the essence of the material that is used, its natural grains, flaws, texture, strength.

Touchstones is a collection of work by Scott Donnell and Lisa Day. 

   Teresa Watson

Teresa Watson is a professional potter and tutor. As a teacher and a clay worker it seems only natural to combine her two loves, teaching and pottery. 

Teresa is an award winning ceramic artist‚ who has been teaching ceramics in the community for over 20 years. Her vision is to share the passion and love of clay with like minded people‚ and to inspire students in clay making through the classes that are held there.

The ceramic college is the only facility‚ here on the North Shore, that is set up purely for ceramics. It is housed in the former beautiful Saint Michael’s Anglican church‚ still with its original furniture‚ and church bell.

  Millie Freeman

Rose River Pottery is the studio of Tauranga-based ceramicist Millie Freeman, who is particularly captivated by vase form, making both functional vases and purely decorative curvaceous pieces. She likens the curves and contours of her work to a winding river – endlessly flowing and graceful yet sometimes wild and turbulent. “Transforming a lump of clay into a unique and elegant piece is always thrilling and satisfying and a very soulful experience,” she says.

Believing there’s a place in any home for a variety of vase shapes and sizes to hold an array of flowers, from tiny posies to bigger bunches, she likes to create her designs with diversity in mind. Rich bronzes and greens feature recurrently in her glaze work, as she draws on the colours of that winding river rushing over rocks and weaving through the forest. No clay is wasted in her studio with all trimmings as well as collapses and other bungles getting recycled and re-created into a fabulous new pot.

Millie has been a wheel potter since 2018 and teaches at Bethlehem Pottery Club in Tauranga.

   Jill Bryce

Jill has always had an affinity with the sea, having always lived by the sea. Jill loves the continuing contrast of colours nature produces, which she sees every day from her studio on the cliff, in Army Bay.

She particularly loves hand building ceramics, where she can create various shapes forms, loving the 3D of this form of art. Really, Jill just loves creating.

   Siriporn Falcon-Grey

Living in Las Vegas, Nevada (1999), and inspired by the unique cultural diversity, I immersed myself in a variety of art courses that included drawing, stone and metal sculpting, and ceramics. Of all these mediums, I have always been drawn to ceramics the most. Enjoying the sense of creativity that comes with manipulating clay with my hands, I consider my artistic style to be loose and somewhat wabi-sabi.   

Integrating thrown forms with hand-built techniques for a more natural aesthetic, my ideas are drawn from indigenous pottery and diverse cultures. Preferring not to be stagnant with my ceramics, one day it’s cups and the next day it’s sculptures. I believe that one can benefit from art when tactility and function comes into play.

I became a member of the Auckland Studio Potters Society in 2011, studying under a variety of prominent New Zealand and international potters. In November 2019, I became an Otago Polytechnic Alumna receiving a Diploma in Arts and Design Ceramics. From 2019 to 2020, I was an ASP Committee trustee as well as the Social Media Manager, but later resigned to focus on my ASP Artist Residency. Currently I spend my time preparing for exhibitions and teaching pottery workshops.

  Marilyn Wheeler

Pip Gray draws inspiration for her designs from New Zealand's unique landscape and coastline

In 2001 Pip established her studio after developing a style and technique that is uniquely hers. Prior to that she worked at several ceramic studios after studying art for four years majoring in ceramics. All of Pips artwork is handprinted. Pip creates functional pieces that are all microwave, dishwasher and oven safe.

  Wilma Jennings

I've always created, whether it was from the mud resulting from the seasonal rains on my childhood island of Curacao, the sands on beaches, fabrics handed down to me or simply paint and paper. 

As clay is my dominant medium, I feel my creative space sits constantly at a crossroads between functional form, home decoration and art. As an artist I'm drawn in all these directions. All my pieces are passionately designed, whether created for the joy of using a practical item, or uplifting because it's beautiful to look at. My ethos is this: we're drawn to colours and shapes that make our hearts sing.

Art and design in all forms has the power to 'wash off the daily dust of everyday life' as Picasso once said. 

My passion is from the Caribbean, and New Zealand. The colours, architecture and spirit of my birth island still influences my work, along with beautiful flora and fauna of my home country New Zealand. 

Having started my pottery life under the influence and teaching of well known potters such as Yvonne Rust and Len Castle, and lesser known Margaret Radford, I've always been mindful of quality, ensuring form, materials and finishes are fit for design and purpose.