NEWSLETTER. Craft St Ninians Church 24 Sept. Contents Page. Contents Page. Page 1 MARLBOROUGH COMMUNITY POTTERS 11 SEPTEMBER 2011

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1 MARLBOROUGH COMMUNITY POTTERS 11 SEPTEMBER 2011 NEWSLETTER From the Clubroom... Now the blossom s in full bloom, we can all come out of hibernation and begin the annual pilgrimage back to the Clubrooms. There s lots coming up through the Club & it d be great to see you in & using the space - it s there for you. We re also being invited to share our potty-ness with the community. Most of us aren t professional potters & get embarrassed when being watched but it s great to be able to share the fun that s pottery. This might even encourage others to visit and/or join the Club. Come along, get involved, lose the cares of the day in a pile of clay & ENJOY Craft St Ninians Church 24 Sept We re doing it! A playing with clay demonstration at St Ninians Church on Alabama Rd as part of their fundraising Cra& Expo for their Youth & Family Trust. The Club s going to have a wheel, clay, underglazes & tools so members can demonstrate various ways of working with clay & talking with visitors about the Club. It d be great if we could get a range of members to participate - new & long standing, experienced & beginner. If you can spare an hour or two between 10am & 4pm on Saturday, 24 Sept please let me know ( ) - I m making up a roster so the whole day s covered. Everything will be set up beforehand for you to just start playing. Bill Ward Contents Page AGM report 2 Art of the Earth 3 Calendar 5 Committee members 2 Cra& Expo 1 Nativity Cubs/Scouts 3 Contents Page Notices 5 NZSP Report 4 Raku 3 Welcome 5 Wood firing 3 Workshops 5 Page 1

2 AGM Report 8 August 2011 Marlborough Community Potters Chairperson s Report September 2010 to August 2011 The committee members this year are: Ross Dalton, Ursula Edwards, Ann Gutsell (Secretary), Debbie Hall ( Deputy Chair), Fran Maguire, Wendy Mein ( Treasurer), Renate von Petersdorff, Sara Schotanus, Bill Ward, Johanna Warren (Chair). You are a great team; thank you for all the work done, both at and between committee meetings. I also thank all our members, we need you all to be a lively and always growing club. Tutors, visiting and regular we thank you too, for all your encouragement. We are currently trialling club nights on Tuesdays as well as Mondays, hoping to enable more members to attend regularly. As a committee we will be keen to hear your feedback on this. This year Debbie Hall and Fran Maguire have offered demonstrations on some club nights to share their skills and enthusiasm. Early in 2011 Debbie ran a very well attended coiling workshop which led into a wood firing weekend with Darryl Frost. See the great write up Ann and Jill put into the June Ceramics Quarterly. Fran ran a Beginners Course in the autumn. Raku firings, a Tour de Marlborough and our regular newsletter have added to the richness of the year. We have asked members to remove clay from the side shelves to free up space for large items of work. YOUR COMMITTEE : Johanna Warren Chairperson jowarren@actrix.co.nz Fran Maguire Vice-chair fran@franmaguire.co.nz Wendy Mein Secretary/Treasurer wendy@naclachan.co.nz Thepit has been floored and shelved to allow more to be stored there, out of any rising damp. One wheel had to be repaired and we plan to get all wheels over to Nelson for maintenance as people can take them. As always working bees have kept some of the weeds down, some clay reclaimed and mess tidied away; thank you to all who have helped at these. Art of the earth was once again a reasonably successful event. Now is the time to start panicking about creating goods for the next in November. Keep potting. Johanna Warren August ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTIONS - EARLY BIRD SPECIAL Unfortunately, due to the price of everything (especially electricity) going up, we ve had to increase the subs to $30 per year BUT if you pay by 30 Nov you get $5 off. I ll send out a reminder in October along with a note of individual firing charges due. Derryn McArthur robertderryn@xtra.co.nz Belinda Bryce cbryce@xtra.co.nz Sara Schotanus sara@essonsvalley.com Marcia Chang-Hong marcia.chang@xtra.co.nz Bill Ward berylw@paradise.net.nz Alexis Goodman alexis_goodman@hotmail.com Renate von Petersdorf renatevp@xtra.co.nz Page 2

3 It s all happening at the Club Raku Firing 12.00, Sat 1st Oct Get your pots made so they ve got time to dry, be bisqued & glazed before the day. Please ask a committee member if you re not sure where the raku glazes are. Rakus are a lot of fun & can produce stunning & unexpected results. Any type of clay can be used. There are still plenty of bisqueware pieces available for purchase if you re short of time & want to have a go. Wood firing 25, 26, 27 Nov We re having another wood firing. It was going be a stoneware (or high) firing BUT the demand for a lower firing is overwhelming, so that s what we re having. USE TERRACOTTA OR UV Pieces need to be made in plenty of time to be completely dry. Here s a starting point for preparing & decorating your pot(s) : Art of the Earth is less than 2 months away - on Sunday, 6 November. I know this is a case of stating the obvious, but if you ve not made anything, you can t sell it. This is your chance to sell pieces you ve made & work towards making a hobby self-financing. The Club s commission is 10% on all sales made. Bill Ward All members are encouraged to provide pieces to sell, any number s good. Putting your first piece up for sale is the scariest, but selling that one is VERY exciting - give it a chance. Spreading the clay The Club s been asked to introduce pottery to the Nativity Cub/Scout group (approx year old boys and girls). They meet on a Tuesday 6:30-7:45 pm. If you re able to spare this time for up to 4 weeks, please get in touch with Johanna ( ) or Wendy ( ) Page 3

4 NZSP, REPORT FROM SARA SCHOTANUS, REGIONAL COMMITTEE MEMBER FOR NELSON/MARLBOROUGH I have just got my feet under the table as RCM for Nelson/Marlborough, having taken it on in April 2011, so this report is just a bit of a snapshot impression of how things are going in the Top of the South Island. The New Zealand Potters membership currently stands at 20, including one new member in Nelson, plus 5 affiliated clubs and 1 corporate member. Many of those members I have met personally, and they all seem quite satisfied with the benefits and costs of being part of NZSP. All but one are contactable by . One member noted that the National Ceramic Competitions particularly encouraged the newer, younger, members by awarding prizes across the board, regardless of length of service. Seven members from the region attended the conference in Dunedin in 2010, and four this year in Auckland. I recently met with Alan Ballard at Nelson Craft Potters in Hope, who helped 3 students obtain their Diploma in Ceramic Art last year, through the Distance Learning course at Otago Polytechnic. This year he has 4 full-time students, 2 part-time students and one doing Level 7. Next year he hopes to have Darryl Frost and Erika Aupperle help him for one term each, leaving him to do a bit more of his own work. He reports that the club is going through a bit of a Renaissance at the moment, with good membership levels and huge enthusiasm for the Wednesday class, taught by Charles Renate von Petersdorf Shaw. They are so well equipped and housed there that I am glad people are taking advantage of this fantastic club again. Mike Rodgers at South Street Gallery in Nelson has always been a helpful source of all kinds of information. He stages 'Potter of The Month' shows, which help promote individual potters. Next up (September 2011) is Allan Ballard. Mike reports that sales have been buoyant this year at South Street. The Suter Gallery in Nelson is doing very well at promoting ceramic artists at the moment. In March they staged a solo show by Darryl Frost and another by 9 members of the Nelson Potters Association, 7 of which are members of NZ Potters. The Suter has also recently had solo shows by John Crawford, Mirek Smisek and Ann Verdcourt. In the future there is to be another Nelson Potters exhibition, with the addition of 4 new members from Blenheim/Picton, who are also joining the Nelson Potters website. Sara Schotanus I am very pleased to report that The Suter will also show a (possibly scaled-down) version of the 2011 Portage exhibition in late December/early January. I believe there were at least two entries from our region this year, so wouldn't it be great if they got in, and then were given double exposure, in both North and South islands? Richard Parker will also have his show at The Suter, running concurrently with the Portage. Peter Gibbs, a journalist with the Nelson Mail, is a very keen reporter on all things ceramic, and has also selected a showcase of Nelson potters work within The Suter Gallery. The Millennium gallery in Blenheim is also doing its bit for ceramic artists. Fran Maguire is about to have her 3rd major solo exhibition there, and in Sept 2012 the Mirek Smisek travelling show (60 Years, 60 Pots) will leave a bit of room in the gallery for Fran Maguire, Janet Green and myself (Sara Schotanus). Marlborough Community Potters in Blenheim continues to thrive, with a large turnover of members, some of whom are encouraged to stay and enjoy being taught by Ursula Edwards, Fran Maguire, Renate von Petersdorff and, occasionally, Sara Schotanus. Raku and wood firings are becoming commonplace, and new courses are starting all the time. Paul Winspear from Takaka is keeping busy, I have seen him and his works in Blenheim and Nelson recently. The Motueka potters and club are, I am sure, continuing on despite my omission to go and visit them, but I fully intend to do that before too long. All in all, spirits are high regarding ceramics in Nelson/Marlborough. I don't know about incomes of course, but there are certainly lots of opportunities for us potters, and interest is being taken BY us and IN us. Sara Schotanus, August 2011 Ursula Edwards Page 4

5 NOTICES & CLASSIFIEDS Have you seen a lost looking ANGLE GRINDER? If you have or you ve tidied it away, please phone Debbie on Thank you to Roger for the great start he s made to repairing the wheels. The red one now goes like the clappers. WELCOME a new member to the Club : Jan Whillans We hope you enjoy your potting & please ask if there s anything you re wanting to know clay or club-wise Next month I ll introduce a lovely little pottery club in Western Australia & share a few photos. Workshops Opportunity Robert Sanderson and Coll Minogue are intending to visit New Zealand in March next year to attend the Woodstoke Whangamata conference. As publishers of a number of ceramic books and the periodical The Log Book, both have a wealth of information to share. Robert is keen to run a kiln building workshop - to build, pack, fire and unpack his version of a simple (relatively small 18 cubic feet) train type kiln. This type of kiln is easy to build, pack and fire, and contrary to the perception of wood firing as difficult and requiring a large team to fire, it is in fact quite feasible to fire this kiln alone or with the assistance of one other person. Having completed the workshop it should be possible for participants to build their own versions of this kiln. To date he has built six such kilns. The building, packing, firing and unpacking may be achieved within a 7 day schedule. Also, Robert and Coll can give talks on a range of topics including: International Wood-fired Ceramics; the Bourry-box kiln; Impressed and Incised Ceramics; Slab-built Ceramics; International Women Wood firers, and could present these as required. For more info & other options have a look at : Club nights 7-9 pm Calendar Monday, 12 Sept Tuesday, 13 Sept Monday, 26 Sept Tuesday, 27 Sept Monday, 10 Oct Tuesday, 11 Oct Committee meeting 7.30 pm Monday, 3 October Arts Forum 5.30 pm pm Thursday, 22 Sept St Ninian s 10 am - 4 pm Saturday, 24 Sept Raku 12 noon - 4 pm Saturday, 1 Oct Wood firing All weekend 25, 26, 27 Nov Sculptural Coiling Course January 2012 Exhibitions Marlborough Community Potters Art Society Gallery 2012 If you re interested in any or all of these tutors, please let a committee member know so we can try & arrange it. Page 5