Why Pottery?
I want to try and describe why I’ve chosen to be a potter. To me, it’s the only thing that makes sense for me to do. I think it’s useful to go into that a bit, in case anyone wants to understand more.
I started making pottery 6 years ago, at a night class in Ōtepoti. I’ve always been making art, but something about pottery kept me so much more engaged than anything else. Whenever I had access to a shared pottery studio, I would spend most of my free time practising.
A few years into it, I started dreaming about being a full-time potter. It never seemed entirely possible to me because I didn’t have any examples in my life of someone doing that. I moved to Tāmaki Makaurau in 2021 and decided to give myself the space to focus by doing a year of ceramics study at Auckland Studio Potters. I learned a lot of practical skills there, made great connections, and I became even more committed to the craft.
I realised that my enthusiasm for pottery came from quite a deep place in me, and things seemed to just click. I felt so happy to be spending my time doing what I love, and found myself prioritising it over most other things. I noticed that my interests and strengths all combine in this craft. The scientific and artistic parts of me can work together to make things that are pleasing as well as useful, and are easily shared with others. I also noticed that the process of making pottery helped me to become more of the person I want to be.
So then I needed to find a way to spend as much time making pottery as possible, and as little time as possible doing other things to earn money. I feel clear now about my goals for making a living from pottery, which is simply to create a loop where my work provides enough income that I can continue to focus on my work.
Turns out it is not actually that easy, but I am enjoying the process of learning how to make it work. For whatever reason, I feel so committed to making it work that I am overall happy to take on the challenges. I’m now living in Pōneke, and have been working in my own studio full-time for almost a year. I’m learning to run a business as well as a pottery studio, and I’ve been able to pick up so many new skills. I’m lucky to have met Lucy of Salad Days Ceramics, and to spend some time working as her studio assistant. She’s a great example for me to know that it is possible to make it work as a potter, and she’s so generous with her pottery and business experience.
It’s definitely hard at times to combine money and art, but I find it very satisfying to try. I believe everyone has a role to play and a unique way of contributing to the world (which I’ll elaborate on another time). I’m pretty sure that for me, it’s making pottery for people to use and love in their everyday lives.