October 2023 Newsletter
Ceramicus - opening tomorrow!
On Tuesday 3 October, our 65th annual exhibition will open at The Begonia House, Wellington Botanic Garden ki Paekākā. Ceramicus is a celebration of our community and the ceramic arts.
This year we had 126 works entered from 55 members.
Opening night
All members are welcome to attend opening night. Doors open at 4.45pm, karakia by mana whenua at 5.00pm, followed by awards from guest artist and selector Sue Scobie. Cash bar for alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, and light snacks will be provided. To help manage numbers, please no guests / plus ones.
Exhibition
Ceramicus is open to the public from Wednesday 4 October to Sunday 15 October, 9.30am - 4pm. There are still a few slots for gallery minders, if you’re interested please sign up here (you don’t have to have something in the exhibition to help).
Thank yous
A big mihi to all our volunteers who have helped with planning, exhibition set up and receiving day. Special shout-outs to:
- Martin Henty & Tim Hawley for securing event and award sponsors.
- Hannah Dollery, Phoebe Tuxford & Mel Waite for all our beautiful graphic design and photography.
- Coral Dolan, Sarah Drake, Georgina Parker, Heather Baltzley, Heather Payne for preparing the exhibition space (the cabinets used to be a very purple shade of purple!) and displaying our pots so carefully and beautifully.
- Ingrid Peek for (once again) working her magic behind the scenes on our data flow from application, to selection and sales.
- Sammy Chou & Heather Baltzley for their work on advertising and promotion.
And the biggest thank you of them all to Kate MacDonald for her passion and dedication to the event.
Pop up market at the Botanic Gardens
Our first ever pop up market is this weekend at The Dell, behind the Begonia House at the Botanic Gardens. Across the weekend, over 20 of our members will be selling their pots. Tell your friends, your family, your neighbours and help make our market a success.
HELP NEEDED: we need volunteers to help at pack-in (8am-10am) and pack-out (4pm-6pm) on both days. This will be guiding traffic flow, and assistance with unloading. Please email wellingtonpotters.events@gmail.com if you can help.
Limited stalls are still available, register and pay via Hello Club - Saturday market here, Sunday market here.
Anagama Photos
Another thanks to Mel Waite for photographing various aspects of our Anagama )firing this year. You can download her original images (Anagama, Anagama Show & Tell), or view them on our Facebook member’s group albums.
If you use her photos, please credit Mel wherever possible (@melwaitephotography on Facebook and Instagram or www.melwaitephotography.co.nz). Of course, WPA members should not on-sell or directly make money off Mel’s images without prior approval or discussion with her.
Thank you Mel - your images are gorgeous!
Club Notes and Updates
-
Our annual general meeting and pot-swap was held on Sunday 24 September. Thanks to all those that came along, we need all our members to have a say in how we run our club.
Congratulations to Kate Ford and Peter Rumble who both received life memberships in acknowledgement for their contribution to Wellington Potters’ Association. (We will feature our new life members in an upcoming newsletter.)
ITEMS
We elected our Committee for 2023/24
- President: Martin Henty
- Vice-president: Julie Harrington
- Treasurer: Kelly Ye
- Secretary: Sarah Drake
- Committee members: Ingrid Peek, Sammy Chou, Gordon Sinclair, Heather Payne, Peter Rumble, Kate MacDonaldWe agreed to make the Club Administrator role permanent.
There was some discussion about pressure on club facilities. If you have a maintenance issue please record it in the ‘Club Maintenance Book’ (kept by the sign in book), if you have a health and safety issue, please record it in the ‘Health and Safety Book’ (by the library door). This will help give the Committee oversight and aid future decision making.
-
In case you missed it in our Mid-Month Catch Up email: the answer is yes, BUT with two caveats:
- DON’T use club glazes
- You *can* use club firings but for no more than a few items per month (for example, four cups or two medium-sized bowls per month).Why is this? WPA relies on the goodwill of many of its volunteers. By selling items made with club glazes or using club firings for multiple items, you are directly profiting off our volunteers’ labour and expertise.
It's very easy to purchase brush-on glazes, 'just-add-water' pre-mixed glazes, or even make your own. Have a look at the online stockists listed in our SHOP page.
If you don’t have a Kiln Licence, you could approach a member that does and, if they are willing, ‘hire’ them to fire on your behalf. (The best place to do this is via the Facebook members’ page or wellingtonpotters.info@gmail.com. Kilns fire better when full, so often people are looking for more pots!)
-
Your friends or family are welcome to visit the clubrooms however, only Full or Life members may use any of the equipment, kilns or glazes. This is due to health and safety risks and also to protect our equipment from damage. Please ask your visitors to sit at the lunch table while you work - due to space limitations (and perceived space limitations) , we ask that they don’t join you at the working tables or wheels.
Every few months, we hold a Friends and Family evening where you can bring them along to try things out under supervision.
Don’t forget to check the FAQ in HelloClub for these types of questions. If you’ve got any other things you think we should include, feel free to email wellingtonpotters.info@gmail.com.
PSAs from the Club Admin
Admin Office Hours
My usual “in-person office hours” are back on: Mondays from 1-5(ish), but you can often find me in the rooms later in the week, too. As always, you can email me whenever: wellingtonpotters.info@gmail.com.
And to all of you who kept the various slips and forms topped up while I was away, thank you!
– Heather
DID YOU KNOW…?
Old Habits Dry Hard
By Peter Rumble
-
Old habits die hard. Recently I explained to a long-time potter that they didn’t have to drill a hole in a member’s enclosed form before it was fired. I was listened to politely…but the hole was drilled all the same.
Enclosed items occasionally explode because they have not been properly dried. Any moisture, at 100 degrees Celsius, will turn to steam…and water to steam has an expansion rate of 1200 times…yes; twelve hundred.
Air, by contrast, expands at just one-four hundred and fiftieth per 1 degree C. And clay is porous enough, as pressure builds, to allow that air to dissipate.
Believe me. I produced over 250 fully sealed hollow *oloids (* look it up; they’re amazing shapes) for an exhibition some 6 years ago. Not a single one cracked and certainly none exploded!
Pots with “air bubbles” – even tiny ones - retain moisture within those little cavities and it takes more than just a couple of days for that to evaporate…it could take weeks.
Here’s someone else’s observations…just in case you think I’m trying to pull a swifty on you.
The vast majority--and probably all--of the 'explosions' of pots that occur during firing occur at or about 100-120 deg C because the pot is not dry. Lots of people fire closed forms without incident IF they carefully dry their pots first. At the temperature where combined water is released the clay is still very porous. Think about it. Does bisqued pottery leak water? Yes. Then you know for certain it will also leak gases. And it is significantly more porous at 450-700 deg C or so where combined water is released. There is simply no way to build up much pressure in a porous closed form with the small amount of combined water that is given off gradually over a broad temperature range as you heat the kiln through that temperature range over a period of a couple hours or more.
Now it is true that closed forms are more difficult to dry than open forms, although a pinhole will have a negligible effect on the rate of drying. Most, if not all, of the ‘bad press’ closed forms get for 'exploding' is simply due to the fact that people fire them before they are dry. And wet pots fired too quickly will 'explode' whether or not they are a closed form--and, more than likely, whether or not that closed form has a pinhole in it.
Curious to know more? Click here.
Upcoming WPA Events
Short Break from Classes
We’re going to take a short break from scheduling classes while we make the final push for Ceramicus. When we get back to business, we’ll focus on short workshops through the holidays and look at longer classes in the new year. New classes will be posted in the usual locations: newsletter, MMCU (Mid-Month Catch-Up email), website, social media, etc., so keep your eyes peeled.
Community News/Events
Kintsugi Workshop
Re-use, Re-Purpose, Beautify with Gold!!
Ema will be holding a KINTSUGI WORKSHOP on Sat & Sun 14th & 15th Oct here in Wellington again and she has limited spots available so make sure to book in early.
Have you ever wanted to try Kintsugi.... It's an ancient Japanese art form where you fix broken pottery with gold - making its imperfections its beauty. - A truly wonderful philosophy to live by. If you are interested please go to: https://tinyurl.com/mwxbdk8p
I'm sure there's a few of you out there that have been saving a broken piece not knowing quite what to do with it, and if not Ema has plenty of back ups. So just bring yourselves and have some fun. Bring a friend and make some Kintsugi magic together.
Head Tutor / Kaiārahi a Toi
Are you an artist? Vincent’s is currently looking to appoint a Head Tutor for our vibrant community art space in central Wellington.
They are looking for someone who loves teaching, with extensive experience using a wide range of art mediums. Ceramics knowledge is essential. Previous experience working in the creative spaces sector would be an advantage. Permanent role, 32 hours per week.
Interested? Contact Sarah Morris at vincentsartworkshop@xtra.co.nz by 5pm, Friday 6 Oct.
Safe for Sale!
- KEYLESS: you use password access
- Dimensions: 200mm high X 200mm deep X 350mm wide
- Fix to wall via 4 bolt holes in back
- Will go to the highest bidder! Send your bid to wellingtonpotters.info@gmail.com. Bidding will close 7 October and you will be notified via email.
Have some content for the newsletter? Email it to wellingtonpotters.info@gmail.com. The deadline for the next newsletter is 27 October.
