Driving Creek Pottery - New Zealand Artist Residency

I was thrilled to be accepted onto a one month artist residency at Driving Creek Pottery last year, which has been a dream of mine for some time. Located on the Coromandel peninsula on the North Island of New Zealand, the pottery was started by Barry Brickell in 1973 and shortly after he built New Zealand’s first wood fired stoneware kiln. Barry was an influential studio potter, a train enthusiast and an environmentalist. When Barry purchased the land, it had been degraded by years of kauri logging and gold mining, yet was rich in terracotta clay. Barry built a railway down the hillside to transport the clay to his studio. Over a 30 year period, 27,000 native trees were planted by Barry and visiting residents to restore the land and it is now a protected nature reserve where Kiwi birds have recently returned.

During my residency I experimented throwing with foraged wild clays on a kick wheel, and tried out new techniques, such as Nerikomi and making surface impressions with found natural objects such as shells, or incorporating drift wood as handles, that I had collected whilst hiking the Abel Tasman trail. I also played with cyanotype printing and dyeing cotton with the local Coro gold clay, which I used for weaving on a simple frame loom which I built on site.

Together with the other residents we did a soda firing in the Phoenix wood kiln that took 12 hours. It was a fantastic experience with some wonderful results, and unpacking it on my birthday was the best gift!

Daily rhythms at Driving Creek started with breakfast in Barry’s sculpture garden, listening to the Tui birds sing and writing morning pages as staff and visitors arrived for zip lining or a ride on the train. After potting all day we would go on adventures to nearby beaches for an evening swim.

It was such a privilege to create in this beautiful setting alongside talented makers, swimming at nearby beaches and sleeping in converted train carriages, listening to the cicadas at night.