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Meri Kirihimete!

It was so fantastic to catch up with so many of you at the Christmas Party on Tuesday night. Thanks for coming to celebrate, you stunning clay people. The Stealing-Secret-Santa game was a riot again, with one particular bowl made by Tim Edwards, and an adorable chook made by Marg Ritchie being thieved multiple times each! 😊We're winding everything up in the studio this week and preparing for the working bee on Friday. As we do that, we're looking back on what a cool year we've had here with y...

Xmas party, Clear out, Working bee

We’re just about at the end! And we’re looking forward to wrapping up an awesome year at the Christmas Party on Tuesday the 17th! Hope to see you there 😊There’s no new news this week, but get into the reminders below and make the most of our last studio days for 2024....

Kurinuki workshop, Term 1 Classes, Christmas party, Working bee

We hope you’re all coping with this sudden heat! It’s surely hot here in the studio, but the sunshine is a blessing.We have just over 2 weeks until the end of the WSP year – how did that happen?! Most classes finished up this week, with a handful of Monday and Sunday classes finishing next week. And there is only one more Tuesday night PWC, and two more Wednesday and Saturday morning PWCs left!The new kilns have not arrived yet sadly, (apparently, we’re “at the mercy of international s...

All the End of Year stuff you need to know

It’s now just three weeks until we close for the holidays – eeeeeekkk – so we’ve got a bunch of end of year stuff to tell you about this week. Get into it below!...

Wood firing, Diploma exhibition

How’s this folks, two newsletters in one week – how lucky are you?! 🤣 Aaand it’s mostly just a visual feast of woodfired and diploma exhibition goodness, double lucky!...

Website updates, Kids Play with Clay, Last Raku firing for 2024

Sorry the newsletter didn’t come out last week, it was one of those weeks! Here’s all the stuff you need to know 😊...

Meet the Crew, Studio Schedule, Kiln for Sale

It’s been a chill week here and we don’t have too many notices for you this week. We’re looking forward to the Phoenix Firing on the weekend though – Suzy and the team will be loading on Saturday and firing on Sunday. If you’re interested in wood firing in the future, this is a good chance to mosey by the kiln and see what’s involved in this type of event 😊...

Term 4B classes, Farewell-ish to an Artist in Residence, Meet the Crew

Well, we’ve had a few more hiccups with one of the kiln controllers again this week (sigh), but we’re hoping we have that fixed now – fingers crossed! Once again Margaret is doing a marvellous job in keeping your work flowing through the firing process, despite the reduced firing capacity. Thanks to all those who have been so patient when we’ve had to re-schedule or juggle your kiln bookings, we really do appreciate your understanding during these stressful times....

Burns Macaskill, Meet the Crew, Xmas Market

We have the usual news this week, plus some sad news......

Kiln 5 update, Kids Play with Clay, Waikato Clay Festival

We’re right into the term four classes this week, and all the school holiday programme work has gone through the kilns, even with Kiln 5 being down for a week! It’s fixed now – yahoo!!!! – and you can read more about that and all the other news below....

Kiln Down, Christmas Market, 2 x Crew to Meet

It’s been a busy, busy week here at WSP, with the school holiday programmes finishing up on Tuesday and Thursday, and preparing for our term 4 classes starting next week. Additionally, we’ve had to do a bit of problem solving in the kiln room – read about that and our other news below…...

Term 4 classes, Phoenix wood firing, Reminders

The first week of our school holiday programmes has gone swimmingly, and once again we have been blown away by the creativity and imaginations of the kids who attended. There’s two more days to come next week and lots of masterworks to get through the kilns!The week after that, our Term 4 adults classes start and we have a few spaces left in some of those – check them out below....

New kilns, End of year deadlines, Collection of exhibition pieces, Additional wheel throwing class

Yet more exciting announcements for you this week – get into the latest news below 😊...

Another fabulous crew member to meet, Another phoenix firing, Another workshop to announce

This week we’ve got another incredible crew member to introduce to you, plus another new workshop to announce, as well as the dates for another Phoenix wood firing! Get amongst all that goodness below, plus read about a couple of other fun creative things happening in the region....

Volunteers for Exhibition pack down, Meet the Crew, H&S Reminders

All is well here in the Studio this week. The term 3 classes are finishing up and we’re heading into the term break, with a couple of workshops on offer, plus the school holiday programme kicking into gear from the 1st October. Read about that and all the other news below 😊...

Wild clay workshop, Term 4 classes

We hope this new, fangled sunny weather has been shining on all of you. We’ve had another busy week in pottery-paradise getting classes and workshops sorted for your fabulous selves – take a look below....

Clay stuff for you, clay stuff for the kids, clay stuff for everyone!

This week we’ve been working on setting up the next School Holiday Programme and planning some short workshops for the upcoming term-break. We have one of those workshops below for you to take a gander at, and more to come next week 😊...

Exhibition winners and pics

What a brilliant night the exhibition opening was last night. It really is the highlight of the WSP calendar and a great opportunity to celebrate what an excellent collection of people make up our membership.Our deepest thanks go to everyone who was involved in any way at all. From those who entered their work, curated and installed the exhibition, admin’ed the event, entries and awards, attended the opening, brought food along, sponsored awards, spoke and presented awards, to those who have a...

Last call for Exhibition Entries!

The studio was fantastic again this week :)  The Phoenix kiln was opened on Wednesday, following the firing led by Greg Barron last weekend, and the results were quite stunning! We’ve also got your exhibition entries rolling into the studio, which has been super exciting. And Margaret and the team have been pumping work through the kilns so everyone can get pieces finished in time for the big event. That said, it’s not too late to get your entries in if you haven’t already, more detai...

Exhibition, Raku Tins, Artist’s Talk and a Big Fat Thank You!

The studio has been busy again this week, with prep work happening for the Phoenix firing happening this weekend, led by Greg Barron. And we had a flurry of large-scale creativity happening last Saturday with people making big works to be raku fired with Dave Austin next weekend. Plus our classes and Play with Clay sessions continue with new and familiar faces coming into our fabulous community space....

Artist talk with our exhibition judge, Andrea du Chatenier

How fabulous to see the sun shining today, after all this rain. Although, we’ve been lucky to have your sun-shiney faces in and out of the studio all week to keep us cheerful of course 😊 This week we have a fantastic event with Andrea du Chatenier to announce, read about it below, along with all the other tid-bits we have for you....

It’s a newsletter-lite version this week

We’ve been getting back to our standard routine here in the studio. The last of the School Holiday Programme pots are coming out of the kilns tomorrow, our Term 3 classes have started, and Diploma is back in session. All is right and well in this corner of the world 😊...

Catch up with the latest happenings at WSP

We hope you’ve had a great week! We’ve finished up with the School Holiday Programmes here in the studio, and the two-day Greg Barron workshop took place this past weekend. It was an incredibly informative and inspiring time for the attendees and many of them will be returning in a few weeks to fire up the Phoenix kiln with Greg as Firemaster. There are still a couple of spots available for that firing, so if you’d like the experience of wood firing with one of New Zealand’s Master Potte...

Piccies and stories from recent events

What a week it’s been here! We’ve hosted three of our four School Holiday Pottery Programmes this week, with one more to follow next week. What a blast we’ve had. And we’ve received great feedback about the programmes from both the children and their parents, so this will definitely be something we’ll do again in the future.And of course we had the Throwdown last weekend, which was as hilarious and bonkers as always. Read about Throwdown and check out the pics below, plus there’s a w...

Throwdown, Exhibition deadline change, Pick of the Month

Tomorrow is the throwdown and next week we kick off our school holiday programmes! It’s all go and we’ve been busy this week getting prepped for these great events.All our members are invited to come along and join us tomorrow for the Mighty Waikato Pottery Throwdown, bring a kai if you can. In fact, the shared lunch has been more frequently talked about this week than the competitions, so it’s looking like it’s going to be as fabulous a feast as it was last year!We're kicking off at 10a...