Hi gorgeous pottery people!
It’s been a watery week in the studio, with a broken tap and a leaking roof! But our fab landlords, Hamilton City Council, have us all patched up again, and we’re hopeful all remains calm over the weekend for Play with Clay and Sunday’s class.
Open Day
We’re in the planning stages of Open Day, which is going to take place on Saturday the 13th of April. Open Day is our opportunity to invite people from near and far to check out our awesome club, facilities, and people so they can experience for themselves the fun and therapy that comes when working with clay.
We’d love it if you would spread the word with your friends and family. And we’d be forever grateful if you’d consider volunteering to help us run activities on the day, or to help us set-up on the Friday afternoon before. Please get in touch with Libby if you have a few hours to lend us <3
Annual Exhibition
Save the dates and get your clay hands working! Our annual exhibition will take place at ArtsPost from 22nd of August through to 24th September. That sounds like a fair way away but, as we all know, the pottery world has looong timelines! This is an exhibition for all of our members, and we would love for everyone to join us in celebrating and showcasing your club and your creativity.
We are excited to announce that this year’s judge will be Andrea du Chatenier. Andrea is a sculptor turned ceramicist. She holds a BFA from Auckland University and a Masters of Fine Arts from RMIT, Melbourne. She has received numerous grants and awards for her accomplished and challenging work, including selection for the Sao Paulo Biennale, the Wallace Arts Trust Vermont Award, and the Portage Ceramics Residency Award at Guldagergaard, Denmark.
More exhibition announcements will be made in the coming weeks regarding entry categories, awards and some workshops we have planned to fit in with the exhibition.
New mini-term Hand Building class
Come along to this hand-building class with Larissa Milsum to start or perfect your hand-building skills.
Wednesday evenings, 6pm - 9pm, starting on the 3rd of April for 4 weeks.
In this class Larissa will guide you through a range of construction techniques. Bring your ideas and get expert instruction on how to achieve the best results!
Larissa makes incredibly well-constructed and sculpted hand-built pieces, often focusing on using clay bodies that work well in a reduction firing environment. They're perfect for firing in our gas kiln at WSP! Think delicious, toasty-looking objects with lots of speckle and interesting glaze reactions. Gas firing isn't compulsory of course, electric is always fab too. In any case, you'll have built some solid skills to continue with.
Find more info and enrol here.
Studio Schedule
Here’s how the studio availability is looking this coming week, remember to check the online calendar though, just in case anything changes.
Saturday 9th Mar
10am – 1pm, Play with Clay
Sunday 10th Mar
10am – 1pm, Class – Wheel Throwing Taster
Monday 11th Mar
9.30am – 12.30pm, Class – Beginner Wheel Throwing
1pm – 4pm, Members’ Open Studio
6pm – 9pm, Class – Wheel Throwing
Tuesday 12th Mar
9.30am – 12.30pm, Members’ Open Studio
1pm – 4pm, CLOSED for a private class
6pm – 9pm, Play with Clay
Wednesday 13th Mar
9.30am – 12.30pm, Play with Clay
1pm – 4pm, Members’ Open Studio
6pm – 9pm, Class – Wheel Throwing, Altering, Decorating
Thursday 14th Mar
9.30am – 12.30pm, Class – Animal Sculpture
1pm – 4pm, Members’ Open Studio
6pm – 9pm, Please note there is no hand-building class on Thursday evening, instead the last class is extended to the 4th of April.
Friday 15th Mar
9.30am – 4pm, CLOSED for Diploma
Saturday 16th Mar
10am – 1pm, Play with Clay
Memberships
We’ve had lots of people asking about the new membership year recently. We’re nearly there folks! Our membership year coincides with our financial year, which runs from the 1st of April to the 31st of March the following year. So you’ll be able to sign-up or renew soon! We’ll do a shout out on all the channels when the online form is ready for you.
Meet the Crew Monday …on a Friday
We’re back to meeting the crew after a short break, and today we’d like to introduce Brogan Houghton.
Brogan is one of our tutors, and a multi-talented one at that! She’s currently teaching the Thursday night hand-building class, but is a very skilled wheel thrower as well.
Brogan took her first-ever taster pottery course at the end of 2018, along with her brother. She then started attending our Play with Clay sessions the following year and was instantly intrigued, with wheel-throwing becoming the only type of pottery Brogan wanted to do at that stage. In fact, after giving it a try a few times, she was hooked and quickly purchased a second hand pottery wheel. Brogan really enjoys the process and the problem-solving involved in trying to create a nice, even, symmetrical piece – the challenge is hugely enjoyable.
Splitting her time between tutoring at WSP, running her own studio and working at Mystery Creek Ceramics, Brogan has a broad understanding of lots of pottery techniques, although her favourite things to make are functional pieces like mugs, bowls, tumblers and planters.
When it comes to teaching, Brogan’s favourite part is being able to share all she’s learned with her students and seeing them get excited and enjoy pottery as much as she does. She loves that WSP is a place where everyone can come to learn, relax and just be creative.
And if all that wasn’t enough, outside of pottery Brogan does a bit of Graphic Design on the side, having studied the subject at Wintec.
