Creatives supporting creatives
Larissa (aka Larry), who you will know as one of our awesome studio team, has been busy in her spare time organising a pop-up shop. This weekend, you can find all kinds of clever and beautiful curios made by New Zealand creatives, including pottery by Larry. There will also be yummy food, coffee. and I gather poetry and music. If you are around this weekend and so inclined, please stop by to show some support for our wonderful independent creatives. If you are Christmas shopping it will also be a great opportunity to pick up some very special gifts.
Last week for bisque firing for the holidays
The kiln room is getting busy, as is usual as we approach the summer holidays. This Saturday 3rd December is an important date for our potters to note. If you want to have a guaranteed turnaround before we close on 23rd December, this week is the last opportunity to drop off work for bisque firing.
Work for glaze firing can still be dropped off for a little longer with the last date on 10th.
These deadlines do not apply to students currently enrolled in our classes who will be able to continue to fire class work until term concludes,
Are these your plates?
These plates have been in the studio for a while. They aren't hand made. We think that somebody might have been using them as templates/molds and left them here. They are on the stainless steel counter-top in the kitchen as we needed to reclaim shelf space. We would be grateful if you could collect them from the studio in the next week, after that time they will be donated to the op-shop as we lack storage capacity. Thank you.
Update on Kiln 3
The replacement controller arrived last week. The first bisque firing went well but when David ran a supervised calibration on a glaze firing, he identified a problem with the contactor. Our electrician replaced the calibrator with an upgraded version this morning. David will need to calibrate the glaze again just to make sure everything is running as it should. In the meantime, we are doing our best to keep turnaround as quick as possible and appreciate your patience.
We are so grateful to David Kenny for always being so helpful and generous with his knowledge, skill and time. He gives so much to the society and it is appreciated.
Upcoming workshops
We have only 3 more workshops this year! Two of these are holiday themed and perfect opportunities to make a gift for someone:
- Decorate a mug with Alex - we will provide handmade mugs (by Mystery Creek Ceramics) and you can custom decorate them with our underglazes. We will then glaze and fire them for you to gift to someone else or yourself. Sat .3rd December.
- Make your own Christmas decorations with Yasmin. Sun 11th December.
Want to learn how to work the spray gun? With the spray gun you can apply beautiful thin layers of glaze to your work. People often ask about learning this skill. It is taught in some of our classes but will not be offered at Play With Clay or Open Studio sessions. On Saturday 10th December yasmin is running a workshop to teach you how to glaze using the spray gun.
Thank you for the mystery gifts
The team have arrived to some recent mystery gifts of coffee and fudge and we just want to say a big thank you to the kind, thoughtful angels who have been looking after our sugar and caffeine needs. Both are delicious and have given us some additional pep!
A Boon mural
The next time you round the corner of Ward Street onto Seddon Road, check out the back of our building. We are delighted that we have been given the Boon: Hamilton Street Art treatment and got a really beautiful mural. Artist Elliot Mason and some assistants worked through the challenging weather last week and painted this beautiful design. You can check out other work by Elliot on their Insta account elliotmason_
Garden update
The planters at the entrance to the carpark have gone. Hamilton City Council gardeners began work to tidy them up and replace the plants. Unfortunately they found that the planters were old and a little rotten so have removed them. The hope is that they will soon be replaced with some of the colourful concrete pipe planters that were used for Rostrevor "Streets for People" project.
Studio schedule
Play With Clay: Tuesday 6-9pm; Wednesday 9.30am-12.30pm; Saturday 10am-1pm
Open Studio: Mon, Tue, Wed, Thur 1-4pm; Friday 9.30am-4pm
