Vol. 8 No. 2 Feb. 1966 New Zealand POTTER FIVE SHILLINGS NEW ZEALAND POTTER Vol. 8 No. 2 February I966

Contents

EDITORIAL

9TH NEW ZEALAND POTTERS' EXHIBITION

CERAMICS AT FAENZA

STABILITY OF CERAMICS — Roy Cowan

ENGLISH POTTERY—A. R. Mountford

POTTERY IN KUCHING — Ray Rose 25

POTS BY LEN CASTLE 29

QUEEN ELIZABETH || ARTS COUNCIL AWARDS —

LEN CASTLE —— Terry Barrow 35

ROY COWAN —W. Easterbrook-Smith 37

THE ARTS COUNCIL AND EDUCATION——D. BIumhardt 39

NEW VISION 41

ELIZABETH LISSAMAN — Margaret MIIne 42

POTTERS 43

EXHIBITIONS 47

JOHN CHAPPELL 54

A SMALL KILN—Peter Stichbury 56 EDITORIAL

The scale of the 9th New Zealand Potters' Exhibition and the vigor with which it was mounted is an indication of the force of the pottery movement in this country. It also demonstrated one of the secrets of the potters — the ability to pool knowledge and work together as a team.

Could it be that the emphasis of the exhibition is changing? In the past the most important aim has been the guardianship of standards but with the excellence of the many one-man shows now being held, perhaps the main function of the annual national exhibition is now to bring together the work that is being done throughout the country, and to provide a meeting point for potters. The opportunity for younger potters to meet and be accepted NINTH NEW ZEALAND PUTTERS EXHIBITION by the older ones, the discussions that arise from knowledgeable criticism of the directions that potters are taking, the general swapping of knowledge, all these are of increasing value as time goes on and traditions are built. Design The local associations in the four main centre are strong enough and have The Lecture Hall of the Auckland War enough experience now to run these exhibitions with guidance from the Museum was the setting of the Ninth New Zealand Society. The changing of place ensures flexibility and gives Exhibition. This vast, cold, grey room, with concrete beam, pillar, and block construc- local potters an idea of national problems. tion — quite formidable in feeling — posed many problems to the Design We are on to something good, and if we stay within the bounds of what we team. How- ever, the pillars provided support for light- know we can do, we can keep it that way. ing beams, and power was available at the foot of each pillar. The lighting beams echoed the ceiling beam construction and PHOTO CREDITS unified the whole room. Cover photos: Bottles by Len Castle, unglazed, ochre and pyrolusite The lighting, which became one of the washes, length IO". Photos Terry Barrow. features of the display, was designed and Page 3 : Top: Peter Stichbury assembled by the team. Nearly 70 fittings Bottom: John Wood were used and these were devised from Page 6, 7, 9, IO, Peter Stichbury spun metal shades. With the exercise of Pages 19, 20, 24, by courtesy of the City Museum, much ingenuity, each fitting cost only Stoke-on-Trent II/é instead of the usual 75/—, and at the Page 27, 28: Ray Rose end of the exhibition the whole set-up was Pages 29—34: Terry Barrow donated to the Museum in recognition of Page 37: Juliet Cowan its generosity in providing all facilities free Page 41: Photo Associates Ltd, Auckland. Motif for Country Exhibition of charge. Page 42: Regency Studios, Morrinsville Page 52: David Brokenshire catalogue by Malcolm Warr. Pages 56—58: Peter Stichbury The pillars in the hall provided the centres Page 54, Roy Cowan for “islands” of display. A working model of a basic unit was made, and the com- each potter should be grouped together. mittee worked from this idea, varying Where a large exhibit required individual the units in arrangement to give variety and display it was placed as close as possible interest, and also to direct the flow of to the rest of the artist's work. traffic.

To give the display character, screens were The success of the exhibition as a whole made from the seed stalks of flax, split in and of the display in particular was due to half. These gave a soft, subtle warmth to the tremendous effort of a group of people the room, and provided a good background working together as a team. First there was for the exhibits. They also divided the hall the larger team of potters throughout the into areas which made it easier to view country who sent of their best work, and the vast number of exhibits. Cedar plank- then there was the team of the Auckland ing, with its soft, warm colour was used Studio Potters. This group eFFort from for shelving, and added interest, as well as packers and sorters, supper providers, dis- display area, was given by the use of piles play men, to secretary, treasurer, president, of large, thin slabs of local greywacke rock showed what can be accomplished by a with its subtle colouring. determined body of potters, working to a common end. The Committee decided that the work of Peter Stichbury

.,-.,

9TH NEW ZEALAND POTTERS' EXHIBITION

ELEVATION. Basic display unit for 9th Exhibition

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”'2' A '25-:- Peter Stichbury .u', 'I.I' 'H. ‘ :1 I‘ . m I III .i I. hwy .u':‘. 7.: '1“): NINTH NEW ZEALAND POTTERS EXHIBITION

Fountain by Jim Palmer

Guest exhibitor at the 9th Exhibition was Kenneth Clark, a potter from New Zealand now working in London. His richly coloured earthenware was an inspiration to those working in the lower temperature ranges, and was a delight to viewers. A selection of this work will be touring New Zealand by courtesy of Mary Hardwick-Smith, who imported the exhibit at her own expense.

9TH NEW ZEALAND POTTERS' EXHIBITION

Neil Grant's exhibit. The square bottle has been purchased by the Department of Exter— nal Afiairs for the New Zealand Embassay at Geneva. ”Despite the inevitable difficulties which occur in ltaly as well as everywhere else the idea is slowly developing and becoming reality." POTTERY KILN PYROMETER A Jury, consisting of six ltalians, a German, The model PKHP—Bl has been designed a Frenchman and a Firm, admitted to the primarily for use on pottery kilns. Competition 95 Italian competitors with A reliable and accurate instrument available in 314 works, and 203 foreign competitors two ranges, O—l200°C or O—l400°C. with 567 works, out of 389 competitors Suitable for panel mounting and supplied with with a total of 2,lOo works. Many prizes 4’ of Lead Wire; Platinum/Platinum/Rhodium were awarded for many different types of Thermocouple and fused Silica Thermocouple ceramics, including the E.N.A.P.l. one for pots made by artisans Sheath. and small industries, thus t” long x g" ensuring that all aspects of ceramics o.d. Fitted to 23/4" x %” o.d. are given equal value. To quote again: ”The brass holder. prizes have been awarded impartially, without considerations of origin or pre- judices unsuitable to the members of a family such as we consider potters to be, large though it is. INDICATING PYROMETER CONTROLLER Patricia Perrin The West Guardsman Model J is a robust and ”From the exhibition it is apparent that accurate instrument used throughout the artists are using fired clay, with its wealth CERAMICS of sensitive values not world in the Plastics and Ceramics industries. AT FAENZA found in other materials, as a medium of expression for A large selection of Ranges and Models can their imagination. In the same be supplied from stock. way that it is more difficult to conduct an orchestra From the Ninth Exhibition pots were than to play a single instrument, the many chosen to represent New Zealand in the qualities of colour and structure that spring permanent collection of this Museum. It is from the ceramic complex are more diffi- also hoped that this country will contribute cult to master than less complicated to the 24th Thermocouples manufactured International Ceramics Exhi- materials more constantly exploited by to order. bition For further which is staged each year by the tradition. The breaking down of tradition information please contact: Town of Faenza. Below we print an extract is making it possible to discover new values from Maintenance and repair facilities available for the introduction to the Catalogue in spite of the attendant difficulties. of the 23rd Exhibition written by all instruments. Prof. “The predominance Guiseppe Liverani. of porcelain and stone- ware would seem to indicate that at this ”The 23rd Concorso Internationale time the artist is more interested in the THE BRITISH TELTHERM CO. LTD. della Ceramica d’Arte opened at Faenza plastic aspect than in pictorial expression, PO. Box 91 II 419 Khyber on June Pass Rd, l9, l965, and closed on August 29. The aim which tends to detract from structural pro- AUCKLAND. Phone 45—977. of this Annual Exhibition is to help to bind perties and tactile values. The time is PO. Box I624. evidently 69 Kent Terrace, the peoples of the world together in an not ripe for majolicas and faience WELLINGTON. Phone 50—943. artistic brotherhood by displaying ceramics with their brilliant colourings. from all countries without barriers of race ”In the field of industrial and utilitarian or creed. production, it is good to see that, together ‘i

with quality, the aesthetic aspect plays a Hill more and more important role. Porcelain

is increasingly being used by industrial llllllllll designers, who have to cater for mass l production.

"So the ancient and honest art of ceramics that has accompanied man in every devel- opment of his civilisation, is once again an integral part of life today, with its high standard of living and its belief in the equality of man.”

Martin Beck

Peter Stichbury

SEABOARD JOINERY LTD.

BESIDES MAKING GOOD POTS OUR WHEELS MAKE GOOD BIRTHDAY PRESENTS Leach wheels manufactured by us can only be purchased Space prohibits photographs of pots by David direct from our factory—they are costed with a view Brokenshire, Roy Cowan and Len Castle, also included to keeping the cost down to the minimum and do not in this group. allow margins for agents or resellers. The charges are the same to all comers, whether schools, clubs, or individual potters. Authorised manufacturers of "Leach" Potters’ Wheels. TST Marua Road, Ellerslie, S.E.o, Box 11035. Phones 594—264, 599—571.

Graeme Storm ll STABILITY OF CERAMIL'S piece, especially one used in cooking, with the Feldspar particles are changed from some attention to some other factors affect- the surface. if the Feldspar were the com- or, why glazes go ping and pots go pop. ing stability. monly used Potash type, K30 AlgO;, W], 6 SiOfl, the change would produce Mull- ”All the articles on display are stoneware Delayed crazing is common ingearthenware, \ ite and excluded Potash, K20 and Silica. In and therefore ovenproof.”—From an or where the body is permeable. Figure l FIG. 3 UNDERFIRED BISCUIT other words, Feldspar does not melt as exhibition catalogue. portrays a schematic clay body in which of cracks formed in this way, the outer such, it changes to Mullite and Silica Glass, all the components are represented as three surface of the bowl cracking when the and there will be some of the flux, Potash, ”. . . lt mustn't be hard fired or it won't particles, a grain of Quartz and one of inside was glazed. The faults on occurrence Soda or Lime according to Feldspar type, stand up to the changes in temperature." —— Feldspar, which are remnants of the parent may be hard to detect but they open up left over to contribute to glass formation Bernard Toft on Casseroles, Craftsmen rock, and the clay mineral, which may have in the glost firing. with Silica from the clay mineral or the Potters’ Association Newsletter No. l2. one of several forms but is here accepted Quartz originally present. Silica glass for- as a compound of Alumina, Silica, and As the temperature advances, changes mation proceeds from the surface of Silica And with that introduction a little list of Water. The continuation of the weathering occur in the organisation of the Alumina particles, some part remaining in the crys- things that happen to fired ware, as time process would result in the conversion of and Silica in the clay mineral. In the clay talline form even in vitrified porcelains. passes. more of the Feldspar into clay, and the minerals Kaolinite and Halloysite, the two clay mineral itself would change. are initially in the relation of one of In the unfired clay, the spaces between Glaze, originally fitted, crazes. ('Plfi Will/xi lEl Alumina ((AlBOx) to two of Silica (SiOZ), particles form a continuous system of Rims chip without cause or glaze scales but the stable relationship changes on heat- pores. As firing continues the particles off. ing towards a higher ratio of Alumina to begin to fuse together, reducing the pore Ware appears sound but on being Silica, with exclusion of the surplus Silica. space. In porcelain pore space is almost damaged, fractures into numerous Above about 1100 C., the two form the absent, but in earthenware the structure pieces, or, the piece shatters or cracks refractory compound Mullite, 3 Al3 is still open enough to allow permeation. spontaneously on the opening of the kiln 2 SiO:, the surplus Silica appearing as glass Dampness may then enter the body through / SlLICA GLAS glaze or by general or later. v i\ or crystal according to conditions. The any slight fault in the Prominent spiral crazes appear, becom- general effect of heating is to increase the diffusion. This permits the resumption of ing actual cracks in body, especially in surface energy of the particles comprising the process of weathering which originally in this ware used for hot foods. CLAY MlNERAL the clay body, so that exchanges can occur produced the clay from the rock, Ware cracks on heating or cooling. more readily at the points of contact, re- case operating on the unaltered residues. of the is heated in the course of FIG. 2 FIRED CLAV MLlLLlTF NEEDLES sulting in a light welding together When the piece The main objective of this article is to particles. Once definite temperatures are use, the conditions are right for accelerated examine the ways in which the composition In Figure 2, the clay has been fired. At a reached, the energy becomes sufficient to weathering, accompanied by an increase of a ceramic body can affect the life of the low temperature, between 200 and 500 allow the formation of new reaction pro- in volume. The glaze is not so readily degrees C. according to the clay type, the ducts, and the reaction proceeds in propor- affected and as a result it becomes water content of the clay mineral acquires tion to time and at a speed influenced by stretched and eventually crazes. sufficient energy to escape from the bond the amount of extra heat energy made avail- with Alumina and Silica. For a short period able. In general, the rate of all ceramic The cure, in the present state of know- in in the temperature scale the clay material reactions doubles with every fifty degrees ledge, is to place the glaze coating the glaze, is in a condition where the clay or ceramic of temperature advance above llOO C. compression on the body, that is, QUARTZ rate than state is reversible. Ware fired to this tem- in cooling, contracts at a lesser lELD‘wl‘AR perature— as in a too cool biscuit chamber the body so that a degree of subsequent Mullite crystals have a needle-like form. before the CLAV MlNFRAL or one which has marked temperature swelling of the body must occur They increase the strength of the ceramic, The variation, may appear to be adequately glaze coating passes into tension. indicating the advantage of firing earthen- must be biscuited but it will swell upon being C. amount of glaze compression ware bodies in the region llOO to 1120 directly wetted with glaze and cracks may form right—although it cannot be craz- under the glaze. Figure 3 shows a pattern measured. Too little will mean early again to Fig. 2, it will be seen that FIG. I A CLAY BODY Turning 13 ing, too much will produce other troubles. POTENTIAL FAILURE clay, we began with Silica in combined stances in the clay, and the freedom of A comparative indication of the states of form in the Feldspar and the clay mineral, formation is related to the history of the a series of glaze and body combinations and in free form as Quartz. The amount clay. Thus two clays from different places can be obtained by running test strips in of Quartz present is influenced by the which have similar amounts of Silica may an AutOclave (pressure cooker). The ex- nature of the parent rock, the history of form Cristobalite at quite different rates. posure to water, heat and pressure acceler- weathering, and where the clay has been Finally, formation is governed by time and ates the weathering effect. The fitting of transported, by sorting action. temperature, and it is correct to say of glazes is well covered in Daniel Rhodes bodies prone to form Cristobalite that they . ‘1 At normal temperatures Quartz crystals ”Clay and Glazes for the Potter”, Chap- FIG. 5 GLAZE COMPRESSED, BODY STRETCHED will become more unstable the longer and ter 25. have the form known as Low Quartz. At harder they are fired. made piece which is more likely to fail about 570 C. this changes sharply to a of glaze compression alone, because the High Quartz form with a volume increase, Failure of Ceramics When other measures have failed to stop effect is greater on the thin section of the providing the main source of cracks in crazing, Cristobalite can be purchased from A ceramic body is a mass of phases of wall. This however is no argument in biscuit which is being unevenly heated. As suppliers and added to the body, but it is different compositions, and between these favour of making teapots or casseroles very the same temperature on the cooling side, a different matter when the amount present are discontinuities, pore spaces, or minute thick. In the case of permeable bodies, an the change occurs in reverse, placing the responds to a complex of causes including cracks originating in the differing thermal initially high glaze stress will fall as the glaze in higher compression. To avoid variations in the firing. Unfortunately many expansions of the phases. This structure body swells. This relief is not effective in biscuit losses from the Quartz reversal, the N.Z. clays, particularly amongst the more will stand substantial compressional loads more vitrified wares. heating rate should be held to a maximum fully weathered types found in the north, indefinitely, but is relatively weak in ten- of 100 C. an hour to 600 C., and if at this are strong Cristobalite formers. This sion. Figure 4 shows an imaginary test slab When the glaze to body bonding is weak, rate cracks still occur in average sized means, at least, difficulty in maintaining the of a body in which all the random discon- or when the bonding is strong to a very pieces the fault will probably lie in the correct amount of glaze compression, sus- tinuities are resolved as three cracks run- heavy body, the probable form of failure temperature distribution in the kiln. ceptibility to heat shock in ovenware, and ning at angles. A stretching force 5 is is by shelling off the glaze, usually begin- decided difficulty in cooling and drawing applied. All that part of S which should ning on rims where the glaze coat is A second change affects Quartz at high large pieces, glazed or not, without damage. operate between A and B, the ends of the longest in relation to the body. Alterna- temperatures, in which the crystal is re- Excessive glaze compression which might crack aligned at right angles to the direc- tively, the piece shatters by crack growth, constructed in an entirely new pattern. not be enough to cause trouble in a vase tion of stretch, is transferred to the points and this may happen on the opening of the Unlike the Low Quartz-High Quartz change, can cause failure in a coffee pot when the A and B. The crack thus acts as a stress kiln, or at some stage of use, or when the the new change is not rapid or total, and extra stress of filling with hot liquid is magni fier, and if the load at A and B piece receives some slight blow or damage. it does not work in reverse. The end pro- imposed. exceeds the strength of material, the crack If the fragments of such a casualty are duct of this reconstruction is a form of will extend. tested, they will be found to snap with Silica crystal called Cristobalite, which has Counter Measures surprising ease. a system of reversal changes of its own. A glaze in high compression favours the Cristobalite undergoes a Low High reversal I. High Alumina clays growth of cracks in the body in this way. It would seem obvious that the cure is to of large magnitude at only 220 C., just the Construct the body out of two main clay In such a situation there are several pos- adjust the glaze to a less tight fit. Unfor- temperature at which the enthusiastic ingredients; a High Alumina clay which sible results. In a thick walled piece the tunately, this is where the serious difficul- potter will open the kiln, and quite within will probably be high-firing, relatively non- force exerted by the glaze is less likely to ties begin for many N.Z. potters (and the range of ovenware operating tempera- plastic, and light coloured, and a plastic, over stress the body—it is the lightly others too), who are out to make reason- tures. fusible type clay. The latter will probably ably light and durable domestic ware, be coloured and will have Mortmorillonite, because many of the clays which have The formation of Cristobalite is governed a clay mineral containing fluxes, in its com- admirable qualities from other aspects have by the amount of Silica available at the position. The fusible clay should be tested firing characteristics which make a stable reconstruction temperature, that is, the separately to ensure that it melts Without clay and glaze relationship difficult of original Quartz, plus Silica excluded from bloating. achievement. the clay mineral or Feldspar and not fused give into glass. Cristobalite formation also Use as little of the fusible clay as will plasticity to the body which FIG. 4 DIRECTION OF CRACK GROWTH In the earlier description of the heating of depends on the presence of other sub- sufficient should at this stage be on the high-firing Magnesian minerals shorten the firing Thickness side. Add a flux to bring the body to the range of clays, but the body can be ad- correct maturing temperature. Normally justed to mature over a manageable range The aim in making ware required to with- this will be Feldspar, although other fluxes if Feldspar is also present. stand temperature changes should be to such as ash, the commercial frits, or secure as uniform a thickness in all parts materials such as crushed granite or as possible, so that all parts heat or cool pumice may be used according to the type As the above measures take effect the cool- uniformly. Excessive thickness, particu- of firing or where effects such as speckling ing shrinkage larly in tea pots and the like, weakens the of the body diminishes and 7/ or iron tinting are acceptable. glazes may require adjustment piece to thermal shock. The aim should be to avoid FIG. 7 THICKNESS CHANGE INCISlON STRESS crazing. The relative heat-shock resistance to secure, for larger casseroles, a uniform The High-Alumina clay provides the 1"4 thickness, and for tea and coffee pots, basis of a group of trials may be found by taking are in fact slightly radiused. All sharp inci- for the maximum formation of Mullite, A’ allowable for lids and fired test strips up to dull red heat, and 3/16”, with sions or notches should be avoided. and the addition of Feldspar will ensure at once immersing half their length in spouts. that as much Silica as possible is converted water. A good casserole body should stand into glass. In the glassy form, Silica has a several cycles of this treatment. Design This article has been confined to general low thermal expansion and no reversal concentrated at principles because of the difficulty of deal— changes. If these conditions are obtained, Heat-change stresses are any sharp changes of section or direction. ing adequately with the great variety of then the longer and harder the body is There remain some causes of failure which direction through a NZ. clays, which still require much study fired, the more stable it will become— The best forms change are the result of design rather than of body and mapping, but some attention will be the limiting case being porcelain, which radius rather than sharply. Angular styles characteristics. These need to be distin- given in a future article to some of the has low thermal expansion. are not precluded provided that the angles guished. clay bodies in actual use. ROY COWAN 2. Wollastonite, CaSiO3 Twist In the treatment of bodies which are to When a hollow form remain porous, Feldspar is still commonly is thrown, it receives a twist, part of which used, but at the lower temperature condi- is relieved by ”un- winding” during the drying IAN MCPHERSON tions there is the problem of swelling. For and firing. ln non-vitrified bodies a residue such conditions part of the Feldspar can will remain WOLLASTONITE 80 lbs. bags £1.12.1O be replaced with Wollastonite. and may appear as a system of spiralling crazes and cracks especially in tea and DOLOMITE superfine 112 lbs. £1. 5. 5 coffee pots. This 3. Magnesian Additives is the response to a com- bination of clay type and the WHlTlNG (Calcium Carbonate) 80 lbs. 18.0 The addition of Magnesia results in the drag in throwing, the throwing formation of Magnesia-Silica compounds technique, and the FELDSPAR, Nelson 112 lbs. £1. 6.10 degree of firing, so a simple (Enstatite, MgO Siog) or Magnesia, remedy cannot be suggested. TALC Alumina and Silica compounds (Cordier- 56 lbs. 15. 9 ite, 2MgO . 2Al203 . SSiOZ), which have All the above minerals are ground to 200—300 mesh. Freight very low thermal expansions. Talc may or postage additional to listed prices. replace part of the Feldspar to secure this result. Nelson Talc-Magnesite is prepared IRON OXIDE 112lbs. £1.8.0 for use as a Magnesian Fertiliser in a screen Lb. lots 1/— per lb. size suitable for ceramic use. It is a very strong flux and there are two main limita- Freight or postage additional to listed prices. tions in use. It contains iron and will colour the body. As part of the Magnesia All these products have been tested and approved by is in the carbonate form, gas is evolved practical potters. and may cause bloating. FIG. 6 SPIRAL CRAZING Accounts will be forwarded monthly. lan McPherson, Mapua, Nelson. 16 17 Firing well using Shell

A cooking pot from mid-first century A.D., found Engine-turned earthenware cofiee pot from Stoke- ITIIOI'MOI in Trent Vale Roman kiln. on»Trent in the second halic of the Century. HISTORY OF ENGLISH POTTERY by A. R. MOUNTFORD Superior quality low-cost fuel for oil firing Pottery was first made in the British Isles until a pot of the desired shape and thick- more than 4,000 years ago in the Neolithic ness emerged. This technique was aug- (New Stone Age) period when man began mented by coil or ring«built pottery in to practise It has to be good to be % agriculture and live in a settled which rolls of clay were superimposed to _ L 4 community. Round-bottomed bowls fash- a predetermined height and the coil- ioned by hand from wads of clay rein- junctions smoothed out by hand to the forced with shell or grit were fired either in required shape. Throughout the prehistoric or by the‘side of a fire. The earliest forms period the predominant types of hand-made were achieved by forming a ball of clay into pottery were storage jars and funerary which the thumb was thrust; the ball was vessels often bearing impressed, incised or then rotated and the clay squeezed between punctuated decoration. As in modern thumb and fingers outwards and upwards primitive communities the tribal potters

T9 were women who fabricated their clay period the wheel was re-introduced and receptacles as and when needed. Such from the area around Thetford pottery frag- the use simple methods continued in our country ments have been excavated showing for more than 2,000 years until the impor- of lead glazes coloured green and yellow tation of the potter’s wheel in about through the presence of oxides of copper 75 B.C. (Early Iron Age ”c” period) which and iron. stimulated productivity. Lead with various staining compounds con- Utilisation of the potter’s wheel encouraged tinued in use throughout the Middle Ages, an endless variety of symmetrical forms, during which time no area of the country particularly during the four centuries of specifically manufactured pottery; wares Roman occupation. The Romano-British were fashioned where clay was available ceramic product was not only "thrown" and wherever there was a demand——with on the wheel, but ”turned” (surplus clay the output obviously greater in the towns. shaved from the outer wall of the vessel) The rise and growth of monasticism during giving an overall improvement to the sur- the mediaeval period encouraged pottery face of the pot. The most favoured type of production by catering for the needs of kiln during this period was the updraught people in the immediate vicinity and abbeys —-a typical example was excavated during also stimulated the art of tile-making. 1956 at Trent Vale, Stoke-on-Trent, in Though the updraught kiln continued in which the original clay dome had collapsed, use throughout the Middle Ages, the most sealing in the last firing. Roughly circular, popular was a circular type with radiating the kiln had an average diameter of 3ft. fire-mouths. Examples excavated at Sneyd 6 in. and measured 4ft. in height. A flue Green, Stoke-on-Trent, were saucer-shaped Medieval English pottery; left to right—«Sneyd Green, about 1300 AD; Stafford, 14th century; Oxford, led into the lower part of the kiln from and had five fire-mouths. Working about a stoke—hole and the floor of the kiln was AD. 1300, the Sneyd Green potters used Examples of Longton Hall porcelain, C. 1750. 14th century. constructed of radiating firebars set on a coal (local outcrop) to fire their kilns and central support. In common with the achieved a temperature in the region of majority of early Romano-British wares 1,000 deg. C. the pottery at Trent Vale was of high stan- dard and though purely utilitarian the In the 16th century the popular continental variety of form emphasises the versatility tin-enamelled and salt-glazed stonewares and capability of the potter who by the were being exported to this country in large middle of the first century AD. was pro- quantities. The tin—enamelled pottery later ducing large quantities, possibly on army took on the name of Delft-ware (from the contract. town of Delft in Holland) and was made in London at Lambeth and Southwark. Later, Anglo-Saxon invaders who subsequently throughout the 17th and the first half of settled in this country after the Roman the i8th century several towns had potters withdrawal in the early 5th century were making this class of ware, namely, Bristol, not familiar with the potter’s wheel and Wincanton, Liverpool, Glasgow and Dublin. their ceramic achievement was limited to the manufacture of a mud~pie type of The challenge to the imported Rhenish soft hand-made pottery mainly as funerary stone ware was taken up by John Dwight ware. Bag-shaped forms were either plain at Fulham who in 1671 took out a patent or decorated with impressed stamps and (renewed in 1684) for the manufacture of incised lines. At the end of the Anglo-Saxon “transparent earthenware, commonly

21 known by the names of porcelain or china changing fashions, etiquette and general or stoneware, vulgarly called ’Cologne living standards stimulated the Stoke—on- ware".’ There was many imitators and Trent potters to supply new forms and new between 1693 and 1696 Dwight brought methods of decoration. The age of the several actions for infringement against the family manufactory with its kiln set on the

Dutch brothers Elers (who were making smallholding was over. Servants were hired -ileg unglazed redware at Bradwell, Stoke-on- to learn the ”secret art and mystery” of fi of Nottingham in the potting business—pack-horse trans- Trent) and Morley pazel defence of his patent rights. Nottingham port distributed the wares to the seaports was an important centre for salt-glazed to supply the growing needs of the colonies. stoneware from about 1690 to about 1800 Manufactories grew in size and more were encouraged to seek employ- and other towns producing this type of workers '9JEM6U015 pottery during the 19th and even to the ment in the pottery villages now known present century include Crich, Codnor collectively as ”The Potteries". Park, Denby, Belper, Chesterfield, Bramp- ton and Swinton. Today the technique of It is said that either John Astbury or Thomas Heath was responsible about the glazing pottery with salt is mainly confined ’JueJi-uo-exols year 1720 for using calcined flints with to the production of sewage pipes. local clays and thus achieved a lighter- The early 1600s saw a type of pottery, char- coloured salt—glazed stoneware. A nearly ~Sill. acteristically English in style, made at white stoneware became possible with the Wrotham in Kent. This was slipware in importation of Devonshire clays and en- which slip (clay watered down to a creamy joyed a great vogue as a substitute for consistency) was used to decorate the sur- porcelain which it rivalled in hardness and face of the pot—effected by trailing the lightness. The introduction into Stoke-on— slip in the manner of icing a cake. This Trent of plaster-of—paris moulds by Ralph class of ware, covered with a lead glaze, Daniel of Cobridge about 1745 means that was also manufactured in the Metro- instead of wares ”thrown” on the potter’s politan area, but by the second haltc of the wheel hollowares could be ”cast" by pour- 17th century the centre for slipware was ing liquid clay-slip into the moulds. This in North Stafiordshire in the area we know encouraged an almost unlimited variety of today as Stoke—on-Trent. forms and contributed to the beginning of easletD pottery making as an industry. By the middle of the 17th century Burslem

was the centre of the butter-pot industry, By the 1770s Josiah Wedgwood had per- 'UlE'IQDJOd making the tall cylinder containers for fected his lead-glazed cream-coloured Midland market towns and from this time earthenware which was destined to replace p109 men began to specialise more and more as not only the salt-glazed stoneware but also potters. earthenware throughout Certainly with the arrival of the the tin-enamelled Joqauv slipware technique we begin to identify the whole continent of Europe. the work of individual potters such as Toft, Until now the ceramic product had been Simpson, Malkin and Wright. ideas of almost invariably utilitarian but changes ’popad pottery shape and style of decoration were in custom and habit made new demands on '3 purely local, and in the 17th century illus- the potter and for him the 18th century trate, in the main, pure peasant art. It is was an era of experiment. Apart from 'Slll not until the beginning of the 18th century creamware‘, Wedgwood perfected various that outside demands, resulting from ornamental. bodies such as Jasper, Black

22 Basalt and Agate Ware, all of which en- and New Hall, Stoke~on~Trent (i781). joyed wide popularity and were the target Examples of this type show a shining frac- for a host of imitators. ture when broken and are completely vitri- fied and dense. The earliest soft-paste From about 1760 Wedgwood products bore porcelain consisted of a white clay mixed Tin-enamelled earthenware a back-stamp —a feature which com- with ground glass and either lime or chalk, c, 1690. from Lambeth, mended itself to other potters including the and was made at Chelsea H745), Derby Ralph Woods of Burslem who are perhaps (i750), and Longton Hall (i749). This best known as figure-makers. The coloured was followed by a purely English innova- glazes used by the elder Wood distinguish tion of mixing calcined bones with the his products as amongst the finest ever to white clay together with sand or ground have been made in Staffordshire and flint. Initially used at the Bow factory coupled with the names of Wedgwood and (l747) it was later in production at Wood is that of Thomas Whieldon, another Lowestoft (i757) to be followed by most outstanding contributor to the ceramic of the factories in this country. The third story, who was in partnership with Wedg- variety of soft-paste porcelain in which wood from l754 to i759. steatite was a basic ingredient was pro- duced at Caughley (i772), Liverpool The manufacture of English porcelain began (1755) and Worcester (1748). Bone china a little before the middle of the 18th cen— has been the standard English porcelain tury and is divided into two main classes: since about 1800. Number 409 in the “Queen’s Ware” service made by Josiah Wedgwood & Sons true( hard—paste) porcelain similar to the for the Empress Catherine [l of Russia. Chinese and artificial porcelain (soft- paste). The body of hard—paste porcelain consists of a mixture of china stone and POTTERY GAZETTE AND GLASS TRADE china clay and was used at only three fac— REVIEW incorporating TABLEWARE, tories, Plymouth (1768), Bristol (1770) MAY, 1965.

POTTERY IN KUCHING Ray Rose

We went to Sarawak for family reasons, The pots, mostly cylindrical vases, flower and to find so much to interest a potter pots and small bowls, were stacked around was an unexpected extra. the entrance, presumably to attract passers- by; and a very attractive sight they made, About five miles from Kuching, on the road with their stone—coloured glaze and fresh to Simmangang where our New Zealand brushwork in blue or brown. troops are stationed, we came upon a small Chinese pottery. A very primitive building, Such a wealth of pots, and the potter so just a thatched roof on supports, housed smiling and pleased to show us how it the circular mounds of tramped clay, the was done although unfortunately we small climbing kiln and the wheel. The couldn't talk with him! The wheel was a clay pits and the huts of the family were very simple affair: a large fly—wheel shaped at the back. 25 like a flat bowl, with the throwing plate Inside the Museum there is a wonderful set down on it and a groove round the edge collection of pottery. Since more than one of the fly-wheel into which the potter put thousand years ago, Chinese junks have his right heel. Then, balancing himself by brought ceramics, beads, coins, iron and a rope from a rafter and standing thus over silk to Borneo —— returning with rhinoceros a cone of clay, he whirled the wheel. When horn, hornbill ivory, kingfisher feathers, it had gained sufficient speed he sat down spices and rattan. on a low bench and threw the pots—five flower-pots to one spinning, so I counted. In the Museum is a large case of celadons He kept his cutting thread around his made in China from the Tang Dynasty, wrist and—as each pot was finished— 600 A.D., to modern times. Some of the just a flick of the wrist, and the thread was earliest celadons were excavated in Sara- free and the pot cut from the top of the wak. We were told that even today in the cone. As he filled a plank with pots his Sarawak interior, in places almost assistant took them outside to dry and inaccessible, there are large decorated jars placed the next board ready. There was and dishes which came from China in the such a rhythm in their work. early days. While we were in Kuching, a student going home for the week-end with Outside, drying in the sun, were numbers the son of a Santubong fisherman, found of beautiful jars from two to three feet some beautiful celadons on a shelf in the high—large full-blown jars with narrow boy's home necks, for storing water. Each of them, for their form, would have drawn admiring Batu Lintang Pots drying in the sun. groups at our New Zealand Show. There Another interesting place, which we were they sat in the sun, knowing that even if fortunate enough to visit, was the Batu exhibitions were not their lot they would Lintang Teachers' Training College in lban design on Library at Batu Lintang Teachers' College. fill a useful place in someone's life. Kuching. Here Susi Heinze uses her own The Sarawak Museum skill as artist and teacher to develop the The Sarawak Museum, set on a hill in very traditional crafts of her pupils, and the colourful gardens in Kuching, was built by result is some very sincere and pleasing the second Rajah of Sarawak, Sir Charles work. In a wild garden at the back of the Brooke, in 1891. His intention was that College they grow plants needed for weav— ”people from inside and outside Sarawak ing and dyeing. There is also some carving could come and see how the different in wood and stone and a hand-built pottery. peoples of Sarawak lived”. The lbans powder and sieve their clay, and The Museum has certainly achieved this they mix it with water. .They make their purpose. Even before one enters the build— pots, using an anvil stone and a carved ing, one’s attention is caught by two most wooden beater with a handle. First they interesting exhibits. One, a tall carved shape the clay into a cylinder, and then wooden post, is a burial pole; and the they beat the top of the cylinder to flatten other, a large stone with a simple figure it. Into this thickened top they insert a carved on it, is a replica of a stone at the rattan ring of the size required for the mouth of the Kuching River, at Santubong, mouth of the pot, and cover it with clay. and is believed to have been carved there This ring prevents the pot from losing a thousand years ago. shape when beaten. Then, sitting on the

26 floor with outstretched legs, they gradually The Library Mosaics rotate the pot with the stone inside it and Most interesting at at Batu Lintang were the beater on the outside. When the pot is the students’ own mosaics, decorating the the required size it is decorated with inci‘ brick walls of their seven-sided library sions from the side of the beater and the building. The mosaics were done in differ- rattan ring is removed. Now the lip must ent coloured calcites collected from the be finished with damp fingers. site of the old gold-mine near Bau— towards the Indonesian frontier. Students The method of firing described to us by of various races — Sea Dyaks, Land Dyaks, Miss Heinze was one she had seen used by Malays, Chinese, Kayan (hill people) and the lbans, or Sea Dyaks, whose locally Kelabits from the interior—have drawn made pots are still used for cooking rice. on their own cultures to create the A pile of wood about three feet square designs. and two feet high was prepared, and the pots put on and covered with branches. One of these showed two Chinese dragons Glowing sticks were brought from the long- fighting for the pearl of perfection, and house and put underneath. After about an another a Kayan symbol for their guardian hour the fire would die down and the pots spirit, normally used on their shields. The while still hot were dipped in ’samak’— calcite, in different shades of grey to black, the pounded bark of the mangrove tree and white, has been stuck to the brick mixed with water. immediately afterwards walls with cement and the finished effect the pots were put back in the ash. This is most pleasing, especially when the calcite helped to make them waterproof and gave designs sparkle in the rays of the setting them their attractive colour. sun.

Winejars, unglazed, impressed patterns, ochre wash. THE HIGH STREET GALLERY Hts. lO”-lé".

Lower Hutt - 1 § xi.«Mine._ \tv \

Our new Gallery at Lower Hutt has continually on display “glutm‘l’tr'e - m‘ LEN CASTLE . 'I a range of New Zealand Pottery. 353*- y I w‘igwa ‘11; t:3 _ f'“

‘44

.‘f?’ I '1' hr. H‘l‘t‘l’g‘li, » . . 3 9 my. -

- .. photographs Terry Barrow a Potters are Welcome to come in and browse. 9'9 e‘ilul 'm. ; ‘ "

r. 4+!- 1 1. ‘ TM inhal— . "A 51‘ Ula‘. The Gallery's Director, Mr Bruce Young, would be .t'W‘JTvTifs'e 3‘ “:3 Iii-ire 5.- 3-1314 interested to discuss with potters the display or purchase $5,515]._ ‘- 1 pp"‘7: ‘ ‘ . " of their work. . ‘ ‘ 6 ‘ .iir‘ ‘ w‘ ”stemi .3 q R!9’‘ ‘ r..‘K‘lflil‘tll (11’5”_ * '9. ..~x35m.fié’o‘1243’4.r.zv.. 913‘1urtn.w . 7., .

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28 unglazed, pyrolusite wash. Discoid vase, unglazed, pyrolusite wash. Ht. 14". Hanging ’horn’ bottle r unglazed, pyrolusite wash. Branch and flower holder, it Ht. 14”. Ht. 6”. 1'

POTS BY LEN CASTLE Photographs Terry Barrow

30 31 LEN CASTLE

F‘atened bottles, unglazed. Hts‘ 4”—6”,

LEN CASTLE Branch holder with Lance-wood, ungiazed. Height 9".

33 32 LEN CASTLE intuitive. In his exhibition the true nature of his personality is shown, to put it plainly, he has made a breakthrough! A Review of an exhibition of recent work portion of the exhibition is given to domes- by Len Castle held at the John Leech tic ware and it is obvious that he makes Gallery, Auckland, 22 October—5 Nov- first class bread and butter pots, but his ember, 1965. Opened by Dr. Denis Hanna on 21 October. heart is in creative work rather than in repetition. Although we may associate the Leonard R. Castle was born in Auckland style of Len Castle with the Leach-Hamada in l924. He was first introduced to pottery school, I think he is in fact nearer to the making at Auckland Teachers’ College in Murray-Kawai way of potting. This means l947, and from then on until his departure that his concern is with what a pot does to England in i956, where he worked at to a person rather than what a person does the Leach Pottery, he was largely self- with the pot. Both ways of approach are taught. At first he laboured in the ”do-it- doubtless right, the important thing is to yourself” New Zealand tradition, and the find out which way is the right way for independence of this early work has con- one’s own self. tributed to its character. in this exhibition Len shows us in the clearest of terms that he has found his At the Leach Pottery he learned the disci- way. plines of making a vast number of no- nonsense pots, and the personal association What is the outstanding characteristic of with Bernard Leach helped him crystallise his creative pots? Personally I think it is his ideas about the meaning and purpose their nearness to nature. They are in har- of pot-making. Bernard Leach gave to Len mony with the rhythms of natural forms, Castle his philosophy of work just as Shoji and their shapes and textures suggest rocks, Hamada provided him with a demonstra— animals and plants: they relate to the tion of fully integrated craftsmanship. In organic rhythms of the New Zealand en- 1961 the English Journal “Pottery vironment rather than to any foreign place. Quarterly” (Number 27) published my Geological forces are expressed through article on six stoneware potters of New them, the geologic mechanical forces of Zealand. in this i pointed out that Len nature from the cutting action of a single Castle is the pioneer of New Zealand stone- grain of sand to the splitting of mountains. ware potters in that he was the first to The contrast of the microscopic and the make high ~temperature wares in the macroscopic is conveyed. This is no sug- Leach-Murray/Hamada-Kawai tradition. gestion that there is a conscious desire to make natural forms or to imitate the age- The Leach Gallery exhibition is an indicator less quality of nature, it is simply a quality of Len Castle's recent work and I believe of the work. Len Castle is obviously it is the first exhibition in which he has fascinated by the characteristics, subtleties given full expression to his talents. i say and behaviour of clay during the processes this because i believe Len Castle as a potter of making and firing, and he deliberately was trapped between two worlds: the makes use of the qualities of his materials world of the craftsman-potter who must and the virtues of his craft to achieve Bottle vase, press moulded, wood ash glaze. Height 7%". produce domestic ware day ends. Deliberate and creative use LEN CASTLE in and day out, certain Coffee pot, double glazed. Height 6”. and the world of the artist potter whose of technique is seen in his forming of pots function as pot maker is expressive and by rolling, folding, beating, and cutting of 34 35 solid lumps or sheets of clay which pucker, been adapted to certain moods: masculine School Publications. There he met another crack or flow under the varying rhythms gritty clays are used for some pots, while artist, Juliet Peter, whom he married. of the hand. Recognition of features in clay feminine, highly plastic clays are reserved In 1953, Roy was awarded an Association which are paralleled in nature are inevit— for others. Glossy, hard glazes are gener- of Arts Societies Scholarship and he and able to the eye of the sensitive artist. ally used for domestic wares, but dry Juliet spent the next two years in London, glazes and textured unglazed surfaces are studying drawing and painting, lithography in part this method of work is due to his favoured for imaginative work. Impressed and pottery. On their return they set up background. Len Castle was university seals have been used extensively in decora- their studio and pottery at Ngaio. Roy trained in natural sciences (namely tive treatment. biology, botany and geology) then worked returned to work at School Publications until 1959, when he became a full-time for a number of years as a teacher. His This exhibition demonstrates that a well potter. feelings, however, were more to him than trained New Zealand artist, given favour- his conscious thoughts, and in past exhi- able circumstances, talent, and the will to As a potter Roy has shown the same charac- bition work we see evidence of a struggle work, can make a great intuitive leap. teristics l have always found in him as between the thinking man and the feeling a person. In his painting and lithography man. Fortunately the feeling man was Roy has always seemed to me to be victorious. searching for an expression of the organic nature of life and landscape. There is an We all know people who are excellent in impish wit which sometimes spills over all things technical, but uncreative. Some into his serious work. He has always had have little technical skill, but creative a passion for big things. (I remember his skill, yet they succeed. Len Castle’s work intimidating Wellington taxi~clrivers with is a happy combination of technical skill Roy Cowan two-andva-half tons of monstrous fine with creative imagination. ARTS COUNCIL The Queen Elizabeth H Arts Council's motor car.) So with his pottery. Len Castle is a man who lacks time sense. AWARDS FOR 1965 award to Roy Cowan of a fellowship will it allows him to give tremendous concen- delight all potters. Our delight will in part Roy has never been content to accept the tration to whatever interests him at the This year the Arts Council awarded five be selfish, for Roy has always been quick conventional wisdom. Always he recognises moment. His devoted attention to detail fellowships, of these two were given to to share his discoveries. That one who has tradition, but while working within it he and the ability to study what appears to potters Len Castle and Roy Cowan. On his given so much should be rewarded is only goes back to first principles. This we have the ordinary observer insignificant is, in award Len Castle is to make advanced just. seen in his experiments with glazes, bodies, two part, the secret of his knowledge and highly studies of ceramics in Japan and America, kilns and firing techniques. In the last developed technique. From this habit of and Roy Cowan intends to use his to further For the last thirty years Wellington Roy has produced answers which differ ones. mind also emerges the lack of any feeling his research into kilns and raw materials Teachers Training College has been a re- significantly from the traditional of gas of urgency in his pots, for many of them and the techniques of firing large pieces markable institution in which many young Roy’s enquiries into the mathematics seem carefully considered. in this country. We will all benefit greatly people have found that they possessed flow have produced kiln and burner designs from these projects, as both potters are unsuspected creative abilities. Roy Cowan which, through the ”Potter”, he has shared Wheel—thrown forms, which have predom- known for their generosity in sharing their was one of these people. Son of James with us. inated in earlier work, have given way to discoveries. It is good that the years of Cowan, the historian, Roy was even then pots are again free methods of forming. Len Castle enjoys hard, disciplined, creative work of both widely read and original of thought, but it Roy’s massive architectural produced by a the spontaneity of wheel-thrown pots, but of them have been rewarded in this way, was Roland Hipkins, the art lecturer at something new, something feeling for the he now appears to prefer other methods. and good also that the Arts Council has Teachers' College who revealed to Roy that man with an underlying the land, something, I think, There is an awareness of the fact that men recognised the personal merit of these he had the capacity to be an artist, but structures of Zealand. They are virtuoso were making fine pots thousands of years potters, and through them, the solid the war meant that much had to wait. peculiarly New firing technique, but their major before anyone thought of spinning clay on achievement of the pottery movement in displays of lies in the forging of a new a wheel. Certain materials appear to have New Zealand. After the war he returned to teaching for importance a period, and then joined the staff of idiom. 36 37 THE ARTS COUNCIL AND EDUCATION l have recorded my regard. Roy can be irascible too, if he feels the occasion calls for it, but the kiln explosions are infre- What New Zealanders should expect from were invited to come here to give the Chan- quent; the mature Cowan is a little shy, their Arts Council. cellor’s Lectures for the University. generous of his knowledge, kind and en- couraging to the beginner, restless and Sir Leon Bagrit, the eminent scientist, in More contact with (top ranking men in the enquiring of mind. Roy Cowan is a man 7 the third of his series of Reith lectures on arts through radio, television and public who is always searching for the answers 1 automation said, ”H is vitally important lectures given much newspaper prominence to old questions, and more important, / during the next decade to increase the would help greatly in setting much higher searching for questions which most of us l grants made by the Government to the Art standards in NZ. It must be realized that do not know exist. That the Arts Council Council and to other bodies with similar the ignorant and inexperienced, who set should aid his searching is a fine and fl:w>f H aims, and to increase them on a very big themselves up as art critics for the radio sensible thing. (IMF scale, not only to promote the arts as an or newspaper are not the heal experts. W. Easterbrook-Smith i activity, but to encourage the understand- ing of them simply by the process of enjoy- One of the significant things that have ing them. You cannot have these arts in a happened recently is that the Government state of vigour and health without the was farseeing enough to consult with Sir participation of a large cultured public, and Basil Spence on the extension of Parlia- if you create this public by arousing the ment Buildings. We now have the hope of interests of young people in the arts, the seeing at least one building in New Zealand satisfying of these intuitive desires would that will be a work of art by a great archi- lead to a considerable development in the tect of our time, of which New Zealanders For further particulars of all models write to the creative arts themselves. They only flourish will be proud. Had the Anglican Cathedral the humility and the vision New Zealand agent: when the market is there for them. It is the authorities had duty of the government to see that the to consult an expert we might have been Miss Mavis Jack, 62a Tinakori Rd., Wellington NI. market is available and well provided with able to commission some of our finest funds." artists to produce an antipodean equivalent Top-loading and front-door opening BRICESCO to Coventry Cathedral. kilns still available to those with overseas funds To my mind the first essential for a group who are in a position to procure No Remittance of people responsible for promoting the It would seem to me that the most urgent licences. arts, is that it be comprised of people who work to be undertaken by the Arts Council of educating the public. What is the Elements, shelves and props for BRICESCO kilns . are themselves aesthetically aware of the is one school environment of the majority of our still procurable. ' needs of a community isolated from the cultural centres of the world. Those on children? There is precious little to delight have such a council need to recognise the im- the eye. No adult can be expected to or sen- portance of consulting experts in the progressive attitudes, understanding various artistic fields, not just anyone who sitivity to works of art, such as the sculp— they have happens to be an architect, who plays the ture of Barbara Hepworth, unless from child- B RIC ES CO violin or who is the head of an art school. been expOsed to works of art There are very few real experts in this hood. country especially in the visual arts. We at least some money ELEGTRIKILNS have been fortunate in the past few years It would be good to see school or College is to have visits to New Zealand by great men set aside when a new of a piece of sculp- in the field of art, such as Sir Herbert Read, built, for the purchase the quadrangle, a mural, a stained Niklaus Pevsner, and Sir Basil Spence, who ture for BRITISH CERAMIC SERVICE CO LTD 39 38 glass window, by someone of the calibre of is important for us in NZ. to see many John Piper, or pictures by good contem- exhibitions of contemporary art, but here NEW VISION 8 HIS MAJESTY’S ARCADE, porary artists which the children would see again guidance by the experts is essential. QUEEN STREET, AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND. every day. The Arts Council could advertise No purpose is served, except to confuse PHONE 42—505 these needs, and either purchase or sub- the public by bringing in exhibitions of sidise works by some of the finest artists ”pop” art of which we saw some examples NEW VISION ART CENTRE was started in 1957 in and put them in schools and Colleges, and in the James A. Michener collection shown Takapuna as a very small venture. As far as we discuss these works on radio and television in the National Gallery last year. Hamish know it was unique in its nature. The idea was to and in the press to help them to be viewed Keith told us that they had a message for bring to the notice of the public the high standard intelligently and with a growing awareness us and wrote, “You should stand or sit already attained in the New Zealand crafts, to of their intrinsic value. The Arts Council quietly in front, and hear what the painting encourage the craftsmen by building up a market has a duty to help newspapers to have en- has to say". Sir Herbert Read in a recent for their work, and to aim for the highest possible lightened editors and critics. It is quite issue of the Studio International writes of standards of work. devastating to the progress of art, to see these self-same painters, ”These ’pop’ how much the public is misguided by news- artists succeed in embarrassing the critics, With the help of the artist-crafts- papers, a telling example is that of the and that may be one of their aims. To give men (and women) and the enthusi- Kelliher landscape competition for the serious consideration to their antics is to asm of a small select public the Dominion Breweries calendar. NZ. will fall into the trap they have laid for us. The shop became a great success. In the never grow in art appreciation while the genuine arts of today are engaged in a beginning of 1959 city premises blind continue to lead the blind in knowing heroic struggle against mediocrity and were found in Auckland in His what art is all about. ‘ mass values, and if they lose then art in Majesty’s Arcade, and since then any meaningful sense is dead. If art dies we have never looked back. We Sir Leon Bagrit in his Reith lecture No. 3 then the spirit of man becomes impotent followed with great pleasure the said this: ”It is essential in my opinion and the world relapses into barbarism.” growth into maturity of the New that all children especially in their teens, Zealand crafts. should be exposed to artistic and musical A wonderful th ing,happened for NZ. when and other cultural influences as widely and an Arts Council was formed and money In 1965 a large gallery was opened in conjunction with the shop. as frequently as possible. This is not a 0 allocated for the furtherance of art in N.Z., A luxury to be reserved for a fortunate elite, but I would like to see more evidence that number of successful exhibitions of it is an absolute necessity." the Arts Council sees the need, and is pottery and crafts have been held, making determined efforts to educate and marking the fact that the crafts in It is good that the Arts Council has in the guide the public. New Zealand have reached a new past brought exhibitions to New Zealand. It Doreen Blumhardt status worthy of international comparison.

Stock comprises: Studio pottery Forthcoming Exhibitions Weaving POTTERY IN AUSTRALIA, a magazine pub- New Zealand Academy Handprinted of Fine Arts, Sculp- lished by the Editorial Committee of the fabrics ture, Pottery and Graphic Wooden Arts Exhibition, Potters' Society of New South Wales, may ware Wellington. Copper and be obtained from the Editor, 30 Turra- enamel ware Creative murra Avenue, Turramurra, Sydney. jewellery in ceramics, Receiving date, Tuesday, 2 August, I966. wood, copper and silver Private View, Friday, 2 September. Basketry Season, 3—24 September, I966. A The gallery carries original paint- Ings, graphics, sculpture and studio Pottery of the highest standard.

41 are incorporated into this present one. Her has potted since he was five, and is now ELIZABETH LISSAMAN, POTTER clay, which fires a rich red and vitrifies at a member of the New Zealand Society of iiOO°C, is found on the property, and she Potters. Admitted to the New Zealand Society still likes to use local earths and clays for Elizabeth Lissaman of Potters as a Life Member at the must have been one colour and decoration. Teaching Second Annual Meeting held in Auck- has of the first women to make pottery in this become her land on the 7th November, 1965. major interest and in Morrins- country. A very pleasant person, she has ville Mrs. Hall has a most enthusiastic made pottery a large portion of her life, group of pupils and ex pupils. For many and many people have cause to be grateful When only a schoolgirl, Elizabeth Lissaman years she has held evening classes and for her help and encouragement over the weekend schools started potting on her father's farm at in Hamilton, Morrinsville years. The contribution that a woman of and Waihi. Seddon, Marlborough. She still has one of Her theory of teaching is to this calibre all her life has made to the pass her first pieces, a pinch pot decorated with on the technique and then encourage pottery movement in this country is one her a bird design with natural earths and clays pupils to follow their original thoughts of the reasons for its present strength. used for colour. This was fired in a kiln, in design, forms and style. One of her sons built in 1920 with the help of her father MARGARET MILNE and brothers, and stoked with coal. it was impOSSible to find any information about making pottery in New Zealand, so after leaving school she went to Sydney PUTTERS to try and find some tuition. Here again .Jy ~ she was disappointed, because the only Warren Tippett, formerly of Christchurch, see, U.S.A. in Taipeih Nancy's work con- ELIZABETH LISSAMAN T966 course available was a five year one, at a has emigrated to the Auckland/Comman- sisted of developing formulas and firing technical school. She then read for infor- In her hand she is holding probably the del area. cycles as well as production procedures mation in the Sydney Libraries. From this first piece of New Zealand made studio in order to build up an export trade in pottery. Made she learnt where to obtain oxides and glaze in 1920 it is decorated Maxwell Gimblett and his wife, Barbara, ceramics utilising raw materials readily with earth colours in a pattern of birds materials and then went home to Marl- are now living in San Francisco at 29A Guy available in Taiwan. New designs suitable and once fired with coal. borough. After building a brick kiln and Place, after a summer teaching experience to the American market were developed, a wheel she taught herself by trial and error in Ontario with 500 children. They are now and relatively unskilled Taiwanese were for two years. working hard, Barbara studying Folklore taught to manufacture the new products. Over the years a great many pupils have and Maxwell deep into his drawing and Now in her own country, with the backing In i925 she held her first small exhibition passed through her hands, one of the first painting. The life is good, but somewhat of a businessman originally from the Iron in Blenheim. This was followed two years being Elizabeth Matheson, who went to isolated, and they would welcome any kin— Mountain area who has built Up a large later by a much larger one at the Christ- Marlborough on her return from England dred spirits from this country. concern in Japan exporting high quality sail church Winter Show. This created much in T931. boats to the U.S.A., and with the help of interest and led to a demonstration at the Cecily Gibson, formerly of Kyoto and now her sister, many other people, and Govern- opening of the new D.l.C. in Wellington. After her marriage, as Mrs. Hall, she moved Of Canberra, has settled into her own small ment Departments, a large ceramic factory People came from far and wide to watch to Levin, where she potted and taught at hOLJse there. A few weeks ago she opened has been established. Once the factory was something not seen in New Zealand before, the College there for seventeen years. For "The Pot Room”, where people can come, built the first task was to train people to a potter at work. The New Zealand Manu- some years she was a regular exhibitor at look and buy if they wish. work in it. 409 applications rolled in, and facturers’ Assodation wrote congratulating the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts, in careful screening reduced this number to- fact, in T93l she was the sole exhibitor of her on ”initiating a brand new New Zealand Nancy Patterson, the American potter 45, who have been given careful training industry". By 1928 the job of supplying pottery. whose work at the Peitou Ceramic Works, in a ten week programme. These employes handmade pottery to shops in Christchurch Now living in Tahuna, near Morrinsville, Taipeh, Taiwan, was first reported by us are people who before were without hope and Wellington was beginning to tell on Mrs. Hall has a pleasant, sunny workshop In Vol. 4 No. 2, December 1%], is now of employment. Now they have learned a her original kiln, and an oil-burning one equipped with an electric kiln and wheel. the President of lron Mountain Stoneware, trade that is more than a trade—it is a was imported from England. Some of the parts of the original wheel Laurel Bloomery, near Damascus, Tennes- craft, and no machine can ever usurp these

42 43 particular jobs, because no machine can in open firing with solid fuel that she has Harry Davis, of Crewenna Pottery, Nelson, Polynesian studies, should offer excellent ever reproduce the handmade quality of bought a little house in France, not far has been invited by the Canadian Guild of opportunities for research, and we hope stoneware. The raw materials come from from La Borne, and will build a kiln there Potters to do a tour over there next April that Dr. Barrow's presence there will lead the nearby Appalachian Mountains and the this summer. There is still an enormous and May. There will be a selling exhibition to greater contacts between Hawaii and hope of employment and the learning of amount to be learnt from the potters there, of over 300 pieces at Toronto, and in addi- New Zealand. a trade has brought new life to this some- and there are fuel and stoneware clays in tion Harry will take with him a small what depressed area of the U.S.A. abundance. While in Australia on a return exhibition which he will use in connection visit Gwynn Hanssen is doing her own re- with the twenty-four ”workshops" to be Wanda Garnsey, Editor of Pottery in Aus- search for a term at the University of held in centres from Vancouver to Halifax. tralia, is at present visiting Japan with her N.S.W., where Ivan McMeekin is now senior He will discuss various approaches to daughter Julie. lecturer in the ceramic department. She potting and deal with a wide range 'of tech- intends to work with \enamelled porcelain. problems and their solution. May nical Peggy Dickinson, potter from the USA. by apprentice Simon Pearce, Davis, assisted who visited New Zealand last year and then Trade Mark of the Iron Mountain While returning to Europe Gwyn Hanssen Crewenna Pottery during will carry on at went on to Fiji for some months, was able Stoneware Company. Developed from plans to spend the month of June in New absence. He expects to be back at Harry’s to do some excellent research work into ancient symbols it signifies: Zealand and it is hoped-that a lecture and beginning of July. the local potting methods there, helped greatly (1) By the square or border, the four teaching tour may be arranged for her. elements: earth, air, fire and water; by Bruce Palmer, Director of the Fiji also a kiln. Dr. Terry Barrow, ‘Curator of the Maori Museum, and a grant from the National (2) By the triangle, a fire. Milton Moon of Brisbane has been awarded and Pacific Collections at the Dominion Research Museum of Washington. In our (3) By the vertical line and arms, a Winston Churchill Fellowship to study Museum for many years, left New Zealand next issue we plan to publish the results man. overseas for six months. He and his wife with his wife Joy last January to become of some of this research. Peggy and her and son leave on April 1 for the U.S.A., anthropologist to the 'Bishop Museum, family have now returned to the USA. Gwyn Hanssen is an Australian who ten England, the Continent, and home via Honolulu. An intimate friend of both She says, ”After three weeks at home I’m years ago started potting as a student of Persia. The award has been made for Milton Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada, Dr. ready to immigrate—l don't know where Ivan McMeekin, then establishing the Sturt to study ceramics as applied to Art Educa- Barrow has been associated with the all these people are rushing with their Pottery at Mittagong. After three years tion and to the field of Architecture. He pottery movement in this country since money clutched in hand. America seems there she went to England, where she says, ”It is such a terrific help to see what stoneware was first introduced. His fine frantic, noisy and expensive. Also it’s odd worked for nine months with Ray Finch, other people do—~they represent bridges collection of ceramics, his excellent to see all these colourless faces! Here in Gloucestershire, and for five months at where one would normally be swimming library, and his help and encouragement everyone talks about war and no one listens the Leach Pottery. After that she spent a against the current”. have stimulated the development of many to anyone else, pro or con. Anyway, pots summer with Michael Cardew at Wenford potters. The Bishop Museum, a centre of go on for ever, even if they’re urns." during one of his leaves from Nigeria. Later, Emma Knuckey, of Auckland, has been in London, she started her own workshop, visiting her son Peter, who is working with where she worked for four years making Takeichi Kawai in Kyoto. Takeichi and domestic stoneware using an electric kiln. his wife are well, and the work goes on. More recently, she has been working in Cornwall, in Michael Cardew's pottery, while she was away in Africa. She found As well as pottery, Peter studies Tea Cere- this most exciting, as she had always been mony, Ikebana and Sumi-e. The art of interested in wood-firing kilns, and the Sumi-e is excellent training for a sure and large Cardew kiln was quite a challenge. steady hand with the brush. At Kawai's, Three years ago she spent a summer work- Peter makes plates and teapots by the ing among traditional potters at La Borne, dozen, breaks them up and starts again. in central Franch, where there is still a He takes full part in the Japanese life, and living tradition of wood—fired raw-glazed has many interesting and talented friends, stoneware. So interested is she becoming both Japanese and European. 45 44 NOTES ON OUR ADVERTISERS BOOKS FOR KEEN POTTERS 63/— London CERAMIC DESIGN by John B. Kenny W. D. McGregor Ltd. is an Auckland firm the Nonporite Co. Pty. Ltd., Melbourne, instructions Here is a ”how to do" and a ”what to do" book in one. Complete of engineers which specialise in electric Australia, one of the problems of New decorating ceramic ware are given, with step- furnaces including pottery kilns and their Zealand stoneware potters was solved. for methods of forming and allied equipment. They have been manu- Indeed, many new kilns have been designed by-step photographs to guide the designer along the way. facturing kilns for twenty years and have around the 16" x 12” shelf size. The cost FOR THE POTTER by Daniel Rhodes 50/— London supplied many kilns to schools, colleges, of these is approximately £3 each but CLAY AND GLAZES or industrial institutions and to studio potters through- they are a worthwhile investment. New A book for the potter, student, teacher, designer, collector, out New Zealand. Zealand agents for Nonporite are J. H. M. the craft of ceramist who wishes to know more about the materials of Carpenter Ltd., Auckland. It is necessary the many varied colours and textures in cera- They have a range of standard kilns or can for them to make an import licence appli- pottery and the ways in which first time the facts supply to customers’ specific requirements. cation for every order and this fact, com- mics can be achieved. This is a practical book, and for the are clearly They produce electric kilns suitable and bined with an approximate three months about clays and glazes and the principles governing their use proved for burning to 1300°C, and they delivery date in Australia, means that there described in complete and easy-to-understand form. back their products with efficient servicing is a delay of at least four months before and stocks of spare parts. the shelves arrive. It would simplify this A BOOK OF POTTERY: From Mud into Immortality 42/— London procedure if potters would bulk their by Henry Varnum Poor With the discovery a few years ago that orders or else local Associations forward his philosophy of pottery, his Silicon Carbide shelves were available from group orders to J. H. M. Carpenter Ltd. America's foremost ceramic artist presents all methods of work, his cherished techniques for making and decorating kinds of pots and for ceramic sculpture. Published by SIR ISAAC PITMAN & SONS LTD. Available from all booksellers. C.C.G. INDUSTRIES LTD., PO. BOX 3724, AUCKLAND.

Corner Kent & Crowhurst Sts., Newmarket. (Upstairs Kent St. entrance EXHIBITIONS Exide Battery Bldg.) by Write for our No. 2 Catalogue giving full details of our Podmore range of New Zealand Artist Potters organised by The aim of the exhibition, originated Univer- clays and ceramic materials. the Manawatu Society of Arts, held in the Professor Keith Thomson of Massey Palmerston North Art Gallery, October 11— sity, was to make pottery more personal Three grades of prepared clay regularly stocked: 29, I965. and alive to the buyer of it. In opening the The exhibitors by invitation were: Doreen exhibition he said: ”Normally a person buys B34/I Buff Clay Plastic (with not 10% grog) Temperature I IOO°C——I I50°C Blumhardt, Len Castle, Roy Cowan, Simon a piece of pottery in a shop and does from, BBZ/I Stoneware Plastic Temperature 1250°C—I300°C and Christine Engelhard, James Greig, Jack know who is the maker, where he is at an B33/I Red Terracotta Plastic Laird, Helen Mason, Juliet Peter, Mirek or anything about him. However, Temperature I020°C—IO40°C can find Smisek, Peter Stichbury. Local exhibitors exhibition such as this, the buyer some- Special prices for % ton and I ton lots. Were: Noeline Thompson, Piet Radford, out these facts and therefore obtain indi- Barbara Taylor, Zoe Bendall, Dorothy thing which has more meaning and Also try Podmores range of Glazes, Body Stains and was Frits, especially their Abraham, Peter Wilde, Peg Jackson, Lil viduality.” Each of the main exhibitors well was tried David Leach range. Coombe and Audrey Lissett. given an alcove in which his work

46 47 excellently displayed. Handlettered black slough of despond by Jack Laird, who was and white posters gave the history and the at that time the Director, of the Art and aims of each potter together with his Design Centre attached to the Palmerston photograph. The potter was asked to send North University. My serious pottery a group of work which hung together and started at this time. I felt at last that in which pleased him as an example of what my own humble way I was getting some- he was trying to do. The whole idea obvi- where, although where that ’where’ will ously appealed to the public for sales were lead, only the Gods know.” Noeline excellent and the exhibition was most Thompson. successful in attendance.

(We feel that the whole idea behind this Commonwealth Ceramics and Textiles, exhibition could do with careful considera- Design Centre, London, September, 1965. tion by us all, and could well be sympto- matic of a new trend. Ed.) ”We are pleased to be able to say that the New Zealand contribution was, generally speaking, of a very high standard. We formed the impression, from a fairly close examination of the items displayed from Noeline Thompson, Pottery, Pauline Carter, other countries, that the New Zealand con- Jewellery, Gladys Eastwood, Painting, tribution was at least equal in quality, and Donald Neilsen, Painting. December 5—12. that a number of the New Zealand items At the home of Noeline and Donald Thomp- displayed were superior to those from the son, Upper Plain, Masterton. other Commonwealth countries." New designed for use in Extract from a report by the a range of Electric Kilns specially Zealand High Commission We manufacture bee; “Pottery commits a person at every level. the Hobbyist. ’McGregor kilns have schools, Colleges, Industry and for It’s no use saying ’I love doing it’, in the materials and W01”.— i946, and are built from the finest same way that you say ‘I love a certain manufactured since experi— construction are the result of long person’. That just means you haven’t manship. Their expert design and thought about it. Love is an obsession. ence in this field of manufacture. Pottery can become an obsession, but you EXHIBITIONS love to work at it. There is no built-in bio- one cubic foot upwards.. l te r ange of standard kilns from logical urge to‘mould great dollops of clay. kiln suitable for burning And just as well! But there is a basic urge In this issue, instead of publishing exhibi- WeAdditionallyOfier a compwe manufacturee a high temperature reports, we have used the potters’ own to create and almost any material will do. tion stoneware at 1300°C. Why pick on clay? It’s elemental, primitive words to illustrate the ideas behind the and dirty. Perhaps that’s just the reason! work. We solicit your enquiries. with prices. When I knew it was possible for any Literature available describing kilns ordinary person, given some tuition, to Established l946. make pots and fire a kiln, I was in busi- Would potters and gallery owners kindly max. ness. But alas, the chasm between desire supply details of exhibitions held. Invita- Model firing to iSOOGC and performance. I spent a year in a wilder- tions, reports and reviews and photographs ness of aggressively unco—operative clay are wanted. Photographs such as those of LTD and of kilns either too hot or too cold, and Len Castle pieces in this issue are usually W D McGREGOR views of 899-619. with tutors who knew little more than I more effective than general 48a Stoddard Road, Mt. Roskill, Auckland. Phone and Allied Equtpment. did. I was eventually rescued from the exhibitions—Ed. Manufacturers of Electric Pottery Kilns, Furnaces 49 48 A husband 8! wife team

an exhibition of pottery MARTIN ll to 23 october l965 new vision gallery working strictly as individuals his majesty‘s arcade queen street auckland

born in taranakl I935. lived mostly in as a child obsessed with fires and furnaces, auckland, escaping regularly to the country. earth, clay, native plants, rocks and & NANCY abortive attempts at professional occupa- old, heavy machinery, particularly steam tions. including teaching. engines and railways. but sharing facilities & Ideas. took up full-time pottery at coromandel in all are being combined at the property at l96l. ls mainly self taught. with the aid of coromandel. several kilns are used, with a few friends. experience at brickworks and emphasis lately on coal firing. BECK kiln work before making pottery. overlapping & diverging Pottery . . . Doreen Blumhardt in techniques & tastes Doreen Blumhardt, head of the Art Represented in private & museum Department of the Wellington collections in New Zealand 8: also Teachers’ Training College, went to Japan in 1962 on a Japanese in travelling overseas exhibitions. Government grant to study pottery and stayed for five months, work- Both interested more in exploring ing with a number of different form. textures & decorative quality potters and visiting many others. in clay & glaze than in making pots Interest in education has led her for use strictly in a domestic sense. to experimenting in the designing and making of domestic ware, as Amateurs in the true meaning. she believes that by handling and using pottery appreciation begins potting for their own pleasure. and grows. an exhibition of pottery Doreen Blumhardt, with Brian Carmocly, from |6 — 27 august I965 painter, at the Centre Gallery, November new vision gallery 15—26, 1965.

5i Helen Mason, Wellington potter and editor of the New Zealand Potter magazine, is an experimentalist.

It was in 1953 that she built her first kiln, using as a basis Elizabeth Matheson's old oil-burner.

Mostly self-taught, she owes a lot to the knowledge freely given by her friends.

in 1960, she visited Japan, working briefly at Seta City with Shunto Kato, a potter of the modern school.

in 1962, she returned to Japan for a short visit and then had a quick look at Europe.

Last year Barry Brickell and friends built her a large two—chambered oil-fired kiln of 45 cubic feet designed by Roy Cowan. finest work of Working in stoneware fired to 1250°C— s Fired Clay—Helen Mason 1300°C, she loves throwing clay, glaze and new zealand New Vision Gallery, Auckland, July 19—30, fire together to find out what will happen. 1965 . ' leading artists Aladdin’s Gallery, King’s Cross, Sydney, The survivors are the exhibition. August 18~3l, 1965 and craftsmen W

8 H.M,ARCADE DAVID BROKENSHIRE A family of pots . . ' //=r QUEEN ST.AUCKLAND " i-( 52 53 Janet Wright.

JOHN CHAPPELL— POTTER I93 l-l964

Stone erected in John's memory by his friends at Domura, near Kyoto, Japan.

Group of pots by Wilfred Wright. Stocktons Country Gallery Christmas Exhibition, Reikorangi Hall, December 4— 12, 1965. Pottery, Wilf and Janet Wright; Painting, Prints and Sculpture by Malcolm Warr and Maree Lawrence; Woven Panels WILF AND JANET WRIGHT with Native Grasses, Barbara Cape.

The Firing Sending the final slivers of yellowy pine for Les Blakebrough and John Chappell. Tl‘nl‘ peephole White blast glow No saggars tilting yet and segers bending Bitter blue fingers neatly in a row — Winter nineteen sixty—three A.D. Even their beards caked up with mud and soot showa thirty-eight Firing for fourteen hours. How does she go. Over a low pine—covered splay of hills in Shiga Porcelain and stoneware: cheese dish. twenty cups. West-south—west of the outlet of Lake Biwa Tokuri. vases. black chawan Domura village set on sandy fans of the sweep Crosslegged rest on the dirt eye cocked to smoke — and turn of a river The hands you layed on clay Draining the rotten-granite hills up Shigaraki Kickwheeied, curling On a nineteen-fitty—seven Honda cycle model C creamed to the lip of nothing, Rode with some Yamanashi wine “St Neige” and coaxed to a white dancing heat that day Into the farmyard and the bellowing killn. Will linger centuries in these towns and loams Les and John And speak to men or beasts in ragged shirts and pants, dried slip When Japanese and English Stuck to with pineneedle, pitch, Are dead tongues. dust, hair. woodchips; Gary Snyder 30.1.64.

54 55 copper nozzles with flattened ends are The kiln shown here has a single chamber, A tremendous heat is generated in the fire- fitted. The air is directed at the oil which but a second chamber of approximately boxes, so the material used in the bagwalls flows from an a” pipe with needle valve equal size can be added if required. should be fired as high as possible first. control. in this fashion the kiln is fired to The ones at Ardmore toppled as each brick Cone lO in nine hours. shrank about %” on the hot face. This The door or wicket, 2% bricks wide, is left toppling can be avoided by cutting’a slight Photograph 2. shows the kiln open after open after two layers are down. The end angle at one end of all the full soaps and walls are completed when seven layers are a firing with both cones l0 down and cone setting them as in the sketch. It is better down, and the arch is then added. The kiln ll standing on the top shelf. All materials to have the bagwall loosely stacked rather except arch bricks and fireboxes were is braced in the usual way, visible in the than to fit firmly into the 'kiln walls. second hand. photographs. If full insulation is added from the start, the cross tie rods should Insulation should really be built as part of be 9" longer than the size given. Internal dimensions the kiln, but it is possible ‘to add a layer Length 40%” (4‘7 bricks lengthwise). of common brick to the back wall, and The arch is best laid without any mortar, Depth 18" (2 bricks). also to the front if the wicket is closed with the tie rods loose, and tightened when the Height 30” (to centre of arch). only one layer of brick. This is built up arch and door arch are completed. it is Total capacity ll cubic feet approx. for each firing. Stacking capacity 9% cu. ft. approx. convenient to fill the door with bricks to hold the kiln firm while setting the arches. Shelf size l5" x l2", leaving J2" all The arch round for flame movement. is best set upon a wooden former, two planks cut to the shape The shelves are of Silicon Carbide. of the arch and set about 6” apart. Half soap centre, two 2" pieces. A completed firing. The back wall is built up with firebrick Half soap centre, to the top of the arch. Common brick is four lé'” pieces. then used all round for three more courses The kiln operating. to form a ’tank' on top to contain insula- tion, preferably Vermiculite.

A SMALL KILN Peter Stichbury The fiue is built out to allow a chimney or stack 6” square inside to be built directly This kiln, as shown in the photographs, Up the back wall if only one chamber is at Ardmore, so that students built. Build the chimney as high as possible was built Construction or convenient then complete with a 6” could learn to pack and fire a small kiln, The base is concrete on hard earth. On this diameter pipe to a height of 12 feet. The a kiln which did not cost too much, was three layers of common bricks are laid. Ardmore kiln has an 8 foot pipe welded to easily built and easily managed. These aims The fiue is incorporated in the second and a 12" square cut out plate to sit firmly have been achieved and two other kilns of third layers, being a 6" by 6" tunnel from on the brick section. A damper should be the same dimensions have been built near- the centre to the back wall. All bricks, fitted about two feet up in the chimney. by, one potter producing and selling ware except those around the flue where fireclay of good quality from one of them. mortar is used, can be set dry and levelled or cracks filled with sand. The fourth layer The photo also shows the firing method—— Bagwalls is firebrick set with fireclay and forms the an old Hoover vacuum cleaner attached to a These are very open to allow a good flow floor of the kiln. Photo l shows the com- pressure box with sliding lid which gives of heat from the fireboxes at three levels — pleted base and indicates the dimensions pressure variation or varied air flow. From this ensures a very even firing. Soaps are and arrangement of bricks. The 6” fiue is the box two 1%” plastic pipes with 1%" used in the construction, as shown. the exact centre of the kiln floor.

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,1 THE NEW ZEALAND POTTER

This magazine, a non—profit-making venture, is published by the Editorial Committee, Wellington, New Zealand. It is published each August and February, with the subscription year ending 3lst March.

EDITOR: Helen Mason EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS: Lee Thomson Doreen Blumhardt PRODUCTION: Juliet Peter Roy Cowan

TECHNICAL EDITOR: Roy Cowan

EARTHENWARE ADVISER: O. C. Stephens

ADVERTISING: John Nicholson

SUBSCRIPTIONS AND CORRESPONDENCE to: The Editor, New Zealand Potter, Box 44, CARTERTON, WAIRARAPA John Nicholson, PO. Box 617, WELLINGTON ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION: New Zealand, ten shillings. Australia, two dollars (A). United Kingdom, ten shillings stg. U.S.A., two dollars (U.S.A.) Subscriptions may be sent in your own currency.

The New Zealand Society of Potters is a separate institutiin and correspon- dence should be directed to:: The Secretary, New Zealand Society of Potters, Inc., PO. Box 3294, WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND.

Printed by John Milne Limited using the small oflset process. TYDCSGI by Trade Typesetters

60