Presenters

Sir Rick Rudd

Whanganui, New Zealand previously England

Rick Rudd was born in Great Yarmouth, England and trained at Great Yarmouth and Wolverhampton Colleges of Art, attaining a Diploma of Art and Design, Ceramics in 1972. He has exhibited widely throughout New Zealand, regularly in solo exhibitions, numerous times as guest exhibitor and his work has been included in international exhibitions in Italy, Australia, Canada,  USA, Singapore,  Japan, Finland, Hong Kong, Guernsey, and Taiwan.

He has curated and selected national exhibitions and has conducted workshops for many potters’ groups and polytechnics around New Zealand.  He was president of the New Zealand Society of Potters (1988 – 1991) and was made a life member in 2016. 

He was a participant in the first New Zealand Ceramics Symposium (1988), and received Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council grants in 1984 and 1992.

Duncan Shearer

Karangahake, Waikato

I’m a studio potter focusing mainly on functional vessels. I moved to Rahu Road near Karangahake in 2014, where I’ve built my studio, gallery and kiln. I fire my pots in my wood kiln to produce a robust stoneware pot that is both functional and richly decorated by the flame from the firing process.

I use my local clay as a key ingredient in my base clay mixes, it’s also in my slips and glazes – it’s a wild Coromandel type of clay, formed from the volcanoes that distinguish our region. It creates a link from the land, through my hands, to the person using my pots every day. I throw my pots on a treadle wheel; a slow moving, leg powered wheel that allows an expressive quality to my throwing, soft and undulating.

Wilhelmiina Drummond

Hamilton, Waikato previously Finland

I’m a Finnish ceramic artist, and I create my whimsical and ethereal sculptures in my Hamilton studio. Since starting in 2016, I’ve been captivated by the ancient Japanese firing technique of Raku.

The process is as perilous as the results are beautiful, yielding unique, wild, and temperamental surface finishes. I believe this dynamic contrast not only complements the stories I’m trying to tell through my art but also adds a wonderful depth to my more playful pieces.

Bob Steiner

Avondale, Auckland

Bob Steiner, is a renowned New Zealand ceramic artist, (New Zealand Pottery) based in Auckland, New Zealand. For more than five decades, Bob has created ceramics known for originality, quality and enduring style.

His work has been collected in homes, gifted across generations and used in leading hospitality settings. Coming from a background in the handcrafted pottery tradition of New Zealand Bob offers handmade sculptural ceramic tiles that capture the essence of Aotearoa’s fauna and flora (plant and wildlife in New Zealand). Of late Bob has been busy with dinnerware for high end lodges and restaurants around New Zealand.

Jane McCulla

Christchurch, Canterbury previously Ireland

I graduated as a mature student, with a 1^st Class BA Hons in Fine & Applied Art at the University of Ulster, Belfast, Northern Ireland in 2006.

I immigrated to NZ with my family in 2009, established a homebased studio in Riverton, Southland and started supplying galleries with my ceramic pieces, then a year later moved north to Christchurch. I create textured, stretched, stoneware clay vessels and forms at my home-based studio in Diamond Harbour, Canterbury. I make fluid textures on my  stoneware pieces, suggesting geology, archaeology and mankind’s marks on the landscape, fluxed over time.

I teach classes and workshops throughout NZ and undertake both private and public commissions including the Lyttel People Land Art Mandala in Albion Square, Lyttelton. For over 7 years I was involved as a Regional Council Member and Vice President of Ceramics Association of NZ.

In 2017 I completed a seven-week residency at The Pottery Workshop in Jingdezhen, the porcelain capital of the world in China. My ceramics have been in various publications and exhibited in both solo and national shows in London, UK, Ireland and NZ. Pieces are held in both private and public collections worldwide. I have received several awards for my pieces, including a Portage Merit Award in 2013.

Karen Kennedy

Henderson, Auckland

Karen Kennedy has been making ceramic sculpture for over 40 years, and is largely self-taught. Most of her work is small, intricate figurines of dogs, cats, pigs, people, fish, flowers and people including ocarinas and whistles. Lately she has been experimenting with wild clay and back yard firings. Her work can be found in galleries throughout the country, the nearest being Heritage Gallery in Cambridge.

Sarah Lee

Te Aroha, Waikato

I am a ceramic sculptor, which is to say I make non-functional things out of clay. I am intrigued by the random little nuggets of memory that we subconsciously hoard and how often seemingly insignificant encounters can have a deep impact. Almost like a pearl, a fairly mundane moment can come back to the surface years later as a shiny treasure of a memory in sculptural form. I work out of my home studio in Te Aroha.

I think as we grow up we forget to allow ourselves the freedom to play and limit ourselves to making what we think we ought to make. In this workshop I will explore the idea of using the small amounts of clay leftover at the end of the day to play with, to make something crazy, as a means of connecting with your inner child and play with different techniques in a low pressure fun way. We will create small monsters/creatures loosely based on the surrealists idea of the exquisite corpse.