Read the rest of the newsletter here

​Wood firing is a long and labour intensive process but man is it fun! On an October Saturday morning, Halswell pottery began feeding the beast, a beautiful downdraft wood fire kiln. With around 100 pots stashed in its belly, and a year's worth of donated wood, it was only a matter of time before the beast started roaring with glee. 

​Members of Mount Pleasant Pottery Group were sprinkled through the roster to feed the beast and that we did. Bundles of fast firing pine were initially thrown into the fireboxes. One big log on the left and small pieces on the right. The idea was the big logs provided a steady heat while the small pieces sent the temperature up. It did not take long before we could hear the beast chugging down oxygen as it greedily devoured the wood. At this point, it was important to know how fast the temperature was rising, and without a pyrometer.. We had to do it the old fashion way, by eye and cones.

​A quick peek into the belly of the beast and we saw it all. Flames licking pots, pots glowing bright red, cones bending to praise the kiln gods.. At about cone 6 (1240C), the fun stuff was put in. This included cedar wood, cabbage tree leaves, pine cones, pine needles and eucalyptus bark. These materials would crackle and pop in the firebox and send ash throughout the chambers where the pots were sitting. The chimney damper was closed to allow the ash to circulate through the chambers, enticing the ash to stick to pots, melt and form a glaze.

​A total of 8 hours of nonstop feed was demanded to satisfy the hunger of the beast. It then took a further 24 hours before it slept, and we could finally open its belly to inspect what goodies were produced. I encourage more members to participate in the wood firing next year as the results are so much fun and liberating… e.g. no idea what we were going to get… 
 

On Friday 7th February, Brenda took a group from New World for a Team Building exercise. A great night was had by all. Some photo's below.

The club is open to providing social activities for small groups; contact through this web site if you haven't a contact number.
​

The Bay Harbour News recently published this article, written by Renate, after our very successful exhibition.

WHEN THE Mt Pleasant Pottery Group was founded in 1960, it was known as the Betty Crocker Potters. 
This was because members used commercially-supplied materials from Smith and Smith, rather than digging them out of the ground as purist potters did. 
The group once operated out of a hut across the road from the Mt Pleasant Community Centre. 
As the club expanded over the years, it typically had an active membership of about 60 to 80 and exhibitions were big affairs. Over time, the club acquired considerable assets, including a gas kiln, salt-firing kiln and a large wood-firing kiln. 
Believed to be the oldest pottery club in Christchurch, the group celebrated its 50th birthday before the earthquakes. 
The February 22, 2011, quake rendered the former Mt Pleasant Community Centre clubrooms unsafe, so for a number of years it was a very difficult time. Class activities continued to a limited extent in a member’s private studio in association with workshops held as part of the Otago Polytechnic Diploma in Ceramic Arts distance learning. 
The group will forever be thankful to Shona Clarkson for keeping these activities going. 
Finally in 2016, a then very small but dedicated group of members relocated to the Phillipstown Hub as it was unable to secure rooms in the newly-rebuilt community centre. Members occupied a classroom-sized space and a kiln shed. 
Since then, the club has steadily been re-growing and presently runs five regular classes, children’s classes, club days, raku firings, weekend workshops and more. One of the regular highlights used to be the yearly exhibition at the Mt Pleasant Community Hall with an out-of-town exhibitor who would open the evening. The group had not held an exhibition for a number of years, but felt it was time to reintroduce it to the yearly calendar to celebrate the group’s achievements, its creative members and a beautiful craft. 
The exhibition was held last month at the Mt Pleasant Community Centre with guest potter Neil Hey, who put his works on show. 


PROGRESS: Renate Galetzka giving a demonstration of engobe decoration at the Mt Pleasant Pottery Group. 

Congratulations to all the members who organised and provided a wonderful exhibition of our club member's work on Friday & Saturday 18/19 October, 2019.

There were 21 exhibitors and 113 items on display.

At this year’s exhibition we had four awards:
First Time Exhibitor Award – Sculptural went to Hilary Cowburn for her ‘Lagoon Vessels’
First Time Exhibitor Award – Wheel Work went to Cally Meredith for her three ‘Bar Code Beakers’
Merit Award went to Leigh-Ann Smith for her ‘Forever Flowers’
Selectors’ Choice Award went to Ken Doidge for his whole body of work.

The Mt Pleasant Community Centre was an ideal venue to have our first exhibition since before the 2011 earthquakes and we thank them for hospitality.

The photographs of some of the visitors and works on display are below.

A successful day was held on Saturday 27th July at Halswell Pottery Club where we fired the wood kiln. Shona and Chris light the fire at 7.30am; the weather forecast meant that is would be cold and not conducive to a good hot fire. This turned out to be true; no wind helping the flue draw didn't help, either. 

Great camaraderie at the firing vents added to the excitement and spirit of the day. If you have any pyromaniac tendencies, come to the next wood firing.

We shut-up the kiln about 6.00pm and assembled on Monday morning to open up. The photo's are below.

Dear All, we hope your winter hasn't been too arduous so far; the cold water in the bucket doesn't help though.

Glaze making journey with found materials with Andrew Carran

First we started with a very busy clubnight which was very informative with lots of glaze samples, soil maps of the greater Christchurch region and lots and lots of information, so much to take in.
 Six of us and Andrew got together to work on our own glaze projects. We had soils, sands, loess and clays from the harbours to Gore Bay and all the way to the Craigieburn Ranges. We started with preparing our particular base material by breaking it up and siveing it into very fine particles. 
Lunch was a wee outing to a lookout overlooking the Canterbury plains. Andrew shared stories about the old brick works in town, where the raw materials came from and clay works in a number of different locations in the distant foothills of the Southern Alps; a highlight of day one. 
Then it got pretty messy, with measuring, mixing, adjusting our glazes and glazing many test tiles. We are now in the process of firing our glazes to Cone 5/6, Cone 7/8 and Cone 9 before we potentially adjust them some more to desired outcomes. Can't wait to see all out test tiles. Photographs of the work, so far, are attached. We'll have the test tiles and other work some time in the near future.

Wood firing with Mt Pleasant and Halswell potters group on Sat 27 July
Schedule leading up to the Saturday July 27
Make pots now.
 Wood firing with Halswell pottery group on July Saturday 27 at 8am
Mt pleasant group bisque firing, leave work in our rooms in the wood firing box to be bisque for Saturday 13 July.
Your work will be in the rooms for glazing, 2 glazes will be available a celadon and a shino glaze.  
 Deliver to Halswell on Friday 26th at 10am for loading the kiln (or someone to do it for you).
Halswell potters bisque firing to be organised 
Firing the kiln will be on Saturday 27th 8am start; all pots in the kiln will require a 2 to 3 hours of firing time from the pot owners.
The firing cycle could be up to 10hrs so be prepared to do the time please, bring along a shared lunch if you are on the lunch time duty. Tea & Coffee supplied.
Firing times: please let Shona know claytech1@gmail.com or fill in the time you would like to play with smoke, dust and fire. The schedule will be on the notice board in the club rooms,
Friday 10am: sorting the shelves and props, kiln washing then sorting into sizes and loading the kiln. This will take a while; 3 to 4 hours depending on the work sizes.
Firing schedule for Saturday:
8am to 10am           10am to 1pm        1pm to 3pm          3pm to Finish This last time is important as we want to soak as long as we can holding the temperature to get heat work done, settling the ash on the glazes, etc.

Four people on the fire boxes, two people collecting the wood for them means a total of six people on each shift. You can stay as long as you like; all day if you want. This is a fun learning day all pyromaniacs together. 

This firing is open to all members of Mt Pleasant and Halswell potters groups.
Any questions please email Shona claytech1@gmail.com or ring 0226797729 

​Classes
In an attempt to provide a sense of progression for our students, we are changing the nature of some classes to achieve this aim. Alex's Wednesday night class in terms one and three will be 'Beginners Handwork' classes and terms two and four will  be 'Beginners Wheel' classes. All the other classes will be mixed ability classes. Our real aim is to have all our students progress to attending Tuesday club days where you'll meet other club members and spread your pottery wings. All classes are full for term three.
Alex is running Slip and Glaze courses on Saturdays, 3rd and 10th of August. Prices yet to be determined.
Renate also runs advanced throwing classes on the last weekend of the month; three hours on a Friday and again on Saturday. This program is run as two five session semesters, February to November.
Exhibition 2019
Calling on all potters, new and old, to start your exhibition project early.

• Make what you are good at; exhibiting is not the time to experiment.
• Pick only your very best pots and if you're making a set, make sure they belong in a set.
• Then submit to our exhibition later in the year (deadline Fri 11 Oct)
• This is always a good focus to be working towards and a great time to share.

If unsure contact the convener (Renate) on 0211336620


Kiln operation
The last few weeks have been a bit of a shambles; huge disappointment in the operation of the kilns and subsequent adjustments and slippage of the firing schedule. Unfortunately kiln 1, having just been repaired, has had a meltdown and will be out of action for a little while. This makes the following more important:

Kiln scheduling, for club members, will now become the responsibility of Shona and Hilary. What this means is: that if you require some work to be fired, it must be put into a box, labelled with your name, firing type and the date (your phone number might also help in case there is a need to contact you). All the items in the box must have your mark on them. If any of these parameters are not met, the items will not be fired. If anyone has any issues with what is being asked please get in touch with Shona, Hilary or me. 
Drying shelves
These are a wonderful asset and put up at some effort to provide us with a facility for drying our pots. They are not a storage facility. Items for bisque firing should not be there any longer than a week; then they go into your box, labelled and ready for firing. Items that have been glazed, ideally, shouldn’t be on the shelves at all. Think about it, get the glaze on and get them into the box with their label ready for Shona and Hilary to get them fired. So, if you have any wares on the shelves that need firing, do the decent thing and get them done.

Collecting your fired items
Bring some cash with you! We can’t do EFTPOS and you know you have to pay for the firing of your pots. Prices are on the notice board.

This has been a bit-of-a-rant, but none of this is new. These rules have been in place for longer than we’ve been at Phillipstown and your pots are your responsibility.

We'll send out a notice when No1 kiln is back on line and we also intend to put another controller onto kiln No2; this will give some more flexibility regarding firing programs.

Your Committee
We are delighted to advise that we have two new members on our committee; Hilary Cowburn who will be assisting with the supervision of the firing of the kilns and Jackie Negus who will take over the writing of this publication. We welcome them aboard and their input into the successful running of our club.

CLUB DAYS & CLUB NIGHTS


Club Days are on Tuesdays, 10am to 3.30pm and 7 to 9pm.
Club Demonstration Nights are on the second Tuesday of every month. 
We are hosting guest speakers and demonstrators who will be sharing their knowledge and expertise on a wide range of topics relating to pottery and ceramics.
 A $5 donation please.
To get most out of our Demonstration Club Nights please get in contact and let me know which topics you would like to know more about. I will try and make it happen! 
Renate 021-1336620, rgaletzka@gmail.com


Saturday Club Day, 1st Saturday of the month, 10.00am till noon 


Saturday Raku Club Day with Leigh-Ann…


July


Tuesday, 9th, 7pm
Club Night: Printing on Clay demonstration evening with Shona Clarkson
Printing on clay, a special way of making a small personal screen to print on your work.
A sat workshop will be available to make your own small screen. As we need to order materials for each person attending the Saturday workshop will be later in the month. On club night date and workshop details will be advised to those who would like to attend.
 
One day workshop 
Make your own screen for printing on clay
Price to be advised


August


Saturday, 3rd and 10th
9am to 12noon on each day
Glaze and Slip making with Alex
Learn the basics of glaze and slip making  and a variety of application techniqhes
Price to be advised


Tuesday, 13th
Club Night: Everything Glaze Materials
Bring all your unanswered questions relating to glaze making. Our very own expert, Ken, will have an answer for everything! Like: What’s Silica?.. Why did that glaze run?.. Why is that glaze stuck to the bottom and what can I do? What makes my glaze blue or white or red or..? 


September


Tuesday, 10th
Club Night: Topic to be announced … Make a suggestion, txt Renate on 0211336620


Possibly Weekend workshop with Yi-Ming Lin – Sculpture. Please txt Renate on 0211336620 to gauge interest


October


No Club Night 


Saturday, 12th
Annual Exhibition Submission and Selection Day, 10am


Friday/Saturday, 18 – 19 Exhibition 
At Mt Pleasant Community Centre Hall
All hands on deck, please volunteer for all the jobs large and small that will help make our exhibition a success 


November


Tuesday, 12th
AGM and world famous auction 


End of Year Party
Day outing to Birdlings Flat with Action Firing (pit firing) and picnic at the beach. Bring family and partners, this will be fun fun fun!
Date to be announced closer to the time, with consideration to tides. If total fire ban should be in place event will be postponed to autumn 2020.
Watch this space. (This has got to be a fantastic opportunity for something really different - Graham)


Whew, I'm fairly sure that we've covered all the important subjects for this month. Matariki at the Hub on Saturday the 19th June for a hangi, you'll need to contact Viviana for a ticket, 03 379 3256.


Happy potting - Graham
On behalf of your committee.

This talk, by Andrew Carran, is the beginning of a project for members to gather soils from around Christchurch / Canterbury to make glazes. Andrew is a retired geologist who  has worked in many countries around the world and he likes to make glazes from soils that he finds around Chc. Halswell and Lyttelton, to name a couple, were on display.

The project goes from here; members, who have signed up, will spend the next two weeks looking for appropriate soils. Much of the soil around Chc and up on Banks Peninsula is Loesse; this soil is approximately 50% silica, 25% aluminium and the remaining 25% is various oxides, carbonates and trace minerals. Mud flats, of a sticky, muddy nature, are also a good potential source of 'interesting' soil. Any soils gathered will be dried and where possible ground down to small particles ready to be made into a glaze.

​First we started with a very busy clubnight which was very informative with lots of glaze samples, soil maps of the greater Christchurch region and lots and lots of information, so much to take in.
 Six of us and Andrew got together to work on our own glaze projects. We had soils, sands, loess and clays from the harbours to Gore Bay and all the way to the Craigieburn Ranges. We started with preparing our particular base material by breaking it up and siveing it into very fine particles. 
Lunch was a wee outing to a lookout overlooking the Canterbury plains. Andrew shared stories about the old brick works in town, where the raw materials came from and clay works in a number of different locations in the distant foothills of the Southern Alps; a highlight of day one. 
Then it got pretty messy, with measuring, mixing, adjusting our glazes and glazing many test tiles. We are now in the process of firing our glazes to Cone 5/6, Cone 7/8 and Cone 9 before we potentially adjust them some more to desired outcomes. Can't wait to see all out test tiles. Photographs of the work, so far, are attached. We'll have the test tiles and other work some time in the near future.

What a day, What a fire,  What a result!

Only three of us went out to Rangiora which was a shame; we were welcomed by a good number of their folk. Stacking of the kiln began when Les Freeman, Chief Salt Kiln Operator, arrived with some fire wood. There is a special technique when stacking this type of kiln because the gas flow is to be made turbulent. Different shapes of pot are placed near each other to accentuate the variation in the gas flow. The were too many pots for everyone to get all their pots fired, so we made sure that everyone got at least one fired. Lots of pots with no names, so hope you didn't miss out.

The firing is started using wood; this is to heat the fire box to the point where the diesel / air mixture will ignite. The kiln was set alight at 10.00am on a beautiful Nor'wester day; lots of smoke to begin with as the heat-up continued. The roar of the diesel/air mixture is a bit like a Boeing 747, but the sound of the roar varies during the firing and all fire adjustments are made based on the changes to the roar.

The kiln is a double skin, dry stack type and as it heated the flue obtained a slight lean; nothing to be concerned about apparently. The nature of the build enables keen viewers, like us, the opportunity to see the kiln heat through dull red, bright red, brighter red with a touch of yellow and then with a touch of white; absolutely fantastic. Then, we got to throw the salt in. A cup of salt is wrapped in newspaper, the is  dampened with a quick dunk in a bucket of water, then the projectile is thrown into the fire box with the aim of reaching a far back as possible. There were a few "drop-shorts" but generally all the salt got into the kiln and did its thing. The clouds of white/grey smoke are the result of the salt under combustion. The firing stopped and the kiln was closed up around 4.30pm. The Nor'wester was given as the reason for the shortest firing they've ever had.

The photographs below show some of the excitement of the firing and also some of the results. The price for getting a pot fired is $10.00 (that's the RPC standard fee), so Ill be around collecting over the next week - ten days.

​There is talk of another salt glaze firing in six to eight weeks time; I highly recommend it. Commit to the whole day and get involved; at the risk of repeating myself, its absolutely fantastic.

Regards - Graham, Jon & Robin
​

Dear All, Happy Easter, Happy holidays,
 We hope everyone had a good / fabulous first term of the year and have raised the bar for term two or the next stage in your pottery life. There is an extra class on the list now; Wednesday night with Alex as our tutor. Our Monday and Thursday classes are full with good attendance booked for Wednesday day and night. Our Tuesday club days are also well attended; wonderful chatter going on along with the occasional tip on a process, glaze or technique.

 WIFI 
in our room: this has been requested by our tutors, so pending final sign off for the funds we will have WIFI soon. It will be ideal for viewing You Tube films of potters showing their wonderful skills.

 Kilns and Firings
The controller for kiln No3 is on its way home from being repaired; it will be in place this coming week. If anyone has key to the kiln shed (that they're not supposed to have) would you please hang it back on the hook in the club room? Kiln shed keys should only be away from their hook for a couple of days at most. If you're in control of a firing you must come back to the kiln shed the following day to confirm the cycle has finished and then switch off the kiln. You'll need to hang on to the key for that period to get back into the shed to carry out the switch off routine; hang it back on the hook asap afterwards.

 Club exhibition
this is being planned for October, 2019. Full details coming soon. 
At our June club night Renate will discuss what we need to consider when producing and submitting works to our, or to any exhibition, so start putting your ideas together.

 Club Night in May
Glazes—starting at ground level, with Andrew Carran
A Tuesday Club night preliminary
In this session Andrew will outline two Sunday afternoon sessions (26 May, 2 June) in which we will make glazes from local materials and  fire them. The evening session will give information on where to find materials and prepare them as well as covering some glaze history and local geology and should be of general interest  to all - not just glaze makers.
There will be soil maps and samples to look at as well as pots with local glazes and  a discussion about how the glazes, we can make here, relate to classical Chinese glazes.
This is an exciting opportunity for anyone interested in how glazes are made, from the ground up, to be with Andrew Carran as he goes through the whole process. Not to be missed, no matter what level
Andrew would like a rough idea of how many people would approximately be attending the evening. If you are possibly thinking of coming along, please give Renate a quick txt (0211336620)
 
Good potting, everyone – Graham and the committee
​

A wonderful demonstration by a master of his craft; Ly-Ming's use of thumb pots and coils had many of us thinking how long it had been since we had done work using these methods.

Ly-Ming began the evening with three large balls of clay and some examples of his small heads and an egg (ceramic of course), then proceeded to show how simply he could make them. (see heads 4 and 5 in the photo's below). Ly-Ming even brought his class notes from when he was a student in Dunedin many years ago. Quirky might describe the style of the heads Ly-Ming makes but his demonstration of his thumb-pot technique in producing them was delightful.
Then it was onto coiling; beginning with an oval three or four coils high, then he formed it into a  loose figure-of-8 shape and pressed out two slight bulges; another two or three coils and some tidying-up saw the bottom of a torso. (Enlarge the group photos to see the beginning of the torso)
Ly-Ming had a steady stream of information for us and answered questions as he went about his work. For those who came away inspired to attempt some hand work, Ly-ming has agreed to hold a weekend workshop later in the year.

A wonderfully inspiring evening shared by 14 of  us. We would love to see more members at the monthly demo evenings.
​

Brenda ran a class for children over the school holidays; here are some photographs of the class.

Hello All, best wishes again for the year ahead and all your pottery endeavours. As the current scribe for the club I thought we might send out a newsletter after each month's committee meeting in an attempt to keep you all informed of the subjects being discussed and decisions made. On that basis we hope that you will want to make contributions / suggestions on our club, facilities, classes, library, etc. I look forward to the full mail box.

From our January committee meeting:The response was that perhaps the Hub Board could take over the financial running of the facilities including receiving no funding from them. We have received a letter stating that this will increase our annual rent, in fact, more than double it. We are awaiting the final discussion between the Hub board and Dept of Education.


There is to be a gala day at the hub on the 23/30 March a meeting to discuss this is on Friday, the 8th  Feb at 5.30. None of our committee members can attend so will ask to be informed of any relevant details.


There has been an enquiry from a visiting potter, John Summerfield, from UK, asking about presentation / demonstration opportunities in NZ pottery groups. He might be available for possible inclusion in our club night program.


We had an invitation from Mt Pleasant community Centre for us to participate in their Saturday market late last year. We will approach the and request some more details.


Class numbers are good and we may get another beginners class on Wednesday night: details to be confirmed by Leigh-Ann, soon. Leigh-Ann is going to split the large bags of clay into smaller weights, especially for beginners who may not get to use all the clay in a large bag. Details at your first class.


Tuesday club days: Graham will open in the morning (it might be a little after 10.00am); pop over to the office and ask Vivianna for the key if I'm late.
Ken will open in the evening. If you're the last one in the room, please make sure that the lights are off, windows are closed and the place is tidy before you close the door. Go to the office and ask Vivianna or Mary Ann to set the alarm code.


Subscriptions were due after the AGM, so, if you've put off paying them until now, please do so. $65.00.


Renata is running an intensive wheel throwing class which is nearly full on a Friday and Saturday once a month. Details are on the web site; one place, Saturday and  two places on Friday are still available. Be quick as this is a wonderful opportunity to develop better skills in a small class environment; practising what you've learnt between monthly lessons.


We are planning to approach Halswell club again to have a wood firing this year and we've been in touch with Rangiora regarding a salt firing; see the club program on the web site.


The Hub has advised that we can have free WIFI in our room; we will get a router and set it up soon. Brenda said that Wifi and youtube were an asset for tutoring the children during her holiday program.

​Good potting - Graham (Secretary)

Hi Potters,
 
It’s time to dust off ya pots and Raku….
 Hope you have had a great break
 
Raku firing is planned for Saturday 2nd February -  10am start.
 
Bring along;
1.  Any bisque pots you want to Raku 
2.  Any combustible material you want to use – paper (especially the junk mail coloured leaflets), saw dust 
Glazes will be available to use – both crackles and our new Raku glazes 
I do have a number of metal containers to use – but bring some along if you can 
Shared morning tea 
              $5 for the day – this covers the glazes and gas 
Any issues or enquiries – please contact me leighanno@gib.co.nz
 
No firing in March as I am away
 Looking forward to catching up with everyone – even if its only for a coffee.
 
Cheers - Leigh-Ann