Weekends of Kapiti Arts Trail, Te Horo Garden Trail and more excitements

 The first two weekends in November were taken up with being onsite at The Kilns at Te Horo for the 2025 Kapiti Arts Trail. 

It has been a bit of a mixed bag, good numbers of people but not much buying.  But still it has put my work on display again. 

These pieces are a bit of an example of my work currently, of which I managed to sell the little teapot and cup, the big bowl and a small bowl.  

Following that was the Te Horo Garden Trail and I has some pieces on display for sale and managed to sell another two pieces.  

Lots of great comments about the style and colour.  

So Sunday 23 Nov I am giving a little talk at Otaki Pottery Club about alternative firings called 'A Sodium and Silica Frolic' talking about salt/soda firing in the Hautere Kiln, leading up to some workshops and then a firing of the kiln. 

 

So the next couple of months are going to be busy!  

Signing off for now....

Safe travels everyone!

 

What is Nerikomi?

The project behind my residencies is creating a nerikomi slab and then using that to create a new series of domestic ware. Plates, bowls, cups, teapots, along with incidentals like salt and pepper, sauce jugs, napkin holders, spoon rests etc. These will be made using the nerikomi slab.
So what is nerikomi?

Nerikomi is a Japanese decorative pottery technique that involves combining and stacking different colored clays to create intricate patterns. The process often involves creating a block of laminated, colored clay, then slicing through it to reveal a pattern, which can be applied to a hand-built or wheel-thrown piece. This technique is also known as neriage when the colored clay is marbled together and then thrown on a potter's wheel, although nerikomi specifically refers to the hand-built method.

Also there is agateware

Agateware pottery features swirling marbleized colors and was probably first developed to imitate the qualities of agate, a semiprecious stone with striated patterning. These swirling effects can be created either by throwing with a prepared mixture of colored clays, or by working with thin slabs of colored clay that has been layered to create patterns.

I first came across nerikomi while I was at Driving Creek, Coromandel, when a wonderful potter Avara Moody came on a residency and held a workshop.  Her wonderful work involved making nerikomi pieces that were applied to the interior of a mould and then she slip cast cups with white clay, so when they came out the nerikomi was an integral part of the cup.

She can be found at https://avarastudio.com/ 
Her socials are:

https://www.instagram.com/avarastudio/

https://www.facebook.com/avarastudio/

So that sat in my design and ideas stack for a few years until I came across Judy McKenzie in a Nerikomi Masterclass video from Ceramic Review. WOW. 

  

Photos are used with the kind permission of Judy McKenzie. 

Photography by Layton Thompson and Ceramic Review.

Judy's socials:  Judy McKenzie Instagram

Judy McKenzie Facebook

What really grabbed me was the idea that I could create a geometric pattern in my slab and I then didn't have to glaze anything! 

This was at a time when I was having problems finding "my palette of colours".  I have since found a great combination of Bruce Walford Matte as a liner glaze and Arrowmont Blue Green as an outer with both sprayed. 

Arrowmont when sprayed is green when thin, and blue when thicker.....fun times. 

So.... part of the exercise is to create a geometric pattern in coloured clay...this could be an iconic pattern that is Fredrock Ceramics theme or might be a series of patterns.
This is the first exciting part of the journey.

The above are some designs that I am looking at for ideas. 

5 months and 5 day to fly time.....

Safe travels everyone, til next post.

Decisions, Decisions Pt 2

 When I finish at The Fish Factory at the end of May, 2026 I will be travelling south to the equator to ArteSumapaz south east of Bogota in Colombia.

So.... how to do that?

Leaving Iceland do I travel via a main city in Europe, via Spain, Portugal, Morocco?
There are options for travel via Heathrow, Madrid to Bogota.
Via Frankfurt to Bogota

Via Zurich to Bogota

Via Oslo, Istanbul to Bogota

Wow all these options!!

Any thought lovely followers??
  

Decisions, Decisions Pt 1

Kia Ora my lovely followers,

Today I have been exploring the many possibilities of flights from the South Pacific, to the Arctic, to the Equator and back. How to avoid transiting the USA, do I avoid the Middle East? Do I stop in London and visit the Victoria and Albert Museum? The options are numerous.
Auckland to Vancouver, to Keflavik?
Auckland to Dubai, to Stockholm to Keflavik
Auckland, Shanghai, Heathrow to Keflavik
Auckland, Hong Kong, Manchester to Keflavik

How to get from Keflavik to Stöðvarfjörður?
Do I fly or take the bus to Egilsstaðir , by bus one can see much more of the country close up?
Do I spend a night in Reykjavík before flying or taking the bus, spending a night in Akureyri to change busses?

The wonderful people at The Fish Factory will pick me up at Egilsstaðir for my two months residency.

Part 2 will be getting from Iceland down to Colombia.....stay tuned

Safe travels everyone.

And thus it begins........

 A couple of months ago I watched a video by Judy McKenzie, who is an amazing nerikomi artist.  This started me thinking....yes I know how dangerous this can be. 

So I started to throw a few ideas around in my head...loads of space to do that, and decided that I wanted to create geometric nerikomi slabs.  I will do a post on what nerikomi is soon.

I then decided that a new range of geometric domestic ware using these nerikomi slabs could be a good way to establish myself as a working potter again. 

Now...how to do this I asked my self?  If I stay in Aotearoa New Zealand to do a residency to develop this new pattern and design I will be constantly distracted......so off to Mr Google we go.  Residencies around the world.

So I flung applications hither and yon and far and wide and north and south.....and well!!  I was astonished by the result.  Within a month I had been accepted for 4 residencies.  Colombia, Iceland, Finland and Brazil, with Indonesia, France, Canada and Australia still outstanding.

After a great deal of discussion around Colombia and Iceland, the suggestion was made why not both!  So I asked to change the dates of Colombia to June, July and August, to fit in with April and May in Iceland.  The change was accepted so it looks like I am heading off next March towards the Artic for 2 months and then south to Colombia to thaw out for 3 months. 

Iceland will be the backdrop for my design of the nerikomi slabs, with the volcanic reds, oranges and greys and then Colombia with its amazing slab built La Chamba pottery, will be the drawing board for the design of a new range of domestic ceramics. 

Today marks the day that my application for funding goes in so will hear around the beginning of December as to the success of my application. 

 Watch this space for more fun and excitements.  

Safe Travels everyone

Frederick of Fredrock Ceramics.