Marriage Meant A Change Of Career

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30130, 14 May 1963, Page 2

Marriage Meant A Change Of Career

Marriage to a New Zealander whom she met while he was studying at Leeds University caused a change of careers for a young English woman now living in Christchurch. Pottery-making and design, and the teaching of these crafts, had been the original intention of Mrs Susan Wickham after she gained her national diploma of design at the Bradford Regional College. Instead, she married Dr. G A. Wickham, who is at present carrying out research work in the wool science department of Lincoln College, and arrived in New Zealand with her husband and baby daughter in February. Mrs Wickham has not had a chance to do any pottery work since her arrival, but is looking forward to setting

up a potter’s wheel and getting back to work. “Only as a hobby now, though; I'm quite happy with my new career,” she said last evening. Her diploma course took four years, - said Mrs Wickham. After the first two years, in which various fields of art and craft were covered, she decided to specialise in pottery and textile printing. But pottery was her main interest,, and from pressed and moulded dishes she graduated to the potter’s wheel and designing and decorating her otyn ware. “Sometimes a shape is designed on paper first; usually you set out with a general idea and a piece of clay —and just make it.” she said. Problems of packing and transport caused Mrs Wickham to leave most of her work in England, but a few special pieces have made the journey to the Wickham’s new home. One of the most striking is a large, oval dish of red earthenware. The full-length figure she had worked on it had been inspired by pictures she had seen of some Byzantine mosaics, said Mrs Wickham.