Potters of distinction

Press, 15 June 1978, Page 21

Potters of distinction

Pottery is a personal craft. John and Anne Crawford have joined their personal commitments in a working relationship that gives them real satisfaction as a husband-and-wife team, and produces high-quality pots.

Four years ago they set up a small commercial pottery at Hector, 40km i north of Westport. Local | reaction was cool and the | Crawfords were uncertain of the outcome of their enterprise for some time. Now their distinctive pots are being sold throughout the country, they have participtaed in several national exhibitions, and local acceptance is enthusiastic. “People realise we are here to stay,” says John Crawford. On a strip of land between the road and the sea is the Crawfords’ gal-lery-cum-shop, with a large workroom behind. A notice says “Hector Pottery.” Across the grass is the house they lived in when they first arrived. Now they live in a newlybuilt house “a five-min-ute bike ride away” and the old house is used for storage and tea-breaks. Basic trailing Both the Crawfords worked at Waimea Pottery in Nelson for five years, and John Crawford was lucky enough to train under the well-known New Zealand potter Yvonne Rust while he was at Greymouth High School. Learning didn’t stop with the school bell. Teacher and students dug their own clay after school, and John says he “hung around” watching Miss Rust work long after pottery lessons finished. “You couldn’t find a better person to teach the basics of pottery.”

The years of training have paid off. In a setting that the Crawfords feel is “an ideal community for craft,” they produce “functional domestic stoneware” in forms that are durable but easy to handle. (John Crawford explains that in stoneware pottery the clay is “vitrified,” and reverts to stone, but in earthenware pottery only the glaze holds the pot together and gives it stability.) Local kaolin Every pot on display is pleasing to the eye, and asks to be used ■— teapots, mugs, wine cups and flagons, planters and salad bowls, in glowing terracotta and charcoal colours, soft slate blue, and a fresh grey-white with tan brushwork. This last glaze the crawfords feel to be a recognisable characteristic of their work. The kaolin for this glaze comes from Charleston and John Crawford does the brushed Japanese-style decoration. He often sees the shape of local driftwood and foliage in his designs, and feels this to be one of the big bonuses of their coastal environment.

Decaration is something they share, but every pot is “a 50-50 effort.” John does the wet work, Anne does the dry. There is no professi o n a 1 jealousy. They feel their relationship ta be an ideal one, and have refused offers of help from other potters. They just cannot see anyone else fitting into their workaday rapport. This sharing extends to domestic chores too. Better work The Crawfords welcome their isolation as being “the very best thing for any sort of craft.” In bigger centres they feel, artists and craft people tend to share their ideas, and have common themes running through their work. “Here in the wilderness,” says John, “we do our won type of work. We tend not to work more, but to work better.” Another asset to potting in Buller, and one of the main reasons for their settling there, is the

wealth of raw materia' available. As well as loc kaolin, the Crawfords gan excellent clay fro nearby Waimangaro which is exceptional good for oven and tab ware and has the chara teristic of altering th glazes to produce unusu; effects. The Crawfords ar also looking forward t utilizing the silica sane and natural grogs in tl area. “As with any job,” sa John Crawford, “we hav to use discipline. We can do what we want, whe> we want. It’s not that sort of job. But because of its inherent demands, produc ing domestic pieces can be very satisfying.” The orderly racks of matching pots in the Crawfords' workroom is evidence of this discipline, but they still feel they have a basic freedom. They work to their own pace, accepting no orders from retail outlets but sending them a variety of “excitingly different things” when they are ready. Monthly firings The Crawfords fire their pots once a month in a huge brick diesel-fired kiln with 50cu. m of stacking space. The size of the kiln and the Crawfords’ sound basic training ensures that they have the minimum of disasters, but on very windy days the kiln can get out of congrol during the twelve-hour firings. Transport facilities to the markets are excellent, and the Crawfords find the air-freight service so dependable they don’t insure against breakage. In February of this year John and Anne Crawford were guest exhibitors in New Plymouth, at an exhibition mounted by the Taranaki Potters’ Group. They found the occasion a stimulating one, and are looking forward to an exhibition in Wellington in August. The work they are preparing for this showing includes pieces that are a departure from their usual style — decorated slabwork vases. On the whole, one cannot but agree with John Crawford’s comment on their delightful life-style: < “We feel we have a perfect partnership.”