The pioneer or first generation worked mainly in earthenware. Some potters were New Zealand born and gleaned their knowledge from travelling overseas to train or learned by trial and error. Some immigrant potters were brought to New Zealand to work in industrial situations.

Many of the second generation potters began working in earthenware during this period.

The second generation began working with clay after the war, many of them making earthenware pots, but their main influence, from around 1960, became the Anglo-Oriental tradition of high-fired, reduced stoneware.

Their ‘gods’ were Bernard Leach from the UK and Shoji Hamada from Japan (both of whom visited New Zealand), and their ‘bibles’ were Leach’s A Potter’s Book (published in 1940) and the American potter, Daniel Rhodes’ book Clay and Glazes for the Potter (published in 1957).

Rick Rudd has referred to this period as the ‘dark ages’ because there was a general dogma which was very restrictive.  Electric kilns, commercially prepared materials, slip casting and earthenware were looked down upon.  None the less, there were some wonderful pots made during this period which has been referred to as the ‘hey day’ of Aotearoa New Zealand studio pottery.

In the late 1970s the third generation began to rebel and by the 1980s a variety of firings from electric to raku were making their marks with slip casting and commercially prepared materials also making a return.

Craftsmanship and the qualities exhibited in the works were the goals.  The methods and materials used to achieve the results were not so important.

This generation was a mixture of immigrants often trained in Art Colleges, and Kiwis who had travelled being exposed to, and influenced by, what was happening in Europe and especially on the west coast of the USA.

During this period there were more influential potters visiting New Zealand, and the Fletcher Brownbuilt/Challenge Exhibition also brought pots and potters from overseas adding new influences.

Today’s generation fits into two main areas.

Some follow aspects of the previous generations but update them. Some come from quite a different direction. Expression and idea are their goals, technique and materials are unimportant.

The makers of today sometimes work in other media, clay is just one of the tools they use to express themselves.

Craftsmanship, to some extent, is much less important. Today, anything goes!

Rick Rudd
2015