My journey

I have a background in Fine Art which leaned heavy towards sculpture.

While at art school, a chance encounter with the work of Hans Coper changed my medium and direction generating an obsession for the potter’s wheel. My pieces hovered between fine art and studio ceramics, and I quickly became mesmerised by the wheels directness and it’s unforgiving limitations. It was something I wanted to master and utilise to create unique shapes.

After graduating, I made artistic rocking shapes (which became affectionally know as my ‘weeble wobble’ phase), before I was employed as a potter on Iona throwing tableware. It was here, in the Scottish Inner Hebrides, that I truly learnt the skills of throwing conventional cups and bowls on the wheel under the eye of a famous local potter. Then I moved to Dublin, where I was lucky enough to work in one of Ireland’s best pottery studios. Creating in this large-scale production studio day-in and day-out was where I mastered my craft even more, as I got to experience every stage in the process, and be surrounded by a talented Irish team. Later in London I was a commissioned potter, before heading home to expand my ideas.

However, after creating functional tableware overseas, I didn’t dive back into fine art objects – instead I was drawn to elevating functional forms with an element of fine art. My wares have been stocked in several outlets throughout New Zealand – from the Coromandel to Christchurch, and locally in Te Papa.

I currently work out of my ceramic studio (nick-named ‘The Ceramistry’) and still delight in the ceramic processes from making slip to loading the kiln. My days are happily spent on the wheel tumbling stumbling into my creative vice.

Let the journey continue…

Michael Robinson.