WOMEN AND CLAY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 24, 8 December 1939, Page 42

WOMEN AND CLAY

A Future Secondary Industry?

DISPLAY ‘in the Women’s Section of the Centennial Exhibition that is interesting many women is the "PAKA" pottery. Two women are in partnershipMiss Olive Jones, of Auckland, and Miss Matheson, of Havelock North. Pots of every shape and size and colour-pots for use and ornament-are there. Decorative bits, toorecumbent figure book-ends or animals curled and sleeping. Much design, also, has been adapted from the. Maori motifs-taken

directly, though in some cases not directly enough, from the carvings of wood and greenstone that are authentic native art. There is a canoe scoop, used for bailing out canoes, that is a replica of the large wooden one of the native. Many Maoris stop to admire her work and. became very excited at sight of their native designs. Quite lovely is a set of table napkin rings, in delicate colours and set daintily with manuka spray. These are gifts worth giving or receiving — especially for overseas visitors to our shores.

Flowers, Snakes and Frogs Flower motifs are used — and snakes, frogs, lizards — to decorate trays for ash or coffee service. "Do you use New Zealand clay?" I asked Miss Jones. "Oh, yes. Oamaru clay is splendid. " Occasionally, in some of the finer work, a little imported china clay is added. Good glazes are not easy to get though — and some of my best colour blending is accidental." "What’s popular?" I asked. "Oh, the "bedroom" colours — pinks and blues — of course," she said; "I get heartily sick of them!" I looked at the lovely mellowed mustards, honeys, greys and brackenish browns and had to admit them by far the more beautiful. What a pity we cannot be more subtle in our decoration. I asked Miss Jones how she came to choose an unusual career. She said she was always interested in making things of clay. " But most children are, aren't they?" she added. "When I was tiny I used

to fill pipi shells with clay and put them along the window-sills to dry. I loved turning them out and finding their firm, symmetrical shapes." "So you went straight on with it?" In An Old Shed "Oh, no — I didn’t: When I was about eighteen I made an old shed into a workroom and made some experiments. But I found myself doing Y.W.C.A. work instead — and for years. Teaching handcrafts, of course, was interesting. But then I got away to England — and real study." "So you studied there?" "Yes, London — for two years’ really solid work. I was older than the other students. They didn’t

take it very seriously, but I knew what I wanted. Then I was in the Stokes Works. When I was first taken over it I met Old Tom and Mary." "Who are they?" "Oh, they’re characters! Priestley mentions them in one of his books. Old Mary is a potter, but in the works she never uses her. hand. She works the treadle. ‘Hup! Mary!’ ‘Down! Mary!’ Old Tom calls — and she lifts a foot and drops it again, "That sounds stupid and needless and depressing to me." "Yes. It depressed me too. But one thing was fun. Old Tom asked me if I'd like to make a piece of china, and of course I did. When I'd finished: ‘Sign it!’ he said, and I wrote my full name proudly across the bottom. ‘You sign it too,’ I said, ‘you helped.’ He cut two tiny initials on the edge. I have it still — a piece of Wedgwood — made by me!" Here in the hands of two women, I thought — and there are others plying their small trades up and down the country — is a future New Zealand Secondarv Industry of importance.

A.R.