Publications

"Ceramics Today "

Ceramics Today is the latest reference on contemporary ceramics and contains a stunning collection of innovative and diverse ceramic art. Over 120 artists from around the globe share the inspiring influences that drive them year after year to create art using clay, accompanied by 464 striking colour photos from small objects for use and ornamentation to large-scale sculpture. The artists are presented in alphabetical order and include three New Zealanders, Nicola Dench and Cate Pates from Wellington and Nadja Engelbrecht from Invercargill. What sets this book apart from many other books on ceramics is the inclusion of artist's statements. The reader is given a deeper understanding of why some people make art, reflecting the interests, concerns, values and the aesthetics of people around the world just as it has done dating back into antiquity. Some artists have included information and discussions on working methods for individual pieces making this a useful resource for ceramic artists. The book is a beautiful pictorial reference that will become prized by ceramic art collectors, dealers, galleries and artists alike.

The book can be ordered from Capital Books, 110 Featherston Street Wellington, email info@capitalbooks.co.nz or direct from the publisher Schiffer Books

The website link is http://www.schifferbooks.com/newschiffer/book_template.php?isbn=9780764334658

"NZSP Calendar 2010-2011 "

Especially prepared by NZSP Council

This excellent calendar features 12 NZSP members who have been nominated by members in their region. The calendar include a photograph of their current work plus a photo of each artist and a statement from them.

This is a class publication designed to both promote the artists involved and bring in a few dollars for the society.

You may purchase this from the secretary (Anita Barlass - anita.barlass@xtra.co.nz) for a mere $15.

Click here if you would like to download a pdf file (5mb) showing exactly what is included in the calendar.

"Cone Ten Down "

Studio Pottery in New Zealand 1945-1980

This beautifully written and photographed book is a tribute to New Zealand pottery and potters at the height of their craft through the 1960s and 1970s
.
Veteran potter, curator and writer, Moyra Elliott is joined by curator and art historian, Dr Damian Skinner and renowned photographer, Haru Sameshima to produce Cone Ten Down; a book destined to become an art lovers classic.

In the halcyon days of the ‘60s and 70s, everyone was a potter – or if they weren’t, they certainly knew one. Craft shops were plentiful and the pots produced were earthy in colour and in texture, domestic in scale and intended for use.  Potters embraced the rural lifestyle, and the weekend drive to the country became an opportunity for urban dwellers to purchase their own small symbol of the alternative lifestyle.

Sales are via good bookshops like Parsons or local art gallery shops or direct from the publishers...
David Bateman Ltd, Tarndale Grove,  Bush Road, Albany, Auckland.

"Claynews"

The NZ Potters Inc newsletter published regularly and posted to all members at no charge.

"Potters Beware "

A New Zealand publication that addresses the dangers of many of the raw materials and chemicals that potters use in their glaze making.

Email an NZP Council member for more information about this booklette

"Then and Now"

ONLY $20.00

Articles by:
Brian Gartside, Lawrence Ewing Neil Grant, Moyra Elliott, Sue Newitt
Margaret Ryley, Anna Scott-Davidson, Lynda Harris, Peter Lange, Paul Winspear, Greg Barron, Peter Stichbury, Barry Brickell, Walin Elliott ....And more

The book also includes some recent Potters Marks that have been collected.  Some old articles from the NZ Potters Magazine.

*Price - $20.00 each includes postage
Wholesale - $12.00 for orders of 10 or more books.

ISBN: 978-0-473-14895-9

Download an order form

"Marks of New Zealand Potters"

A Comprehensive Directory 2007
Published by NZ Potters Inc

ONLY $29.95

A timely and invaluable guide for dealers and collectors, illustrating over 1500 of the marks used by New Zealand Potters and Ceramic Artists from 1930s to 2007 and published in a convenient handbook format.

*Wholesale price for bulk orders on application to NZ Potters Inc

ISBN: 978-0-473-12763-3

Download an order form

"Len Castle, Potter".

Book Review from the New Zealand Herald, Monday Dec 2, 2002.

$99.95. Published by Sang Architects, 11 Glenfell Place, Epsom, Auckland, 1003.
Reviewed by Peter Simpson (an associate professor of English at the University of Auckland.)

"A pictorial, potted history of one of our greatest potters"

This 250-page, handsome volume demonstrates conclusively that potter Len Castle is one of New Zealand's living treasures. He has continuously achieved world standards in a career that has lasted more than 50 years, and is one of this country's few truly great artists. It is a piece of good fortune that this beautiful book can be enjoyed while the artist is in full possession of his creative powers, not a decade or two after his death.

The book is somewhat unconventional as it has no author as such. It is a
miscellany of brief "chapters", many written by Castle on various periods and activities in his life, under such headings as "1947 - 1955 The Salt Glazed Pots", or "1966 - 67 First Visit to Japan", or "Sea Secrets and Fossils" and so on.

Castle is an excellent writer and one occasionally wishes these brief entries were longer as they are informative and eloquent. For example, on the nature of the bowl: "Bowls are my favourite forms, they are basic to everyday needs and historically, common to all cultures. They have tactile appeal, provide easy access to their contents and can show a stimulating relationship between the contained and the container. They offer the eye an opportunity to appraise their inner and outer surfaces. Between base and rim they may turn in on themselves, or from their feet, flare, so the eye travels beyond the rim with the suggestion that they are penetrating space."

Parts of the text are written by others, as with T.J. McNamara's essay
"Ascent" in 1969, or Douglas Lloyd Jenkins' essay about the 1950s, taken
from the catalogue of "Let the Molecules Dance", a Castle retrospective
exhibition held in 1994.

The most extensive essay, "Len Castle, Artisan and Alchemist", a biography by Nancy Pel, is especially valuable. Using photos, including one of 3-year-old Len making vigorous use of his mother's rolling pin, it explores Castle's family background, including generations of artists and craftsmen.

The text is fully adequate, but the photos are the book's chief glory. More than a dozen photographers are credited, including Brian Brake, Steve Rumsey, Howard Williams and the potter himself.

Some show Castle at work in his environment, such as the fine black-and-white shot of him laden with pots striding a path against a background of Titirangi kauri, while others are studies of landscapes and natural features from the environs in which he has lived, worked and drawn his inspiration.

Most of the images are of the many dozens of pots in all their protean colours, shapes and textures. Often, the juxtapositions of pots and of nature are apt and revealing, as in the placing of an image of a vivid orange, lichen-coloured stone next to a lipped bowl with similar tonings, or the many spectacular photos of volcanic and geothermal landscapes juxtaposed with the scarlet and turquoise glazed bowls of Castle's recent series.
Pictorially, this is the best book on a New Zealand artist I have seen.
It is a visual feast.

Courtesy Rodney Times (8.10.02)