Rangiora Pottery Club
Sorry we don’t have a lot to say, hopefully this is ok.
We have had a busy January with 3 glaze development workshops where 30 odd club members and class students worked on making some new cone 6 glazes. These were very successful and now we have the difficult job of narrowing it down to the ones we are going to use regularly.
We also had a workshop on how to make molds.
In the day to day club activity we are all starting to think about what we might make for our club exhibition in September.
We have done some successful fundraising and are looking forward to our new kiln arriving next month.

Halswell Pottery Group
The Halswell Pottery Group has had an exciting start to 2022. From the 11th – 13th February we celebrated our 50th anniversary with an exhibition and a lunch. We held the exhibition at our cottage, which was fantastic as we were able to put on public demonstrations alongside the exhibition. We even dusted off our old Leach wheel and had fun trying out throwing without electricity! Not deterred by the rain, the exhibition received a fantastic response – children and adults alike enjoyed having a go on the wheel and lots of visitors walked away with works they had purchased. Selection of pots for the exhibition was done by Shona Clarkson and Gaye Morton, two of our life members.
For the exhibition we also converted our gallery space into a ‘retrospective’ exhibit, showcasing work made by past and present members over the last 50 years. It was fascinating to see the evolution of the long-standing members over their years of potting. To round off a great weekend, we had a celebratory lunch with founding member Ngaire Van Grondelle present to cut the cake. After a great start to the year, we are looking forward to more events, demonstrations, and special firings in 2022.

Canterbury Potters Association
CPA has recently purchased two new kilns with a grant from Pub Charities. One of the new kilns is a Pot Clays EP56 front loader and while we have only done a bisque firing in it so far, we are thrilled with its performance.
Our club rooms have recently had a make-over and the response from our members has been very favourable. The new layout is more open and presents a very welcoming environment.
Upcoming events include:
Raku firing – Saturday 26 February 2022
Tutors’ workshops – Sat 30 April and Sunday 1 May featuring, Jane McCulla, Alyse Oliver, Hugh
Rickard and Mary Lou Foate.

Mt Pleasant Pottery Group
Time for some updates on what is going on at the Club, and dates to put in your diaries. The year is off to a positive start with lots of active members, and all classes full. Because there are so many new members (welcome!) we will go over some of the ‘basics’ in this newsletter. Bear with us if you know it inside out.

Lesley Adams, Co-Chair.
Just a small paragraph from me. Last year I became aware that the MPPC committee needed some more help and offered to be of assistance where I could. This resulted in helping alongside Angu Chen and taking on the shared roll of Co- Chair. This is very much an administration roll for the club as I have only a few years of pottery experience, having started with the club around 2019. I am thoroughly enjoying learning more about how a pottery club runs and am getting a better understanding of how much work is involved. I am also enjoying learning a lot about pottery on the way and slowly gaining more knowledge and practical experience through attending a monthly wheel class. I am always happy to help so if you have any questions or just want a chat, feel free to say hi.

Angu Chen, Co-Chair
Welcome to the new year of potting! My name is Angu and I kind of fell into this role. I have been potting for over just a year and am really enjoying it!  As a co-chairperson my goal is to improve the community within our club and among potters. In my spare time, when I am not working or potting, I enjoy a bit of tramping and climbing etc. Otherwise you are most likely going to find me on a Tuesday night struggling on the wheel or a Thursday night chatting to classmates! Kia kaha team and stay safe.

Hakatere Pottery Club
We are still experiencing a high demand for pottery classes from mainly young women. At our last committee meeting we discussed the issues around teaching students our lovely art form and although we could accommodate a hand work class with the current social distancing rules, it was decided to put all classes on hold until this new COVID variant settles down again. There is a high likelihood one of the students or tutors picks up omicron which would effectively put an end to a class part way through. Club nights have been quiet with many choosing to stay away. Many members are working from home though, so our kilns are still fairly busy. We were looking forward to Fiona Tunnicliffe visiting our Studio again early this year, but that is also on hold until things settle down as well. On one hand we are all seriously disappointed, but now we have something to look forward to, Fiona later in the year. We can only hope that things do settle down again pretty quickly as a high percentage of our population have thought about themselves and others health,  had vaccinations plus boasters, so that our hospitals can cope with the ones who are affected badly and still be able to operate as a hospital should. Fingers crossed our Exhibitions will go ahead this year. From us to all other pottery clubs – let’s have a fantastic year and support and nurture existing and new potters.