About

About Wigleyware

Kia ora! Wigleyware ceramics are hand made in my Te Whanganui-a-Tara studio. Each piece is cast in clay and hand-decorated with carving, incising, printing, painting and glazing. I work in small batches and don’t often repeat work. Each piece is a new combination of shape, colour, pattern and surface.

I’m inspired by the potters and potteries of the past who literally used the ground beneath their feet to make wares for their village or city. My current research into local potteries and the materials they used has lead to the development a range clay bodies using brick clay from my hometowns of Te Whanganui a Tara and Papaioea and fine white clay from further afield at Matauri Bay. I like to overlay the use of these traditional materials with brand new techniques such as rapid prototyping and silicon casting.

I love collaborating with people in different fields such as scientists, engineers and fashion designers to merge different sources of inspiration and knowledge to create new work.

I’m on a journey to make my studio more environmentally-friendly. My production is now almost fully zero-waste. I share information about this on my blog The Frugal Potter. My current focus is to transition as much as possible to using local materials.

Contact

Email Sarah at wigleyware@gmail.com with any enquiries.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Many thanks to photographer Kristine Zipfel for the gorgeous images of ceramics captured in and around Te Whanganui-a-Tara.