Hosted in the studio of generous friend and fellow artist Lee Woodman, The Potters Refuge is the mind child of the amazing Annie Mackenzie. A getaway from the hustle and bustle of Clay Week, The Refuge is a cozy quiet lounge with comfy seats, warm food and hot drinks. Gather around and meet your fellow potters in a relaxed calm setting. Pop in for one of our film nights during the week or pull up a chair and take a look at our extensive pottery reading library.

The Potters Refuge is a place to unwind and recharge. Please be considerate of others inside.

Discover the Pottery Showcase, part of Nelson Clay Week! With 20 small exhibitions displayed in shop windows around town, this self-guided experience highlights the incredible work of local potters. Each showcase is mapped out, allowing you to explore Nelson while appreciating the artistry on display. Don’t miss this chance to enjoy pottery in unexpected spaces throughout the city!

Download a map of the showcases here.

Nelson's art galleries proudly present a range of carefully curated exhibitions and retailers within the CBD have come on board to enable us to showcase the ever-growing talent of Aotearoa's clay community.

To find out more about the showcases check out the City Gallery Exhibitions

The Heart of Clay Week, Potters Square is our interface between the public and the potters. A place for potters to catch up, share and demonstrate their skills.

A place for the public to get ‘hands-on’ with clay each day and contribute toward the creation of a large-scale public community artwork.

Grab the kids and bring them down to the clay table to get creative!

Arts Council Nelson and Forsyth Barr are thrilled to invite everyone to  Pushing Clay  – Forsyth Barr Ceramics Award & Exhibition  2024

An exciting opportunity for artists to stretch the boundaries of clay practice and challenge the more traditional views of this medium. Artists who work solely with clay, or clay as their main raw material in their mixed media practice, are invited to use any technique of their choice to create two or three-dimensional pieces.

Come and celebrate the awards and find out who takes away our awards this time!

With a top prize of $8,000 and two cash prizes of $1000 for runners up generously sponsored by Forsyth Barr, Pushing Clay 2024   hopes again to invigorate practitioners to push the limits, push their practice and innovate.

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Head up the hill to the Perception Gallery and join Charles for a cup of tea, a chat and a wander through his beautiful Victorian-era house stacked with ‘rather different things’. History, prehistory and the future collide with mermaids, politics and childhood memories in an all-embracing medley of objects and artworks made and collected over the artist's life. The antithesis to our perceptions of what a Gallery should be.

Join Charles for a tour at 10am, followed by scones and tea at 11am. Visitors are welcome to drop in anytime between 10am and 2pm.

Ceramics, Painting, Glass, Wood, Weaving and Sculpture.

Our opening event will feature the Potters Market alongside Potters Square in the main street of Nelson where artisans from near and far will gather to showcase and sell a huge assortment of their fabulous wares.

Please contact us if you would like to have a stall at the market.

Show up, join in and throw down for an afternoon of entertainment and a showcase of pottery skills that definitely matter. Yes thats right, its The very first official NCWPSO live at Potters Square, hosted by two very special guests. All competing to be the other best potter in the world, sign up to take the stage and partake in the glory and great spot prizes. Open to all, but event entries are limited.

Sign up to be involved!

Join Clay Week co-organisers Thom Baker, Jim Squigley and guests on the couch for lively conversations from the depths of the Kiln.

An extremely unique opportunity to access key artists of Ngā Kaihanga Uku - the Māori clay artist collective.

Watch as the artists create works, screen a powerpoint and engage in conversation with the audience. 

Hosted throughout the day in 3 x 2 hour sections. Giving the audience the opportunity to follow their favourite artist or all artists.

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Session Times

10:00am -12:00pm
12:30pm - 2:30pm
3:00pm - 5:00pm

‍Artists

Carla Ruka
Todd and Karuna Douglas
Baye Riddell
Elijah Revell
Dorothy Waetford
Wi Taepa
Piri Cowie

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Get your pottery body limber and mind centred with Tai Chi Ch’uan and Qigong Instructor Anne Marie. In these sessions we will be introduced to calming  breathing and body exercises. This particular qigong will be targeting some specific parts of the body that will help with shoulders and neck, strengthen the spine, straighten the spine, gently massages internal organs, fatigue, beneficial for arthritis, and also improves coordination. Ideal for beginners - advanced  wanting to prolong your potting career.

Anne Marie Fowke-Stayner will be leading participants through the following:

Introduction of Tai Chi and Qigong

Breathing and warm ups

Ping Heng Qigong

Geologist and historian Dr Mike Johnston will talk about the clay deposits of the Nelson and Tasman region.

The region’s geology is the most varied of any part of New Zealand and it is the weathering of some of these rocks that have given rise to a number of different types of clay. Because the region is dominated by mountains shaped by physical rather that chemical weathering most of its clay deposits are relatively small.

Nevertheless, it was the variability of the clay deposits and their properties that beginning in the 1960s was one of the key components in the outstanding growth of craft potteries in the region.

To many potters the search for clay deposits, however, small that allowed them to create their own style of pottery was almost as satisfying as producing the final article. Unlike today it was also a time when New Zealand attempted to be self sufficient in as many commodities as possible. In this talk Mike will outline how the geological units that gave rise to the more important deposits with their varied characteristics were formed. These ranged from clays in Nelson city that because of impurities and a tendency to shrink on firing were largely used to make bricks to in the Tadmor valley and at Puramahoi in Golden Bay high quality kaolinite derived from the weathering of granite that was in demand to manufacture insulators and other high quality products.

Come and hear clay tales from two mates who've travelled far and wide to be with us!

Jack Troy and Hamish Jackson make pots rooted in the traditional values of England and Japan. Both have a preoccupation with natural materials and processes in both making and firing.

Jack taught English in high school and college before becoming a potter.
He has continued as a writer and teacher for many decades, publishing books on salt glazing and wood firing. He lives in Pennsylvania, starting the ceramics programme at Juniata College, where he taught for 39 years.

Jack has led more than 260 workshops worldwide, including a two-week workshop in Nelson in 1983.

Halfway through his undergraduate literature degree, Hamish realised he wanted to become a potter. He started out at Winchcombe Pottery in England, then completed a four-year apprenticeship with Mark Hewitt in North Carolina, followed by an MFA from Utah State University. He works as a studio potter and has exhibited widely, including in Europe, Japan, Thailand, and New Zealand. Hamish focuses on using local materials in his work. He seeks to make pots that people love to use and connect them to the landscapes where his materials come from. He is also a tea enthusiast.

The two potters will have a small exhibition of work at Wall to Wall Gallery, 112 Bridge St, Nelson, for the duration of clay week.