The Local - Mt VictoriaRowena Fry talks to the person making some delicate and sought-after pottery.
Folks out for a stroll in Matairangi-Mt Victoria might come across a garage, painted black, and adorned with a collection of what looks like pastel-coloured, ceramic flowers. But behind the door you won’t find a car or motorbike; instead, work surfaces, a sink, sacks of clay, tools, containers of glaze, and a kiln. On the far wall shines a work of art in itself; a magnificent colour palette display of close to 100 colours over just as many plates.
Angela Francis has been operating her ceramics studio, One of a Kind, on Brougham Street for the past five years. Originally an intermediate art teacher, ten years ago she decided it was time she started creating her own work.
It all started when she needed some porcelain clay for a jewellery project. A 10-kilo bag was the minimum purchase so she found herself with most of the bag staring back at her and just a basic understanding of ceramics from her teacher’s college days.
Angela’s husband murmured something about how they needed little plates to fit in their little dishwasher and the spark was lit. She could build her knowledge of pottery by challenging herself to make not just enough for their dishwasher, but enough for 50 dishwashers.
“I’d talked to someone who had made 1000 tumblers and that seemed like a good way to focus the mind,” she says. “So, I bought a little library stamp and I numbered them.” Not daunted by the grand number, she says she found it great fun and a year and a half later the project was completed.
Ten years later, Angela’s work is stocked in galleries around the country, as well as in Small Acorns on Blair Street.
Back up the hill, Angela says she loves her neighbourhood. Because her studio is right on the footpath, and next to Clyde Quay School, there is never a shortage of passing foot traffic and inevitable admiration and conversation. “I carry on with my work while a few people come in and sit down at the couch and chat. There’s a real sense of community.”
Her colours, as well as the petal-delicateness of her plates, bowls, and tumblers, is what draws people to her art. Angela works solely with porcelain; a fine, kaolin-based white clay that can be rolled to a thinner slab than the more common earthen or stoneware clays. Colour is added to the porcelain before she starts creating, meaning that the colour is solid all the way through each dish. And because Angela’s plates are formed on a slab rather than on a wheel, each dish has no alternative but to have its own, unique shape.
A humble creator, Angela clearly enjoys her craft. “Successful? I don’t know if I’m really successful, but I really like it and while I keep liking it I’ll do it. I might not do it forever.”
Once a year Angela opens her garage door for an official open day – this year it’s 10-1pm on Saturday 20 June. Otherwise, contact her through Instagram: one.of.a.kind.ceramics
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