Coromandel potter's charity fundraising leads to employment for others

Jenny Coyle outside her new studio for pottery classes in Tairua. Photo / Alison Smith

Fundraising for less fortunate Kiwi kids has led to a thriving new business for Tairua potter Jenny Coyle.

Jenny wanted to support Kidscan - the charity focused on the one in five Kiwi kids affected by poverty.

She owns Wood Bay Studio in Titirangi, where she employs a young woman to help run her pottery lessons for kids and adults.

Having holidayed in Tairua for 40 years, she decided to split her time between the Coromandel town and Titirangi and saw an opportunity at her new location in Tairua to fundraise for charity through her craft.

"The fundraiser was for two weeks and raised $2000, but it went so well, and I've loved it," she says.

The fundraiser led others in town to give suggestions for a studio space to rent, and word soon spread about the potter offering lessons.

Now Jenny has employed a local woman to help with delivering classes, from a studio on the main road of town.

"Synchronicity happens and I meet the right people at the right time," says Jenny.

Within weeks Jenny had a waiting list of people wanting to try their hand at pottery, and is hopeful of finding some volunteers.

She says pottery promotes creativity and playfulness.

"It is helping people to heal themselves. They're turning off from the world. I do think when you are more emotionally balanced in your life, you are more healthy physically," she says.

Jenny believes in setting intentions for what she wants to bring more of in life and wrote in a "goal book" that she wanted to help parents be more relaxed. Through pottery she realised she had done that.

"Everybody can do it. Anything is achievable for anyone. It's very satisfying, you have a lump of mud and in the end it's totally transformed. Even beginners that come to classes can learn to throw."

The studio in Tairua is simple and earthy, with equipment for learners to experiment with their creativity. She has opened a small gallery next door featuring artworks of the various people she's met through the doors, and now has a total of five teachers working for her in Titirangi and Tairua.

Jenny Coyle outside her new studio for pottery classes in Tairua. Photo / Alison Smith

What do people need to bring out the artist within them?

"Just trust the process and go with the flow," she replies. "So if they're creating a cup and it turns into a bowl - celebrate that. Enjoy art and be in the moment."