From the polytech at Whanganui, a young and brave potter named Paul Maseyk found his way to the Driving Creek Railway in Coromandel. Twenty years later, Maseyk fondly remembers his time among Barry Brickell's trains and wood-fired kilns.
"When I first went there, Barry had all his old steam-powered stuff, old industrial brick-working equipment," he says. "There was a pan mill, where you grind up dry clay. It has great big stone rollers. He had a jaw crusher that ground up old bricks, rocks and rubble from which you can make glazes. There was the pug mill, which squeezes out bricks ... everything was there, the clay was up in the hill. It's that rich, red terracotta coloured clay. When you wood-fire the pieces, they come out with lovely reds and browns."
Despite spending four years on and off at Driving Creek, Maseyk has a thoroughly modern style. His vases and pots have silhouettes informed by ancient Greek earthenware, but his decorations come from today.
"I started getting more and more detailed. I studied Greek pots ... I did a lot of Greek friezes around the necks of the vases. Around the bottom of the pot I put imagery from my day-to-day life, just as they did. My process is quite simple. I get the clay, make the pot and decorate it with slip [liquid clay]. I fire it with simple, clear glazes. Instead of using paint I use slip. You take some liquid clay and add stains and then paint with a brush or a slip trailer. I use red clay generally. Then I paint on a white slip which acts as a ground, then I paint the design, fire it once, glaze it and fire it again."
As well as his fine art ceramics, Maseyk also has a line of tableware available at places like Vessel in Wellington and Masterworks in Newton, Auckland, where his latest show opens tomorrow at 3pm. His cups and bowls are individually made and slip decorated.
