Portage win gives rise to hope of career path for student

Bridie Henderson. Photo / Supplied

The winner of this year's Portage Ceramic Awards, a student and part-time cleaner from Nelson, had to borrow money from her parents to pay for the Cook Strait ferry fare so she could deliver her fragile entry to Lopdell House in west Auckland.

Bridie Henderson, 25, the youngest person to win the Portage in its 11-year history, received the $15,000 prize on Thursday night for her work, Feathers, a trio of delicate porcelain feather necklaces mounted in frames and lit by LED strips.

Henderson is nearing completion of her three-year diploma in ceramic arts, studying "by distance" through Otago Polytechnic via online courses and tutors and workshops in the Nelson district. She has been slowly building up a pottery collection "but not necessarily the making of it".

"I used to work in a cafe and I decided I wanted to study an art course but I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do," she says. "I used to have a Thursday evening class which was just learning the basics and having a go and that's where I found out about doing the course.

"I still have to work as a cleaner but there are good things about it. Cleaning keeps you really fit which helps me quite a bit with throwing and I get to see some really beautiful houses and that can inspire me quite a bit."

Each of the three pieces in her winning work comprises 24 feathers, and there was some breakage in the making, which involved rolling out a thin slab of porcelain, cutting the feather shape, making the tiny coil that goes down the centre, carving the lines then the firing at Craft Potters in the township of Hope near Nelson.

"I made six necklaces and I risked it and put them all in the one kiln. I went up to 1280 degrees for about an hour and a half. Craft Potters is a community-based place so there are always things that can mess you up like a bit of glass stuck on the kiln shelf that sticks to the feather. That happened a couple of times but I get quite good at accepting that, maybe, it might not come out perfect but I'll give it a go."

Winning the Portage has encouraged Henderson to consider ceramics as a career path.

"I was going to get a job but I think the award is pushing me towards keeping a part-time job and giving this a real go."

Judge Janet Mansfield, a leading Australian potter and president of the International Academy of Ceramics, says her first round of choices for the Portage finalists came after scanning images of about 300 entries, which she whittled down to 50. She then flew over to Auckland to view the works first-hand, not knowing the names or backgrounds of entrants.

"What struck me about the winner was the finish," she says on the phone from Sydney. "They are beautifully made and the attention to detail was really good. When they are on the wall, the light will really show them to advantage."

Mansfield was also full of praise for the $2000 second prize-winner, Hokitika potter Chris Weaver's Made to Measure teapot which she described as "good functional work ... with a little bit of whimsy".

Merit winners ($1000 each) were Cheryl Oliver, Tauranga, Maureen Alison, Whangamata, Kirsty Gardiner, Masterton, and Brendon Adams, Auckland.

Exhibition

What: The Portage Ceramic Awards

Where and when: Lopdell House Gallery, Titirangi, to December 4