Member's profile- Cecily Bull

Although I was first bitten by the pottery bug in South Africa in the late 1980's, it wasn't until I joined New Plymouth Potters in 2008 that I started to take pottery seriously. There is a steep learning curve between 'taking lessons' and becoming an independent potter and joining a club makes all the difference. The welcome and generous guidance of the 'Thursday group' really helped me find my way.
I've always been attracted by the earthy colours of fuel fired pottery and so learning to fire the club's gas kiln, under the patient guidance of Barbara Nicholls, Kathy Gates and Bev Rea, has been loads of fun. I recently acquired Trish Kane's gas kiln so now I'm enjoying getting to know the idiosyncrasies of my own little 'fire breather'.
Wheel work has long been my favourite and I think that there's little to top the satisfaction of throwing a beautiful bowl. However, when it comes to exhibitions like the Real Tart Challenges, hand-building with it's many different techniques more easily allows one to speak to a theme. The first exhibition that I entered was the 'Flora and Fauna' challenge in February 2010 when I was lucky to win the people's choice award for my Arum Lillies.
Over the course of 2011, I attended 4 workshops which taught me the skills that I'm using to make my current pieces-carved black fired tui. I learned carving skills from Manos Nathan during a workshop in Raglan, burnishing and black firing from Robyn Lloyd during our annual exhibition workshop in August, potting intuitively allowing the clay to be the guide from Mike O'Donnell in October and bird making from Suzanne Bloch-Jorgensen in November. It's amazing how so many apparently isolated learning experiences blended together to produce something completely unexpected.
My love of pottery continues to grow as there always seems to be more to learn. Potters are always such supportive people-keen to share techniques and hard learned skills. My thanks to all who have so generously shared their skills with me.