Having been in the landscaping business since leaving school I started doing stonework around Auckland. I got interested in film making and began making experimental movies. Cranking thousands of images against a wall in a dark room full of people dancing and playing music. Kinetic art, all about movement. I was in at the death of experimental film making, It was the end of an era, the new age of video was just around the corner.

 

 

I decided to do some paintings. A single frame on a wall depicting thousands of images depending on the way you looked at it, the time of day, the way the light falls. The movement all in your mind.

 

 

However the call of the wild, the East coast beckoned, blue skies, green hills and wild beaches lured me away. I ended up in a pottery down by the wharf in Tokomaru Bay making pots using the coil method. I graduated from there into the cray fishing industry. The best job I have ever had, charging in and out of the rocks and surf on the wild east coast, pots flying into the water, ropes snaking over the side, floats flying through the air, glimpses of magic scenery amidst the chaos of waves and the rattle of a 250 horsepower two stroke outboard as we leaped over the big sets that inevitably seem to arrive when you're working in close.

 

 

I moved into Gisborne, Surf City, The sweetest and most consistent waves in the country, beautiful clean empty beaches, good people and a laid back atmosphere.

 

 

To make money I started making concrete pots. I discovered a technique of plastering concrete onto the inside of moulds using surface tension to cling the concrete to the inside of the mould. I would later break the pot out of the mould and water blast the outside to expose the aggregate the concrete was made of. This was quick and easy and I could make pots of any size from small to huge. My largest pots were over four feet high and wide.

 

 

One day we lit a fire inside one and cooked some meat, smoked some fish and chicken. These things cooked and smoked beautifully but tended to fall to bits after a few firings. This led me on a quest to find fire resistant materials and a way to make the oven (and a few inventions we have up our sleeves) that you see on this website.