PETRA MEYBODEN
My Pottery
Artist Bio
Petra Meyboden creates beautiful domestic ware; all the things you need in the kitchen. They are so beautifully light, balanced and earthy to look at. Their warm colour and decoration make them a joy to use. She also makes sculptures and many different totems for your garden. Some are very tall and look like Nikau's, others are different kind of birds and some are just shapes.
All her work is fired at stoneware temperature that is 1300 C. The domestic ware is oven, dishwash and microwave proof. She uses a gas kiln and a large wood fired kiln with two chambers where one chamber is a salt chamber. This means that you throw salt into the kiln at the end of the firing which has a reaction with the flames which take the salt through the chamber where the pots and sculptures are and creates a glaze that has a very special effect which we call salt fired. This is not often done by potters anymore.
Petras clay is stoneware clay. She mixes a little bit of Coromandel black jack clay into it to give it a bit more life and texture. She uses shino glazes and others, different slips for the salt chamber and most of her work is decorated. Mainly for the salt fired pots and sculptures she uses rolling stamps into the still moist clay that creates patterns. With other pots she pores, dips and sprays often many layers on top of each other. Her decorations are done with brush and slip trailer using slips and glazes.
Petra was borne in Germany and grew up in a very art and craft oriented family. The Steiner School she went to all her life supported and valued her artistic talents. She trained as a potter at Schmidt-Tummeleys Pottery on the Island Juist int North sea. She owned a studio in her home village Fischerhude for 10 years before moving to New Zealand in 1989 where she worked at Driving Creek Railway and Pottery for three years. Petra started up her own studio 'Puketai Pottery' just up the road from Driving Creek Railway and has been there since. It is a real experience and unexpected treat to visit her place.
"Puketai Pottery"
800 Driving Creek Road
p: 07 866 7906
e: petra@puketaipottery.com