28—30 August 2026
Presented by Little Big Events at Toi Tauranga Art Gallery
Ceramics Artist Talks Workshops
Little Big Events is excited to introduce its curated boutique CLAY event on August 28th to 30th at Toi Tauranga Art Gallery. This inaugural event showcases the work of talented ceramic artists from across Aotearoa whose creativity and craftsmanship keep the art of pottery thriving in our communities. The three-day event will feature hands-on and creative workshops for all ages, meet-the-maker talks with the artists and the chance to shop for unique, handmade pieces from local and national ceramicists – plus so much more!
Welcome
Whether you’re discovering ceramics for the first time, or are a longtime collector, we invite you to take your time meeting the makers and enjoying the stories behind every handcrafted piece at the stunning Toi Tauranga Art Gallery.
CLAY - Open to public
August 29th-30th, 10am‑3pm Toi Tauranga Art Gallery Explore handmade ceramics, hear from the artists, and shop for handmade clay goods over two days at Toi Tauranga Art Gallery.
Friday Night Adults CLAY Workshop August 28th, 5.30pm-7.30pm Toi Tauranga Art Gallery
Friday evening VIP early access preview and beginners level adult handbuilding pottery workshop with Wonky Jane Pottery. Make two mugs, espresso cups, or tea cups. A drink on arrival is included with your ticket. Limited spaces available. Bookings are essential.
Children’s CLAY Workshops
August 29th: 10am-12pm & 1pm-3pm August 30th: 10am-12pm & 1pm-3pm Toi Tauranga Art Gallery
Event Schedule
Bring the kids along for a fun weekend workshop with Jesse from Paper Tiger Studio, where they’ll create their own mug, bowl or pencil holder while exploring their creativity with clay.
A Kōauau Ponga Ihu by Tristan Marler (Tao Mauī, Rarawa)
Manawa Tapu Tristan Marler
Profiles
Tā moko, whakairo rākau and toi Māori practitioner. Tristan Marler hails from Te Tai Tokerau (Far North) of Aotearoa. Working from his private studio in Titirangi, Tristan is a multi-disciplinary artist of 15 years. Under the guidance of master carvers, including Clive Fugill and James Rickard, Tristan studied the ancient craft of whakairo rākau (traditional Māori wood carving) at New Zealand Māori Arts & Crafts Institute in Rotorua. After spending seven years under the mentorship of close friend Thomas McMillan (TomTom Tattoo), Tristan now specialises in Tā moko (traditional Māori tattooing), whakairo, toi Māori and graphic design. Tristan’s knowledge and experience draws on his whakapapa Māori as he seeks to honour the past and explore the future of Toi Māori. @manawa_tapu manawatapu.co.nz
Goodwin Ceramics Larissa Goodwin-Wylie
Larissa is a ceramic maker living in Matamata, Aotearoa. She works at the intersection of craft and sculpture, creating functional pieces and home hardware shaped by organic lines and hand‑carved surfaces. Influenced by architecture, nature, and the places where they meet, her practice focuses on form, tactility, and the way objects invite use. Through Goodwin Ceramics, she makes small‑batch work that balances utility with a clear, grounded sense of material character and cohesive palette. @goodwinceramics goodwinceramics.co.nz
Brogan Handmade Pottery Brogan Houghton
Brogan is a ceramic artist based in Hamilton, New Zealand, creating wheel-thrown pottery from her home studio. Since discovering clay in 2018, she has loved the endless possibilities it offers and the opportunity to make beautiful, functional pieces for everyday use. Every item is carefully thrown, glazed, and finished by hand, making each one unique. Inspired by colour and pattern, her work is made to be used, loved, and enjoyed, bringing a little joy to the everyday. @broganhandmadepottery broganhandmadepottery.com
Slab Ceramics
Suzy is a ceramic artist based in Pāpāmoa Beach, Aotearoa. Her practice includes both sculptural vessels and functional ware, often featuring carved surfaces and layered materials such as pumice, sand, and ash that reflect ideas of trace, erosion, and accumulation over time. Suzy was introduced to ceramics while completing a degree in education, and grew up alongside her mother’s artistic and ceramic practice, which continue to inform her relationship with clay and making. Alongside her exhibition work, she maintains an active studio ceramics practice exploring the connection between sculptural and functional forms and creating work for her business, Slab Ceramics. @slab.ceramics
Photo by Adrienne Pitts
Suzy Granger
Ruth Anthea Vickers
Ruth Anthea Vickers is a New Zealand ceramic artist whose work spans both sculptural and functional pieces. Originally trained as a painter, she returned to clay, which has since become her primary medium. She holds an Honours Diploma in Art and Creativity and has exhibited nationally for many years. Her ceramic work has been selected for the Molly Morpeth Canaday Art Award, Uku Clay Award, Miles Art Award, and WaiCLAY, where she has also received exhibition awards for her work. She teaches both hand building and wheel at the Bethlehem Pottery Club and beginners and wheel extension classes at the Tauranga Pottery Studio. @ruthantheavickers
JS Ceramics Teresa McClean
Teresa McClean is the owner and maker behind JS Ceramics, a handmade ceramics studio based in Matua. After taking over the business in 2025, Teresa is guiding the studio through an exciting new chapter, with a new name and rebrand coming soon. Drawing on her background in graphic design, she brings a considered approach to form, colour and composition, creating contemporary ceramics designed to be used and enjoyed every day. Her collection includes both slip-cast and hand-built pieces, each finished by hand and made in small batches using her own clay mix, incorporating locally foraged sand to create a distinctive texture and connection to place. @js_ceramics jsceramics.nz
Vivid Pottery Kristina Rachacova
Kristina Rachacova is an experiential maker and painter from Rotorua. She constructs her works using a gestural process and a variety of clay bodies. Working with clay, Kristina acknowledges and brings into being a feminine side, its complexities and adaptability to navigate change while embracing life’s cyclical nature. These expressive vessels offer a sense of humility, practicality and understanding that touch, as our most dominant sense, allows us to experience this world, where the gestures embody the feminine traces of sensuality, strength, love, care and loss. Kristina looks forward to seeing you at the Toi Tauranga Art Gallery! @kristina.rachacova kristinarachacovaartist.com
PotsfromScots Caitlin Foulds
Originally from Glasgow, Scotland, Caitlin Foulds is a ceramic artist whose practice combines traditional craftsmanship with sculptural surface decoration. Introduced to pottery by her father during the Covid-19 pandemic, she creates wheelthrown ceramics enhanced with hand-modelled forms, inspired by Scotland’s landscapes and her Chinese heritage. Through expressive surfaces and functional objects, her work explores identity, connection, and the relationship between utility and sculpture. Caitlin was a semi-finalist in series 6 of the British television competition ‘The Great Pottery Throw Down’, an experience that strengthened her creative practice. She creates distinctive, handcrafted ceramics that celebrate the tactile nature of functional pottery. @potsfromscots
Sugar + Salt Studio Chelsea Graves
Chelsea is an Auckland-based artist and ceramicist, and the maker behind Sugar + Salt Studio. Originally trained in painting, her practice has now evolved into ceramics, where she combines painterly illustration and carving with functional forms to create playful, expressive pieces for everyday life. Drawing inspiration from the human form, colour, nature, and the cosmos, Chelsea’s work celebrates creativity, connection and the joy of handmade objects. Alongside developing her own studio practice, she teaches wheel throwing at The Clay Centre in Auckland, sharing her passion for clay and visual arts with budding makers. @sugarnsaltstudio sugarandsaltstudio.co.nz
Oneuku Pottery Dr Sandy Kerr
Dr Sandy Kerr is a Māori ceramic artist based in Tauranga Moana. He uri ahau nō Ngāti Hauā, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga, me Ngāti Maniapoto hoki. After a 30-year career as a kaupapa Māori researcher, she returned to clay and now works full-time through Oneuku Pottery. Sandy works with combinations of gathered and commercial clays from Aotearoa to create functional pottery and sculptural work. Her making begins with ideas and the thinking continues through the clay itself. The finished work is shaped as much by the materials and making as by the original idea. @oneuku.pottery
Sam Dickenson Ceramics Sam Dickenson
Sam is a ceramic artist based in West Auckland. Originally from the UK, Sam discovered pottery as a teenager and went on to further study, graduating with a BA in Ceramic Design from Central Saint Martins in 2000. She then set up her first ceramic studio and was a teacher in London for seven years before relocating to New Zealand. All these years later ceramics still intrigues and challenges Sam. Over the years, she has explored mould making, slipcasting, handbuilding and throwing. Sam loves the process and the challenge to work out how something is made. Her ceramic pieces embody soft tactile forms and deep, sumptuous, colourful and complex surfaces. Recently, she has been studying glaze chemistry and the subtle art of crystalline glazes. Sam’s relationship with the materials is key as she aims for a balance between restraint and spontaneity in both form and surface. The vessel form is both the canvas excited by colour and crystal exploration. Emotion and gestures quietly find their way into the work. @samdmakes
Paper Tiger Studio
Jesse is a Tauranga-born artist with a background in animation and graphic design. He first started pottery about four years ago as a hobby, but it has now completely taken over his life! Jesse loves to create tiny, hand-built sculptures, as well as functional wheel thrown pottery with a focus on simple design, combined with attractive glazes. When he is not in his home studio, you can usually find him teaching pottery at The Pottery Studio on 10th Ave, or occasionally selling his work at The Little Big Markets. @jesse_oldershaw
Workshop host
Jesse Oldershaw
Wonky Jane Pottery
Workshop host
Jane Edwards-Trask
Jane Edwards-Trask is a New Zealand potter, educator and creative whose work is deeply inspired by the ocean, connection and the beauty found in imperfect moments. After forty years of dance, performance and teaching, Jane now continues to use her creativity as a massive driving force and part of her identity. Through pottery, photography, floristry and writing, she creates meaningful experiences that invite people to slow down, notice the details and reconnect with themselves and the natural world. As the founder of Wonky Jane Creative, Jane embraces the idea that perfection isn’t the goal – slowing down and authenticity is. Her handmade ceramics celebrate organic forms and individuality, while her workshops encourage people of all ages to create with confidence rather than fear of getting it “right”. Whether she’s throwing clay on the wheel or teaching a workshop, Jane’s purpose is to create work that brings people together, sparks curiosity and reminds us that beauty often lives in the wonderfully wonky moments. @wonkyjane_potteryandblooms wonkyjanecreative.com
A special thank you to Toi Tauranga Art Gallery for hosting this inaugural event, to our sponsor Kale Print for their support, and to all of the talented ceramic artists involved. Thank you to the community for joining us in celebrating the art of pottery and ceramics. We hope you enjoy CLAY 2026.
On now at Toi Tauranga Art Gallery
Open daily 10am–3pm 108 Willow St, Tauranga artgallery.org.nz
Jaime Jenkins, Bells, 2016–2026, courtesy of the artist and Jhana Millers Gallery. Photography by Sam Hartnett.
Jaime Jenkins Almost Touching