For many, such as Tegan Bray, the artist behind business Tegan Makes, pottery started out as a creative outlet while raising her young family. She never imagined it would evolve into becoming her own boss.
Bray had dabbled in different forms of ceramics while completing a fine arts degree at Massey University, but it wasn’t until the Covid-19 pandemic that her distinctive style was forged.
“The lockdown happened and I was battling being hideously under-prepared without a craft project. So, I got some clay, and just started tinkering from home,” she said.
Tegan Makes’ signature use of speckled clay came about as a necessity due to material shortages of white clay during the pandemic, but has now become a distinctive selling point.
She hand-paints all the designs, many of which are inspired by her children.
“Suddenly, I was working every evening in between my infant daughter waking up and feeding and I would work till midnight every night.”
She was taken aback by people’s willingness to buy hand-made mugs when commercially available ones are cheaper, especially given the financial pressures from the rising cost of living.
She attributes pottery’s popularity to the so-called “lipstick effect”, an economic phenomenon where consumers seek out small affordable luxuries such as lipstick during times of recession.
“I have a lot of comments from people saying they love the ritual of picking their favourite mug in the morning, and getting excited to drink from it and starting the day that way.”
Penny de Jong, president of the Canterbury Potters’ Association, said there’s been a significant increase in membership in the association in recent years. She said it is encouraging so many young people are showing an interest in the craft.
“Pottery’s having a resurgence at the moment. Like all things, its popularity is cyclical. It was big in the 70s and 80s and we’re seeing it pick back up again now.”
CPA member Riley Fagan creates ceramics as a hobby alongside his job as a freelance video editor, but would like to eventually work with ceramics full-time.
He initially thought he would do this by selling his creations at markets, but quickly discovered his preferred style of work was too intricate and time-consuming to sustainably be sold at such a scale.
He found the city to have an excellent craft community that was large enough to build connections, but small enough to still stand out in.
Several of Fagan’s Instagram reels have gone viral on social media, garnering more than two million views between them.
He was surprised to find the vast majority of views were from international audiences, fuelling his hope to showcase his work to a global audience.
“There are people who travel around exhibiting their work. I hadn’t even really considered that as a possibility, but maybe one day,” Fagan said.
“I think I’m just going to keep making (social media) videos for now – the same type of stuff that people seem to enjoy watching and I enjoy making.”
By Jenn Lo
