ABOUT

Jo Raill

Tutor
Bachelor of Horticulture, Diploma Teaching, Diploma Ceramics, Diploma Fine Arts

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I started making with clay thirty years ago. I like using the pottery wheel and hand building big sculptures.

 I find beauty in the wildness of New Zealand bush. Tangled vines, chewed up leaves, ferns spilling out of clay banks, disorder excess and imperfection everywhere but at the same time the bush is a perfectly balanced ecology.

Hand building with clay gives me a way of expressing ideas about my environment. Sometimes this is exhausting and to relax I head to the pottery wheel making simple forms like mugs or bowls. The pots start off being perfect but often end up altered because imperfection to me is more beautiful than the flawless.

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My studio and gallery is at Half Pint Pottery where I teach  hand building and some pottery wheel workshops.

I  also teach one night a week at  Auckland Studio Potters.

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Jo Raill (@joanneraill) • Instagram photos and videos

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Tutor
Bachelor of visual arts, Diploma of ceramics

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After studying ceramics at Otago Polytechnic, I worked as a ceramic technician at ASP and The Clay Centre while pursuing my own practice. This period sparked my love for teaching. My work is driven by curiosity and a desire to explore new techniques, which I enjoy sharing with students. It's always exciting to see how they develop and what ideas they bring.

I create domestic ware, displayed in the mug shop and sometimes at markets, as well as experimental pieces featured in our gallery, exhibitions, and competitions around New Zealand. Some of my work can be seen on my Instagram page: 

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Aidan Raill (@aidanraillceramics) • Instagram photos and videos

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