Neil Gardiner's Paekākāriki electric kiln

Paekākāriki Potty about Potters: Neil Gardiner

This village on the Kāpiti Coast is becoming known for its ceramics, with a clutch of artists taking to the wheel. Neil Gardiner’s time as a potter here goes back to the establishment of Paekākāriki Pottery in the early 1990s – but he began in the wild wood kiln-making days of the early ’70s. Now Neil has reopened his studio gallery first Saturdays on the month, 65 Wellington Road. He speaks to Jude Walcott and Mark Amery on Paekākāriki 88.2FM’s Te Pae and introduces us to his studio and gallery, in pictures.

After training to become a potter in the 1970s, Neil Gardiner has enjoyed a varied and interesting potting career ever since, both in Paekākāriki and in other places in Aotearoa.

A family move in 1990 found them in Paekākāriki where Neil established Paekākariki Pottery (there were no other commercial potters in the village at the time). He sold his work through exhibitions, commissions, galleries, and direct sales through until 2009.

In 2021, Neil re-established a studio and returned to working with clay, in a part-time and relaxed manner, to re-explore shapes, surfaces and firing glazes in an oxidising environment using a smaller volume electric kiln.

Find out more about Neil here:

  • Bowls out of the kiln.
  • A photoboard of Neil’s early kiln and work.
  • Some recent volcanic style work.
  • In the workshop
  • Neil showing Mark the range of work for sale in the gallery.
  • The electric kiln
  • Examples of work in the gallery

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