Rag and Bottle Shop

Rag and Botte Shop is inspired by French and English porcelain and objects collected over time. Imagine an op shop at the end of the 19th Century in New Zealand. The Rag and Bottle Shop was London’s equivalent and mudlarking along the Thames would have been the next best option. Around this time the Huia were already endangered: the last official sighting was 1907. Many homes would have mounted birds in glass domes in the parlour. High tea was a regular event and the best tea service would come out for guests.

I have endeavoured to make some of these items with a twist of my own. They are whimsical yet serious: the drinking bowl cannot hold water and the extinct South Island Kokako bird doll is holding a sparrow. I like to think of the work as a trans-cultural mix of myths, ceramic archetypes and of course extinct birds.

The works are predominantly wheel thrown altered and hand made forms. The clay is mid fire porcelain and some of the pieces are assembled after firing.