Nga Kaihanga Uku at Driving Creek: Pupurangi Pendants – Todd Douglas

Starting with pre‑formed blocks of clay, participants will learn the processes of carving away to unveil a beautiful kauri snail shell pendant. Participants will have the time to repeat the process, and are welcome to bring their own shells. Todd will demonstrate modelling techniques that can be used to sculpt figurative or abstract forms as well as approaches for refining shape and detail, with time for one‑on‑one guidance. Todd will also lead participants through the process of making a woven cord for their pendants. Participants will leave with at least one pendant (unfired) and a woven cord. About the Artist: Todd Douglas Ngapuhi (Ngati Manu, Te Mahurehure), Pakeha (Scottish, Welsh)   Whilst studying social anthropology, my release was to play with clay. Growing up in master potter, Chester Nealie’s old house, I was always finding discarded broken clay plates, bowls and sculptural forms in the bush. I realise now that these little gems helped me form ideas of what was to become. Uku connects me to Papatūānuku. My forms are often interconnecting parts that make the whole: the clay fired, bound and lashed. These pieces are interwoven, entwined together, reflecting who I am and but also reconnecting me. Uku helps me to mould, and understand my values, my character as a person. Uku has led me down some wonderful paths. It’s an amazing material, it intrigues and fascinates me as well as being technically challenging. When I work with it, everything about it, from its tactile nature to its transformation in the kiln, grounds me. Each stage of the making is a transformation that you nurture and guide. You can't force uku. You have to allow it to change and become. Just as I transform the clay, it transforms me. I started by making organic sculptural forms using my boat building skills, pod-like vessels with long graceful lines. At the same time, I was delving into my Māori heritage and began, without intent, to make Māori tools and weaponry. This led me to wanting to know more about my whakapapa, why was I so drawn to certain objects that I wanted to honour them by making them out of clay? And not just make them out of clay, but take them next level. Taking simple objects of work such as toki, pa kahawai and hoe, and transforming them into works of art. In my new series of Earth Vessels, I’m processing the experience that was the climate event, Cyclone Gabrielle. Evacuated and homeless immediately after the cyclone has initiated a journey exploring topographical contours and extreme isobaric wind patterns, spiralling pressure systems and atmospheric rivers. Climate change is here and now. As tangata whenua I’m feeling the strength of my connections to the whenua, and my responsibilities.