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In 1991, when the new Wellington City Library building opened, the privately-run Clark’s Cafe inside featured a set of brightly coloured crockery by Studio Ceramics’ potter Christine Harris. The pattern, which became very well-known, was called ‘Island Bay’.
According to ceramics historian Val Monk, Christine Harris “was a young mother living in Gisborne when she first learned to throw pots on a wheel.
“In the late 1970s she moved back to Auckland with her small daughter Carly. After a successful venture into stone sculpture, Christine returned to ceramics, this time making and hand-painting slipcast ware. Along with a handful of other pioneer designers she injected a jolt of colour and style into a market previously dominated by earthy brown studio pottery”.
It was a solo effort, focused on art pieces. The stock market crash in 1987 led Christine to turn her hand to mass producing dinner ware. She and a new business partner founded Studio Ceramics and began production in New Lynn, West Auckland.
Island Bay Pattern Ceramics are still in everyday use in Island Bay!
An Island Bay sunset. Inspirational colours? Eva Kaprinay photography
The future proprietor of Clark’s Cafe Julie Clark, now co-owner of the restaurant Floriditas, liked her designs when she saw them in Auckland and came up with the idea of using a specific design in the cafe. ‘Island Bay’ was the chosen design and as well as being used in the cafe was also sold there, as well as in other shops.
Christine says the theme behind the design was ‘weather’: lines like the isobars on a weather map against a background of blue, green, red and a sunshine yellow.
The name ‘Island Bay’ just “came to her”. She was in Auckland but on her wall hung the famous Rita Angus print of ‘Boats, Island Bay’. She thinks this was the inspiration for the name.
Green, red, blue, black lines and an implied bright sun
The design is now, like all her work, collectable, and those who set out to collect are faced with finding jugs, vases of different shapes and sizes, teapots big and small, cups, saucers, plates, bowls and serving dishes.
Christine is still a working artist currently painting on water using the ancient craft of marbling in a ‘contemporary impressionist’ manner and is to give a series of workshops. The designs become such things as mural wallpaper and even rugs. The firm Hanrad.com have used several designs from her marble papers into rugs using New Zealand wool with silk. One was exhibited in Paris in January 2020 at the Maison & Objet Designer Fair.
I think we are not the only family in Island Bay that has used and enjoyed Christine Harris’ work since the 1990s. We replace the inevitable breakages as we can. And yes, the design does look like Island Bay to us!
Christine Harris now manages her daughter Carly Harris’ fashion business in Cuba St. Her instagram is @christineharrisnz, where many examples of her current work are displayed.
Val Monk, quoted in this article has a blog ‘Crown Lynn and New Zealand pottery with Valerie' at valputaruru.blogspot.com
Island Bay ceramics of times past – a souvenir plate c1905 Society Collection. Éva Kaprinay image
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