Koru

In February 2009 I was lucky enough to make my 6th trip to New Zealand to visit our daughter, Katy, who was spending the 3rd year of her Geology degree studying at Wellington University. As well as being a brilliant holiday it provided me with a wealth of new inspiration for my ceramics, which unsurprisingly included the Koru.
When visiting Hokitika, on the West Coast of the South Island, I was almost drooling over the beautiful carved jade (greenstone) Koru's which were mounted on great pieces of New Zealand driftwood. Being unable to afford to buy one of these, I came home inspired to try to make my own version using clay and some of the driftwood collected on the beaches on the West Coast; I was pleased with the result.

In Wellington, many of the street bollards are in the shape of the Koru

which inspired me to make a large Koru for my garden

From the very large Koru, I then started making some small ones and mounting them on some silver birch.

Also during this New Zealand trip I saw a stone carving of two interconnecting Korus which formed a heart shape; I sketched this ready to use at a later date.

Using the sketch I started coiling two clay Korus which I cut away to join together to make this Double Koru.

Double Koru (25cm)

Here is the latest Koru which I have produced, no doubt there are more to come!

Koru with incised fern leaf (~30cm)