Pottery began as a hobby for a Hamilton teacher but demand has turned it into his full-time job.
When Melis van der Sluis wasn't teaching he was in the room beneath his Hamilton home sitting at the potters wheel.
His hands covered in a layer of clay. In those days he used a kick wheel, manually moving the wheel with a lever operated by his foot.
The lump of earth would spin until it was transformed into something beautiful.
It was then carried to the kiln behind the house between a sprawling of native plants.
Brick and metal form the structure of the kiln. Ferns have broken through. It was the first of many kilns for van der Sluis.
It was fired up at night because the smoke would billow for the few hours and he didn't want to alert his neighbours.
"They must have had soot in their washing," he said with a smile.
He used it for 10 years before moving to something larger.
At the time he was working as a teacher at Maeroa Intermediate. His spare time was spent making "functional things" out of clay.
"I love sitting at the wheel all day long. Cups, platters..."
Demand for his work increased and he was unable to meet it. So after 15 years teaching, he decided to leave.
His hobby became his job.
"Some people thought perhaps it wouldn't stay that way but it stayed as my hobby and as my job."
van der Sluis moved to Hamilton in 1952 from Friesland in the Netherlands.
It was while at teachers college that he learned the art of pottery.
He’s been doing it for 65 years and doesn't plan on stopping.
"I enjoyed the physical contact. You've got to work it, you've got to kneed that clay. You get physically involved with it.
"You plant it on the wheel, you still have to use your hands and your vision and form a new thing."
Clay is rarely spun in his Hamilton studio now. His work is more modern. It focuses on geological designs. He paints them by hand using coloured clay.
Last month he travelled to the Netherlands to exhibit his work at Galerie De Roos van Tudor.
