Rick Rudd is one of 14 artists, makers and designers exhibiting in How to make a home, a show exploring the small universe of home and the material politics of the objects and adornment we live with over time. We asked Rick four quick questions about his work in the exhibition and what makes a home, read his responses below.

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Objectspace: Can you briefly describe the material and making of your works in How to make a home?

Rick Rudd: The works are made from an Australian earthenware clay which is white, and therefore allows the colour to be more vibrant. They are hand built, pinched and coiled, and the dry glazes are applied thinly, sometimes having to be coated seven times depending on the intensity of the colours required.

OS: Can you share some of your thinking behind the works?

RR: I like to take domestic objects for my inspiration and interpret them through form and line. For the last 25 years most of my work has involved the making of teapots. For much of that time they have been black. The teapots began when jugs I had been making did not sell well. By adding a spout and a lid, they became teapots and started selling really well. A few shapes to begin with have now become over 60 shapes. The works on-show are examples of some of those shapes I interpreted with colour for a series of exhibitions from 2008 to 2013.

OS: How do you feel your work connects to domestic spaces and/or the way we adorn and dress them?

RR: Although theoretically the teapots can be used, most people would be frightened to do so. Most of my work is not large and therefore fits and displays well in the domestic environment. As sculptural forms and ‘teapots’, the works are visually accessible to many people and very relatable.

OS: How to make a home posits that what makes a home is the persistence of ‘things’ that inspire us to feel like we belong. Can you tell us about an object that has made, or does make, your home a home?

RR: My home has always been filled with studio ceramics mainly from other makers. One of my favourite works is a vase by Dame Lucie Rie. I have had this since 1978 when I returned to England and was able to visit Lucie (one of the highlights of my life). She was just wonderfully welcoming to a young, unknown potter from Aotearoa New Zealand.

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More about Rick Rudd

British-born studio potter Rick Rudd attained a Diploma of Art and Design, Ceramics from Wolverhampton College of Art in 1972. Resident in New Zealand since 1973, Rudd has won numerous awards for his work and has exhibited widely throughout New Zealand and abroad. His work is held in institutional collections across the country. Rudd has been an active member of the ceramics community for five decades, including a term as president of the New Zealand Society of Potters (1988 - 91). In 2013 he established the Rick Rudd Foundation, a charitable trust, and in 2015 he opened the Quartz Museum of Studio Ceramics in Whanganui, the only dedicated museum for studio ceramics in Aotearoa New Zealand. In 2020 he was awarded a MNZM.