Jeanette King:
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I have a background in pottery and my first recollection of ‘doing pottery’ was at the age of 8 paddling in a stream and making ash trays and little bowls from lumps of clay lying beneath my feet. Later I took pottery classes, culminating in full time study for a Bachelor of Arts in Ceramic Design, which was huge fun. I thoroughly enjoyed ‘messing about’ with all aspects of clay and discovering what can (and cannot) be achieved with it. Think ‘The Great British Pottery Throw Down’ without the stress! Drawing, scribbling and designing were of course a huge part of this learning process. In those days a home computer was a rarity and not part of the tool box!
My passion was making something useful such as domestic ware and a large chunk of my heart will always be in the pottery studio. |
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However, the world keeps changing, and I changed with it and became interested in digital drawing. When the market became flooded with cheap ceramic ware from China I moved towards graphic design.
On moving to New Zealand from the UK 22 years ago with my family, we bought our first computer, and I have become increasingly fascinated with the potential skills which are now possible using the very clever software developed over the last 20 years. I love the cleanness of the images, with the ability to either make them simple or highly complicated. I wonder at my ability to colour them as I desire and then change the colour scheme at the click of a button. Here's a couple of business cards I've done for members of the Arts Trail Society:
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This is completely opposite to the pottery world, where every colour is a challenge and involves a long process of experimenting. I studied graphic design with the Graphic Design College of Australia and took over production of the Whangarei Heads Newsletter in January 2013 on a voluntary basis. Doing this has given me a great deal of experience and I particularly enjoy the different challenges that crop up while producing each issue and experimenting with new layouts. I enjoy designing business cards, logos and new adverts and I have joined the Arts Trail committee to help with their advertising and graphic design. I am really enjoying working with the other committee members.
