STRANGE RITUALS
WORDS Joshua Brosnahan PHOTOS Sarah Rowlands
With a day job in architecture and a passion for producing ceramics that have a practical application to them, Thomas Strange has crafted a contemporary, considered brand in his passion project, Strange Ceramics, all from his very own home studio. Chances are you’ve probably eaten off his work if you’ve dined at Gatherings, gin gin, or Black Estate.
Thomas says that he loves making items that can be part of people’s lives while eating breakfast or drinking morning coffees.
After completing an architecture degree in Wellington and time spent in the UK, Christchurch-born Thomas now spends the majority of his week at Sheppard & Rout Architects. Thomas moved back in late 2019, and this choice was partly to have a better work/life balance, and one part of that was to give working with clay more time.
His start in pottery came from a weekly night class at Canterbury Potters Association. Thomas says he was ‘immediately hooked’ on wheel-throwing.
“I had a pottery wheel at home after a few months. Luckily my aunt’s wheel from the early ’80s still worked! This enabled me to practise, practise, practise.”
“I think I’m naturally very critical and detail-orientated. This was built on in the five years of architecture training and has since been both a blessing and a curse. I don’t hold onto concepts or ideas if they are not working, but I also over-think everything in my work!
“I love pottery because there is a direct correlation between your mind and body movements and the final resulting form. For example, if you change the position of a finger, it can dramatically change the form, feel, and use of a pot.”
Thomas thinks clay teaches patience in a world where we don’t have to wait for much. “Your pot can fail at every step of the process, and these steps must be done well for the successive steps to work. I love to experiment with ideas and forms; it’s a never-ending process for me. This makes it incredibly exciting.”
This level of visceral involvement differs from his conventional career.
“I enjoy my day job in architecture, but in practice, there is a level of disconnect between what you design on paper or screen and what physically is built. There are multiple sieves that design and ideas must pass through – things like city plans, building regulations, client critique, budget constraints, builder and multiple trades who physically build it.”
Thomas shares a belief that material possessions should be loved and enjoyed and that handmade goods are simply better than low-quality wares.
“As a throw-away society, we need to look local, slow our consumption, and purchase wisely with thought to what resources were used, and who made the product, how far it has come, and how disconnected we are to this process.”
Thomas is gearing up for his next collection to go live on his website. This series of bowls are all thrown with three kilograms of clay in differing forms. The embellishment comes only from the processes of working with clay and glaze. He’s also planning on dedicating more time to bodies of work that have been ‘stuck in his mind’, such as candlesticks.