Top award for supreme effort
ANNA PEARSON
ANNA PEARSON
AWARD-WINNING: Nelson ceramic artist Bridie Henderson, 25, is the Portage Ceramic Awards supreme winner.
TOP ENTRY: Bridie Henderson's award-winning entry, Feathers, an installation of three illuminated porcelain necklaces, encased in a wooden cabinet.
A 25-year-old ceramic artist from Nelson has won $15,000 in a prestigious national competition which she had to borrow money to enter.
Bridie Henderson, who lives in Richmond, almost missed out on entering the Portage Ceramic Awards, because she could not afford to take her entry to Auckland.
Henderson was announced as the supreme winner at a ceremony in Auckland last night, with Feathers – an installation of three illuminated porcelain necklaces, encased in a wooden cabinet.
Her partner, Campbell Martin, a trained electrician, helped with the lighting, and her friend, Kyle Thomas, a joiner, helped make the cabinet.
It was the first time Henderson had entered a ceramics competition, and she is the youngest recipient of the supreme prize in the history of the prestigious awards.
Henderson, who works part-time as a cleaner, said she was surprised by the win.
"It was a bit of a shock. This is the ultimate prize in the ceramic world. I was just so stoked about getting accepted as a finalist. That was pretty amazing."
She is a regular at Craft Potters in Hope and spends one day a week at mentor Steve Fulmer's workshop in Tasman.
Fulmer said it was "mind-blowing" that Henderson had been accepted for the awards while she was still a student. To go on and win the supreme award was "astonishingly awesome".
The organisers of the Portage Ceramic Awards bought Feathers for $10,000, on top of the $15,000 prize money.
Henderson said the money couldn't have come at a better time, because she was in her final year of a three-year Diploma in Ceramic Art and was working towards her first exhibition.
"I had to borrow money from Mum and Dad to pay for petrol and the ferry ticket so I could get [Feathers] to Auckland. The work is so delicate. I didn't want it sent by courier," she said.
"It had taken so much time and effort. To have it break on the way up would have been tragic."
The work took more than six months to make, as each feather took an hour and there were 24 feathers on each piece.
"I made six sets and chose the best three. There was heaps of trial and error," she said.
The judge, Janet Mansfield, is an internationally renowned Australian ceramicist, who said she rarely saw work of such skill.
The attention to detail in Feathers was exceptional, she said. "Many ceramic artists are inspired by the flora and fauna around them, but [Feathers] takes it one step further. It's a stunning work."
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