Nau mai e hoa mā!

Come along to the inaugural WSP Matariki shin-dig
Saturday 28th June
2pm for the loading of the pit fire
5.30pm onwards for the karakia, hāngī and hooley

We're getting together to celebrate Matariki at Caroline Hamilton's property in Tuhikaramea, where we can share a kai, good company and convo, and a pit firing. We'd love for all our WSP friends to join us. Partners and children welcome too.

Kai

For the feast, we're organising a catered hāngī, provided by Heavenly Hāngī in Ngaruawahia. If you're keen to get some of this kai in your belly, you can purchase a ticket using the options on this event listing. Each plate is $25 and includes 3 meats, potato, kumara, pumpkin, stuffing, and fried bread. There's also a vegetarian option, which omits the meat and loads up on the veges and stuffing. We'll need to confirm numbers by the 20th of June, so make sure to buy your hāngī tickets before then. Purchasing a hāngī plate is entirely optional, so if you're not feeling it, bring along your own kai and join in the feast and festivities.

Pit Firing

We're also keen to set up a pit-firing for everyone to take part in. It's optional as well, but this type of alternative firing isn't something we've had the opportunity to organise for a good while, so jump in and grab a ticket if you're keen! The $5 cost of tickets for this firing will help cover the cost of consumables like copper carbonate, cobalt carbonate and tinfoil etc. Bring a bunch of pots and let's see how many we can fit into the pit!

Other Shin-Dig Info

• BYO drinks and a chair (and a kai if you're not ordering a hāngī).
• Alcoholic drinks welcome, but please drink responsibly and ensure you get home safely.
• We'd love to borrow a few gazebos in case the weather is inclement. Please let us know if you can bring one along.
• If you're travelling from Hamilton and making a right-turn into Caroline's gate, you may want to consider carrying on up the road 30 metres and turning around at Gilmore Rd and coming back, as the right-turn into the drive can be a little dangerous.

Other Pit Firing Info

• We'll organise a kiln booking to bisque any pots you want to put in the pit. This will be fired at a lower than usual temperature, to maximise the effects from the smoke and colourants in the pit fire. And if you've burnished your pots this should reduce the risk of that burning off.
• Good clays for pit firing are raku clays and other slightly grogged clays, but feel free to experiment with any other clays you might be interested in.
• We'll make up a mix of "magic dust" to sprinkle through the kiln. This is a mixture of salt and copper carbonate, which produces the reds synonymous with pit-fired pottery.
• You can also bring your own combustibles and colourants to include in the fire, or wrap your individual pots in. Good materials include copper wire, old nails, seaweed, salt, banana peels, coffee grounds, bones, eggshells and many others... 
• Burnishing and terra sigillata are also methods you might consider using on your pots - they produce a very smooth surface, which lends itself to waxing the finished pot for that satiny shine.
• Find more info on the pit-firing process, colourants and combustibles from these resources:
  https://www.upinsmokepottery.com/pit-firing.html 
  https://community.ceramicartsdaily.org/topic/6293-what-are-your-pit-fire-must-dos-or-must-haves/
• Do you have any pine cones? We'd love to use them in the fire! Please bring along any you have.
• Please note that pots fired in this method are seldom vitrified and so are not likely to be water-tight or food safe. 

Hope to see you all there!

Mānawatia a Matariki

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