Merilyn Wiseman

Wiseman graduated from Elam School of Art in Auckland with a Preliminary Diploma in 1959.^[2] In 1963 she graduated from Goldsmiths School of Art in London with a National Diploma in design, gaining an Art Specialist Teachers Diploma the following year.^[2]

Wiseman has been working as a professional ceramicist since the mid 1970s. She became interested in working with clay while on a working holiday at a small pottery in Ireland; she returned to New Zealand and built a wood-fired kiln near Albany in 1976.^[3] She recalls

I was a complete novice but with constant reference to A Potter's Book and persistent telephone calls to generous long-suffering established potters such as Ian Smail, Warren Tippett and many others, I started potting.^[3]

In 1988 she contributed the following statement to Profiles: 24 New Zealand Potters:

I have been involved with clay for about ten years, spending the first few years learning to throw, discover suitable glazes, and to fire my wood kiln.

Gradually I became more and more interested in hand-building, playing around with forms which I could not throw in the wheel. It has been a slow process, teaching myself new techniques only because that was the way to solve problems and give form to the concept – a very satisfying way of learning about clay. Hand-building cannot be hurried and allows time to work intuitively.

... Changes and developments in my work have become gradual, new ideas forming while I am working with clay rather than from some intellectual exercise outside the work^[4]

Wiseman's early work reflected the contemporaneous interest Japanese ceramics spread in New Zealand by influential English figures including Bernard Leach, but she quickly came to develop her own style.^[5] Her mature work is characterised by curvaceous and sensuous shapes, influenced by forms found in nature, and colours she creates through mixing glazes to match her needs.^[2]