There are those who swap careers throughout their lives and then there are those like Nelson master potter Royce McGlashen.
He got behind the wheel at just 16 years old, with his father as his inspiration.
“My academic ability was not that bright. So I thought pottery would be quite a cool thing to be able to do,” McGlashen said.
He immediately found the work fulfilling.
After doing an apprenticeship and overseas experience, he set up McGlashen Pottery, which has been at the same workshop and gallery in Brightwater for the last 45 years.
Royce McGlashen got behind the pottery wheel at just 16 years old. (Source: 1News)
But in February, the business will have new owners as McGlashen hangs up his apron – sort of – after 58 years.
“There’s not, you know, all of a sudden you wake up and say ‘that’s it, it’s over’ but you do realise that you’re getting older,” he said.
A Christchurch couple has bought the business, although the Queens Service Medal recipient will stay on to help with the handover and continue to create one-off pieces.
His wife and business partner, Trudy McGlashen, said the success of the business is down to his creative vision.
“I’m really thrilled that it’s going to sell because it seems such a waste to have that work, those iconic kind of pots, just disappear,” she said.
McGlashen’s work from previous decades line a wall in the pottery workshop, with people still coming into the studio asking after the floral dinner set their mother had in the ’90s.
He developed a love of decorating and pushing the boundaries of what shapes can be created.
“I thought it would be quite good as an iconic item for New Zealand is to go into the shell range,” McGlashen said.
“You walk the beach and pick up all sorts of shells and I thought ‘how about making a bowl like that that you can make a salad in?’ or a dinner plate that’s quite usable still but quite different to what you see at Kmart,” he said. “Sorry, Kmart.”
While he reluctantly agrees this is technically his retirement, it’s unlikely McGlashen will ever give up making the art he’s become known for.
“I think I might have retired some years ago but I still go to work,” he said.
