Biography

Peter Johnson was born, raised and educated in Invercargill, New Zealand.
He was introduced to clay at high school and has made pots, attended and tutored many workshops and built kilns throughout New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Sweden. The late Sir Barry Brickell, Coromandel, has been a major influence in his work.
“I dig and process local clays for all my work and my current focus is on ‘raku’ style firing of seals and sea lions in a gas kiln to around 900 - 1000 degrees centigrade. Pieces are removed with tongs at top temperature, partly covered in combustible materials and when cooled, waxed and burnished.”
His lifelong passion, surfing, discovered at the tender age of 15, is what has brought him to producing these miniature, life like mammals. Currently living in Karitane, north of Dunedin, he gets to see and “occasionally meet a few of these lovely sea creatures.”