I'm really pleased with the result, as was my father and the museum director. I look forward to seeing it being used in the operations of the print display.

I recently had the pleasure of attending a fantastic party/music festival called Awana Moon Yeah on Aotea (Great Barrier) Island. A stellar selection of guests from around the country and abroad attended, and there were performances from Cecilia Sudden, Rhonda K, Onion Engine, Adam Fincher, The Biscuits and Pumice.

The event was held at Mickey's Place, a ramshackle old camping ground on the edge of the bush in Awana Bay. Scattered with deteriorating memories of the past, yet still equip with fire fuelled hot showers and all the basic amenities one could need, it was a great place to camp out for a few days, sharing food and stories with friends old and new.

Exploring the rest of the island was fun too, hanging out with dogs of friends and friends of dogs, having breakfast at stunning lookout spots, swimming in lush warm waters with perfect body surfing waves. Harataonga beach was definitely a highlight – can't wait to go back!

In early July I got offered an exciting opportunity to document the acquisition and transportation of cocoa beans from Bougainville to Aotearoa – in a waka. Initially I thought this sounded like a crazy idea but, after investigating what this project was all about – and the integrity of the waka, I was sold.

Within two weeks I had got together all the gear I would need to film on the high seas and was off to Fiji, where I met up with the rest of the crew from The Wellington Chocolate Factory. We interviewed a number of people in Suva about sustainable sea transportation and the re-invigoration of vaka voyaging and traditional navigation in the pacific. I realised at this point what an exciting project this was to be involved with and how many boxes it ticked for me in terms of it's social and environmental endeavors.

It took us about 6 days to sail to Vanuatu and, after a few days there replenishing our stocks, enjoying fresh water showers and catching up with friends, we set sail again for Bougainville. This next leg was a longer sail, taking about 9 days, but we had stunning weather with good winds and moderate swells to push us forward. I captured lots of great footage of life aboard the vaka including interviews with all the crew, some great ukulele performances and a number of fish sacrificing their still beating hearts.

At this point of the journey my involvement in the project was suspended as I had to get back to Wellington for work. I look forward to meeting up with the Uto ni Yalo crew again in Wellington and wish them well for the rest of their journey ahead.
Vinaka Crew!

Check out The Wellington Chocolate Factory blog for more extensive coverage of the project or follow the progress of the Uto ni Yalo vaka on their facebook page.

Recently I have been trying my hand at ceramics which has been a really exciting delve into the world of three dimensional creativity!

Inspired by some garden sculptures I saw during my last visit to Waiheke Island, I decided I wanted to make a series of small houses to sit amongst our herb garden.

Using the Raku method of firing enabled me to explore a number of glazing and crackle options and enjoy a much a shorter firing time which was great, though making such a tall large structure certainly had it's challenges – The least of which was trying to get it to fit in the kiln!

I'm really pleased with the outcome of my houses and love different way the crackle has formed depending on the shape of the object. The smaller houses were made from the off-cuts of the large structure and as such have developed an unintentional Hobbity look. Watch this space for how they go in the garden!

To Face the Barrens – Finalist in the Signature Piece Art Award.
See more Creepy Bunny Photos here.

Had a fantastic time recently creating the sets for the short road-trip movie 'Grey WIlliam'. As we adventured through the rural vistas of the Manawatu and the wider Wellington region, I got to explore many places that I hadn't seen before.

As this this was a road movie, the main set of the film was a van – 'Grey William', which, according to the story, was named after the race horse Grey William who features proudly on the dash.

One of the other more involved sets of the shoot was the 'Short Straw Cafe'. For this we used an existing cafe in Whiteman's Valley and just tweaked it a bit to look less modern and more of a country kitchen.

I had some fun taking night shots outside the Shannon police station during the first shoot of our mission. See more images for the shoot on my flickr site.