I make my living from making and selling pottery on Raglan Wharf. I’ve been making pots for nearly 40 years now and I still enjoy the clay under my hands and the regular rhythm and flow of the studio. 

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I live outside Raglan, in the countryside, in an arts-and-crafts house designed by Sholto Smith in 1935. The Vernon family lived here for three generations before I took over responsibility and I still remember walking inside on that very first afternoon and feeling it was a happy house.

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I like to start the day with coffee in my favourite corner window-seat. The window has a long view down the valley and I watch the sun rise across the hills. Early morning is one of the only quiet times of day for me.

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If my partner Tim is down from Auckland we sit and watch the light shift across the garden and the trees, and we plot and plan.

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And when friends come for dinner it’s where everyone naturally congregates – in summer with the windows flung open and in winter with warm rugs pulled around. 

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As I’ve developed the garden I’ve tried to create a feeling of harmony in the landscape. I like opening vistas and framing views, and we’re beginning to feel a sense of progression between open and closed spaces as we move around the garden. I’m especially happy with the opening in the wall behind the pool. Looking from the house the eye gets drawn to an enormous and beautiful chestnut tree that Trevor Vernon planted more than 40 years ago.

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You’re more connected to the cycles of the seasons when you live in the country and I’ve come to realise that the real luxuries in life are space and quietness.

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Terence Conran was once asked what he thought was the most important thing in a house and I’ve always liked his response: first of all someone you love, and after that the things that you love.

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Tony Sly
tonyslypottery.com