Junction Magazine’s J Awards are a highlight and fixture on the calendar for local businesses each year.
The awards allow the community to vote for their favourite organisations, artists, service providers and purveyors of great food and dining experiences. The awards culminate in a gala evening at which top-voted businesses receive much-coveted J Awards in each category, and a Grand Prize winner takes home the trophy.
As a local business with community very much at the heart of what we do, Morris & James was thrilled to be asked to craft the Grand Prize J Award for the recent awards night.
That task fell to our Head Potter, Ian Foote, who many of you will know for his quirky Tiny Houses and other fabulous one off creations. Ian has been at Morris & James since 1989 when he originally came on board to work with our founder, Ant Morris. Over the years Ian has thrown thousands of pots and continues to enjoy exploring new ideas and glazes in his design studio. He’s a fundamental part of the Morris & James team and an expert when it comes to working our Matakana clay, so he was the perfect choice for this unique and interesting project.
Ian took the Junction’s logo, a striking ‘J’ as the base for his work. Stenciled onto Morris & James clay, which we extract from our clay field here in Matakana, he hard carved the icon from a single block. As he carved, be brought the flat design to life in three dimensions, highlighting the serif crown and gentle curve of the design.
The cut design was then further hand shaped before glazing in matt black for a sophisticated finish appropriate for the awards.
The fired, finished J Award was a highlight of the night for the Grand Prize winner, allowing them to take home slice of local, hand-crafted art as a lasting momento to complement their outstanding business efforts.