Kiln it softly

Visiting Katherine Smyth is a little like falling down a rabbit hole. At the bottom, you emerge in a haze of ceramics – colourful glazed vases, bowls and plates that look too nice to eat from.

I’m at the Wellington ceramicist’s studio, next to her Lyall Bay cottage, where you can smell the ocean but not see it. It’s the engine room of Katherine’s 22-year-old business: walls are lined with hefty bags of clay and neatly labelled buckets of glaze, a huge electric kiln