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Anna

Glazing Manager

At Decopot I manage the glazing department. I glaze all of the commercial-ware and fire it before passing it onto our packing team for shipping.

I enjoy reading, walking, crafts and hockey. In the weekend I like to spend time with my niece & nephew, travel to Paraparaumu beach to visit family and relax.

I also have 3 very spoilt cats! George, Mio and Georgina.

Team Member

Founder

Bio for website – Paul Whilst living in Durban, South Africa, Paul discovered his passion for pottery in 1979. In quick succession he abandoned his incomplete engineering degree, started potting from home, built his own kiln and then started building kilns commercially.
With friend Bruce Walford he developed an innovative, lightweight gas kiln design and their business rapidly generated sufficient cash to enable them to establish a production pottery in Cape Town making very high-fired, hand-thrown reduction stoneware.
The 13 memorable ‘Cape Town years’ saw marriage to Jenny, the arrival of daughters Sarah and Lucy and an opportunity to explore and appreciate the wider Western Cape region. They involved more kiln construction – including industrial-scale monsters, building pottery machinery and establishing agency relationships with several overseas ceramic technology providers. By the time he left for New Zealand in 1994, he had added a clay factory to the business and served a range of customers from the smallest hobby potter to factories producing 1.5 million pieces of pottery a month. He had also established his own ‘hobby business’ with his father Des, making rustic terracotta floor tiles by hand.
Like thousands of other families, the Pepworths decided to leave their homeland to seek opportunity, safety and a more certain future in New Zealand.
Arriving in 1994, the New Zealand phase has also been a busy, pottery-centred adventure. Initially Paul operated Decopot alone, slipcasting coffee mugs and RAM pressing a few plates and baking dishes on the family ‘lifestyle block’. Bruce, Des, Jenny and her parents Brian and Ilse have all made significant contributions to the development of Decopot over time. New Zealand friends, Peter and Julie Collis have made vital contributions to implementing our tableware projects.
In addition to the business development, Paul has developed a new passion for woodland gardening. These New Zealand years have been about watching the family grow up, planting trees and endlessly taking on new projects.
Now deep in his sixties, Paul is embarking on the next adventure – to change the business ownership model to include members of the wonderful team at Decopot and his two daughters whilst he faces the challenge of slowing down!