Creative Ones - Mad Hatter's Tea Party

Dental assistant Jacqueline Westall always knew that she wanted to make cups and saucers. by Leonie Hall, photograph by Tim Cuff
Sitting in a quaint cottage garden, with a cobbled pathway and flowers abloom, it’s easy to forget that I’m working. This is Jacqueline Westall’s own private Wonderland. She and fellow ceramic artist, Fiona Sutherland, share a studio at Rutherford Cottage in Founder’s Heritage Park.

The Mad Hatter would be proud to use Jacqui’s wares at his tea party: teapots, cake stands, and cups and saucers all lathered with colourful polka dots and idiosyncratic checkerboards … I, too, couldn’t resist. I’ve never been so enthusiastic about BYOC (bring your own container) on my morning visit to the café.

Before being a potter, Jacqui worked as a dental surgery assistant. “I never wanted to do it; I just sort of fell into it. I absolutely hated school, and the very day I was allowed to leave I just went. I didn’t take any exam because I just didn’t fit in. So I thought, ‘I’ve got to go and work then’. So I did dental nursing and that’s what got me through. And that’s how I moved here, really, working for a dentist.”

When her daughter was two, Jacqui took her first pottery class in Riwaka. “The first time I went to Riwaka, and it has stuck with me, I said I’d really like to make a cup and saucer, and the tutor kind of looked at me and said, ‘You can’t just make a cup and saucer’. And I thought, ‘Can’t I? I think I can, and I’m going to try’. I’ve just always wanted to make cups and saucers.”

Although UK born, Jacqui has lived in the Top of the South, on and off, for over 20 years. “I worked for a New Zealand dentist in the UK and he said, ‘Do you want a job in New Zealand?’ and I thought, ‘Yeah okay that sounds alright,” so that’s how I came to be in this area. Visas run out so I had to go back and forth a little bit, and then I eventually met a New Zealander, settled, and had a daughter here. And that’s been it really.”

Like me, Jacqui also loves a good coffee. Her repertoire includes the cutest milk jugs and cups to suit every kind of extraction. “My daughter works in hospitality and her friend is a manic barista. They had a shop in Brighton in the UK and said, ‘we need some coffee cups stacked up in the window – they’d look really good’. They didn’t want to use them in the shop because they’re too precious, and so that’s where the cappuccino and ristretto sizes came from.”

She came to Nelson again in October last year. She met fellow artist, Fiona, at Charles Shaw’s pottery in Collingwood Street. After a few synchronous moments, the two made the decision to work together at Rutherford Cottage. “And it just works. It’s fantastic. Those things are unbelievably good.”

Jacqui is clearly in love with her new surrounds: “I love Rutherford Cottage. It’s just such a gorgeous place to work. It’s relaxed and there are other artists here.” I interject “and it’s social…”. Jacqui replies, “It’s almost too social! Fiona and I have now decided that if you’re not here for coffee time you can’t have it. Once we start talking it just leads on, and then it’s lunchtime and we think, ‘We might as well have lunch now’. It’s shocking – but it’s so good for you.” Now, all we need is for Alice to arrive.