Meet the maker: Taupō potter Ross Palmer - Life, art and ‘a ceramic addiction’

The 1970s were in full swing, with rustic handmade bowls rivalling the popularity of flared pants and paisley. Twenty-something Ross could not afford to buy the pottery he admired so he joined a club and began to make his own.

Five decades on, the Taupō artist recalls the way every one of his other creative pursuits fell away once he encountered a potter’s wheel.

“The first time I sat at the wheel, I made a pot successfully and I was hooked,” he says.

“I’ve got it like a drug. There’s no cure. If you do this to the exclusion of everything else, you get good. I did it to the exclusion of everything and, without wishing to blow my own trumpet, my technical ability is okay.”

Ancient inspiration

Ross continues to spend long days experimenting with glazes and clay alongside his artistic wife Annie Palmer-Bunbury. Australian-born Annie studied architecture and performed as a classical soprano, and has always sculpted, sung, painted, drawn, written and worked with fibre.

They work together in the studio gallery that stands alongside their art-filled home in the lush Tukairangi Valley, 12 minutes’ drive from downtown Taupō.

This is where Ross fires his beautifully made, practical mugs and bowls, jugs, vases and serving dishes, or tall, rectangular sculptural pieces that echo the valley’s landforms and skylines. Some evoke travels through France but many echo far more local fascinations with wind, water, boats and the couple’s favourite cove at neighbouring Whakaipo Bay on Lake Taupō.

Ross is especially drawn to a 700,000-year-old basalt cliff that stands behind their home and faces west, so it reflects the sunset each night. “It’s the landscape and the history of the landscape, my sculptural work refers to that,” he says.

A sacred place

The Palmers are not mere observers; they like to throw themselves into the environment, often boating to isolated bays on rockhounding expeditions. Ross is a keen swimmer who finished a 4.2km swim event across Lake Taupō, at age 68.

“It’s one of the five purest waterbodies on earth,” he says. “It’s quite inspiring to be able to swim and have a drink as you go.”

Annie is similarly motivated by her surroundings, and the way her adoptive home differs from the more-thirsty Australian landscape. “We’re living in a pretty sacred place,” she says. “I’m so delighted to find myself living here. The rocks, the clear fresh water, the soft green foliage and the seasons inspire me every day.”

In 2017, Annie launched her own range of embossed, slab-worked banquet platters, and she continues to work on a range of sculptural and freeform pieces. “You wouldn’t take Ross on at his wheel throwing game,” she says with a laugh. “He’s just too good at what he does. This way, we each bring our own individual styles to our collection.”

More vibrant

Despite his deeper technical knowledge and greater experience with clay, Ross is quick to acknowledge his wife’s considerable influence on his work. He says Annie is most often the “ideas person” who encourages him to head in new directions.

Within weeks of their meeting and rapid decision to marry in 2015, Annie began contacting past collectors and helping Ross promote his work. She shared information about their new gallery and helped him purchase new kilns and other machinery. And it was her fascination with colour that led him away from a well-trodden colour palate.

“I’d always been drawn to softer hues but, after we met, my work became much more vibrant,”

Ross

“I’d always been drawn to softer hues but, after we met, my work became much more vibrant,” Ross says. “One of our favourite colours at the moment is ginger lime. It’s a bright lime but with a filtering glaze that makes it magical. We add ceramic stain so you get colour, then often a colour glaze over the top. There’s an alchemic effect during firing that softens or heightens the colour.”

Lots to say

The couple’s constant experiments with ceramic stains and glazes are, Annie says, a little like working with invisible ink.

“You have the final reveal when it comes out of the kiln,” she says.

“Everything changes. It emerges and the last word is from the elements and the conditions you put it under. We learn something with every firing.”

Annie

Now in his late 70’s, Ross has never tired of producing kitchenware and domestic vessels that are as useful as they are handsome. However, he also relishes the ongoing tests and trials with shapes and techniques, and is making more expressive pieces at this stage in life.

“I’ve spent my life working with clay and I still have a lot to say with it. After a career making functional pieces, this last decade has allowed me to develop my expressive side.”

A daily joy

Annie’s support is a motivator. So too are their constant collaborations.

“To make good work, I have to be in a good space in my head. And that’s the wonder of having this woman to sit beside, I’m absolutely at peace with myself and that’s very liberating in terms of experimentation.”

For this compulsive potter, working with clay remains a daily joy but it has also been a solace during tough times. It was part of his personal rehabilitation programme when a serious car accident shattered his lower limbs, triggering seven weeks of bedrest and 30 hours of surgery. Ross says the urge to exhibit his work gave him impetus and a sense of purpose throughout his difficult recovery.

He and Annie genuinely enjoy having visitors to their Tukairangi Gallery studio.

“When I’m working, I get great pleasure out of seeing the finished article and then I get such pleasure out of people treasuring it. For me, being a potter is a pleasant addiction.”

Art in the community

Ross was a founding member of Taupō Sculpture Trust. The organisation is responsible for the town’s growing number of public sculptures, including a towering stainless steel dinosaur dubbed Boom Boom.

The imposing new artwork caused more than a little bit of rumble around town, and in both national and international media, when it was installed in mid-2025. “I have a strong opinion on public art. I think it’s valuable and I think it’s essential,” Ross says.