Her home heaving with hobby items, rolled out eons ago, and redundancy from Plant & Food Research Motueka, led Anne Classen to a casual position at High St’s Potters Patch Cooperative nearly two decades ago.
Potters Patch, established in 1982 by a group of potters, runs as a craft co-operative selling pottery and other handcrafts.
Beginning at the patch in 1996, Anne recently went out in a glaze of glory from the handmade crafts, haberdashery and gift store, aged 89.
For the past two years, she has worked half a day a fortnight at the store, and says she’ll treasure meeting the hundreds of walk-ins and the companionship with its 12 members.
“You’ve got to do something with your pots, can’t go on making them forever, and your family gets sick of getting them as presents,” she says.
“It’s nice to know that someone values your pot enough to pay for it, but it wasn’t something I was trying to make my living out of.”
Anne says the vibe was unfailingly friendly, and says “the patience of the other members to put up with me” kept her on long past retirement age.
“One day at a time” is her current prospect, with her beloved five-decade Motueka Pottery Workshop membership unshattered. Potters Patch is sure to miss her.
