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Story: Crafts and applied arts

Len Castle, 'Alkaline spring', 2000

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Len Castle, 'Alkaline spring', 2000

Len Castle trained as a science teacher and took up pottery in 1947, aged 23. He left teaching to become a full-time potter in 1963. That year he helped to found the New Zealand Society of Potters. Castle travelled overseas a number of times, including to Japan, Korea and China to learn new pottery techniques and aesthetics, which he brought back to New Zealand. His work was heavily influenced by the natural world and his pottery reflected his interest in geology. 'Alkaline spring', a glazed earthenware bowl made in 2000, mimics the vivid blue volcanic lakes of New Zealand.  

Using this item

Dowse Art Museum

by Len Castle

Photograph by John Lake

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How to cite this page

Douglas Lloyd Jenkins and Lucy Hammonds, Crafts and applied arts – Old and new aesthetics, 1930s and 1940s, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/object/45301/len-castle-alkaline-spring-2000 (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Douglas Lloyd Jenkins and Lucy Hammonds, published 16 May 2014.