The wonderful Ivan Vostinar and his curious creatures.

A trip to Whanganui enriched us with beautiful pieces form our artist clan on the wild West Coast. While there, we say down with Ivan, the ceramicist who went from throwing the tableware for The Hobbit movies to changing the landscape of Castlecliff in Whanganui.

After buying a derelict building, the first thing he did was plant a cacti garden in this rather rough area of town. After a few rough starts, the plants were adopted by the community, and the landscape of Castlecliff has changed for ever. A cafe has opened, other gardens have been planted, and you can always see people walking past the large showroom pressing their nose to the window to view Ivan’s love affair with clay.