Evelyn Hampton
The amazing Yvonne Rust, teacher & mentor to many , died in greymouth 2002 aged 80 yrs

Margaret Elaine Sadler
Obituary: Yvonne Rust
4:58 AM Saturday Jun 29, 2002

Potter. Died aged 79.

Yvonne Rust's ashes will be divided and scattered in the two places that claimed her heart for most of her adult life - Northland and the West Coast.

The influential potter and teacher once said: "The South Island is full of space - Northland is filled with spirits."

Rust died in Greymouth on Wednesday night after several years of ill health.

Her enduring legacy in the north is the Northland Craft Trust's unique craft centre, The Quarry.

It was established in the disused Waldron's quarry in Whangarei in the early 1980s as an experiment in skills development and use of local raw materials in pottery.

It has since become an important nursery for craft skills, with resident artists, a co-operative retail outlet, an art gallery, kilns and workshops. It is also the home of a nationally known summer school which attracts leading New Zealand artists and craftspeople as tutors.

Artist Jenny Bennett, a former trustee, said Rust had mentored an enormous number of people.

She was very much "mother of The Quarry", both to the project and the people.

Ms Bennett said Rust was a visionary with exceptional mental and physical energy. She had the ability to make things happen - typically in a very hands-on way.

"I remember working with her on the concrete and mosaic statue when she was in her late sixties and she insisted on shovelling great barrow-loads of builders' mix for hours on end."

Rust's remarkable teaching career began in the mid-1940s after she gained a diploma in fine arts in Canterbury.

She taught art in secondary schools for 30 years, mainly in the South Island.

She played a leading role in developing pottery skills in the communities in which she lived, starting eight studios and apprenticing many potters. She also organised and directed the first national pottery workshop/school and started her own art school in 1959.

Her interest in clay took her to the West Coast in 1967, where she taught at Greymouth High School and started the West Coast pottery movement.

After retiring from teaching in 1972, she returned to Northland to build a home and become a professional potter at Parua Bay.

She was asked to start the Northland Craft Trust in 1976 and, in 1980, acquired Waldron's quarry with the help of grants from the Department of Internal Affairs and the Whangarei City Council.

A few years later she surprised many by giving up pottery to dedicate herself to painting. Within a few years her painting had earned her an award from the Academy Of New Zealand in Wellington.

Her other awards included a Queen's Service Medal for services to art, a QEII Fellowship, life memberships of the Potters' Association and the Craft Council, and the Canterbury Society of Arts' silver medal, its highest award.

Rust ended her mentoring in 1997 and subsequently returned to Greymouth, where she remained until her death.

"I am busy dying," she said before leaving Whangarei. "That's a quote I read once, but it describes me - I am going on to the next stage.

Margaret Elaine Sadler
Have a copy of Yvonne's The Studio Cookery Book August 1964 .this book was designed to raise the 2000 pounds needed to build the Studio of Design (proposed site was 1038 Colombo Street, Christchurch.

Evelyn Hampton
I have one too, she gave it to me when it was published, wish I had kept some of her paintings she had done in art class...

Lois Watts
Great mentor, artist, teacher, and one very strong woman RIP.

Heather Newby
When I was doing my SC art paper.. Graphic design , I chose to do scriptwriting and she was standing outside the art class door shaking her fist at me because she had told me Script writing wasnt my strongest point. I passed.lol

Margaret Elaine Sadler
Yvonne's funeral was the best I've ever been too a real hoot.

Heather Newby
I remember going up to the Brewery on the left on the way to Coal creek. She used to make pottery goblets which were highly fashionable at the time .She had a kiln there.

Heather Newby
She would whack me on the head when she didn`t like what I was painting.She went through a stage where she didn`t like ochre. She said it was a "lazy person`s" choice. .. but later in her life she was using ochre a lot.I remember she told us there wasnt such a thing as a straigh line in nature, I was quite influenced by her

Margaret Elaine Sadler
When Dobson Mine closed down some of the miners were her students a couple of more did really well just can't think of one chap in particular's name.

Heather Newby
She used to be a supervisor at the High school hospital when I was doing Nursing training. I used to visit her and she wanted me to work with her creating and selling arty wallpaper but I was just 17 and couldn`t be bothered.She said Coast kids are really lazy.. lol.

Leslie McKendry
Hardy Browning was one of those Miners.

Margaret Elaine Sadler
That's the name I was trying to think of Leslie thanks.

Leslie McKendry
Yvonne's kilns at the Brewery were put together with Fireclay from the Dobson Mine. Dad talked with her and mentioned Fireclay was an un-used product and he got her about 5 tubs (that's the small wagons they used in the mine) of the stuff, black as with coal dust but Yvonne reckoned better than the normal commercial product that she would otherwise have used,

Margaret Elaine Sadler
Yvonne Rust (1922-2002) holds a position in New Zealand fine arts matched by few other teachers. She was a potter of considerable ability, but cannot be listed in the first rank; she was also a painter of originality, but made no claims to a place in the pantheon.

But as a teacher, and especially as a mentor and arts activist, few can equal her achievements.

Leslie McKendry
Hardy was areal great Guy. And a talented potter.

Leslie McKendry
You are welcome Margaret Elaine Sadler

Evelyn Hampton
She used to rark round in a little orange jeep thing that we once used as a Hostel float with her drivving as she was one of our Hostel teachers. She said I had no art talent what so ever & she was right!

Heather Newby
She used to hang out with Barry Brickell

Leslie McKendry
Has any one read her biography "Maverick Spirit" by Theresa Sjoquist?
It is a great read, with a lot of detail about Yvonne's early life.

Evelyn Hampton
Ian Dalzell was one of her great success's

Margaret Elaine Sadler
No I haven't wonder if our Grey Library has a copy?

Leslie McKendry
Can thoroughly recommend it if you can find a copy.

Leslie McKendry
The little Orange Jeep thing was one of "Ace Auto's" VW conversions, she called it Clementine. Somewhat more dignified and Lady like than the old Dodge Butchers van she had.

Neil Martin
VW country wagon