Amber Smith is a printmaker from Nelson who is also well known for her work in ceramics. Amber’s works often include whakatauki (proverbial sayings) or waiata (Māori songs),  wise and up-lifting words that give a beautiful feeling to the art of love, hope and self-worth. She is  known for using the sgraffito technique in her work, which is a method of creating images by scratching through a layer of paint or glaze to reveal the layer underneath. In this way Amber works with ceramics in much like a printmaker etches in intaglio plate. All the images and words are intuitively drawn, and the detail carved back into the black ink with a stylus. Her hearts, vessels and bowls are all hand built and each piece has been crafted as an individual work without any use of transfers or stencils.

Amber’s prints are created by photographing her ceramic work and then digitally compiling the images into a print. This process allows her to create larger and more complex images than she would be able to create with ceramics alone.

“I love words and nearly always use them in my work. Maori whakatauki (proverbs) and waiata aroha (songs about the nature of love) have such an emotional resonance that they become part of the image itself.” – Amber Smith