Large pot is a domestic piece that has been wheelthrown. Frederika Ernsten has used stoneware, clay fired to a temperature where vitrification takes place, meaning that it becomes like glass and is impervious to liquids. Ernsten has produced high quality domestic stoneware, from oven dishes to teapots, mugs and lamp bases. She developed her own glazes, predominantly using a white-grey-green, but has explored variations of this glaze by applying other colours under it. Ernsten was born in Holland and came to New Zealand in 1960. She attended night classes run by Yugoslavian potter Michael Trumic (b.1926) in Christchurch, and then set up a co-operative pottery studio called Studio 393 in 1967. Here Ernsten experimented and developed her technique for five years before selling her work. She is a past president of the Canterbury Potters Society, formed in 1963 to co-ordinate the common interests of local potters. Her work is represented in several public and private collections including the Japanese Embassy, Department of Foreign Affairs, Wellington, and the Dunedin Museum.