About Hesta

Hello and welcome!

I’m Hesta Macready, textile and ceramic maker and creator, and artist at Paper Scissors Rock Gallery.  I am a solo artist working from my home studio in beautiful Golden Bay, New Zealand, where I’m surrounded by the beauty and curiosities of nature, from the land to the sea.  My home and studio is a peaceful place to work where I can be totally absorbed in my random and organic creative process.

I love all things textile. This has led me to explore, experiment and make many things over the years as an artist, but one of the more defining features of my work has been free-style machine embroidery. It is a free-flowing, absorbing and unifying process, basically drawing with the needle and which I apply to many forms of artwork.  Working as an artist is all about the making for me, the creative journey from start to finish.  

Featured on my website is a range of one-off handbags, ceramic jewellery, art prints of my textile work over the years from 2016, and an archive of much more of work.  My work extends to unique journal covers, textile and ceramic accessories and a small range of clothing in Paper Scissors Rock Gallery.

I also love to work with ceramics.  This began as a bit of a creative hobby project and has now developed into a range of jewellery including earrings, necklaces, brooches and buttons and is now a large part of my working and creative life. I love the tactile nature of clay, and I have a particular passion for creating patterns using sgraffito techniques and stamping the clay surface with things I find in my natural surroundings.

I have been passionate about making and creating from a young age. I come from a family of creatives. Both of my grandmothers were dressmakers, my grandfather and mother both illustrators, and my father a potter and builder. So my work really runs through my blood! It feels natural to me. It is very instinctual and I feel my most alive when I’m creatively fulfilled. It also gives me so much pleasure to see my work being worn and adored by their owners! It gives life to my work and an end purpose.