"After that I went to work in Australia and Papua New Guinea in industrial electrical. I just needed to get out of that, so I came back and did a ceramics course with George Kojis at Whanganui Polytech.
"George has been a really great mentor to me, as has Wi Taepa, who was the artist in residence here [Gallery 85] during lockdown."
The work on display is a mixture of the industrial designs he uses as part of his job as an electrician, and items from his "domestic duties as a solo parent", Wells said.
"The third component is a discussion about vessels, and about the tradition of pottery in this country. We have a beautiful tradition of ceramics in this country, right from the early days.
"One example of that is early settlers getting a log and wrapping it with clay. They'd throw it in a fire and when the log had burned away they'd be left with a casing that could be used to drain swamps. Amazing, eh?"
All his work was fired using either an electric kiln or a pit that he's built in his garden, Wells said.
"Indigenous people used pit firing a lot, and it's really low tech. You coat your pieces in terra sigillata, which is a really fine paste that ancients used to waterproof their vessels.
"From there you wrap them in manuka and bay leaves and mount them all in the ash. Then you cover them in sawdust and sheep s**t and light a big fire on top. When it's really sparked up you put a lid on the pit. It takes a couple of days, and it's a lovely, gentle process."
Wells said, until now, he had been "singing songs in the shower" when it came to his work, with no one there to examine what he'd come up with.
"I told myself I wouldn't be disappointed if I didn't sell anything, because this whole exercise is about starting the process and getting my stuff out there.
"This is my passion, and it's kept me going through the hard times, that's for sure."
'Ceramics' is showing at Gallery 85, 85 Glasgow St.
