Through the rest of the 1970s he worked in Northland, producing domestic ware, until making the decision to focus solely on art pottery in 1979.
[1]: 52, 113–114 Like many New Zealand potters of the period, Parker's early work was influenced by Bernard Leach, Shoji Hamada and Soetsu Yanagi, but from the 1980s he developed an individual style.
[5]: 40 His techniques include coiling, cutting, press moulding, throwing and slab building, and he uses a lead glaze for brightness and iron and copper pigments.
[5]: 40 His most characteristic works are his signal plates (small round decorated plates designed to be hung in groups on the wall) and his Grecian urn-shaped vases, where the form is built by flattened coil construction in terracotta, then the exterior is slab-cut with wire; top openings are cut with wire in trefoil or quatrefoil shapes, giving glimpses of the unglazed terracotta interior, while the body is decorated in painted glazes.
[1]: 114 In 1995 Parker was commissioned by Malcolm Harrison to create an anchorstone, titled G8, for a large-scale installation in New Zealand's Parliament Buildings.