Where it all started Here we have a glaze I have been producing for over 30
years. I know it has commercial legs because so many of my customers are
in the 20 to 40 age bracket. When my glazes stop having an appeal across
the generations, I will stop producing them
I suppose that the most difficult decision any potter has to make is ………what are my signature glazes going to be.
If
you have seen the Burrell Collection near Glasgow you may see why I
turned to Earthenware and the European tradition. At that time 1973/4 too
many potters I came across were throwing and copying eastern based
stoneware as the new Utopia. They were turning their backs on the
European tradition in droves.
I have great sympathy with the Zen
approach to the arts and crafts so revered by 20th century potters, but
to me that approach means that one takes from the Masters of our
artistic craft their achievements and then we try to improve on them. By
doing so we honour their work. My Masters are European, my artistic
culture is European and that is where my pots develop and come from.
A Chrome Green Glaze Reactive
Since I brought it into my range in 2005, its sales have steadily grown.
I
avoided the design and development issues that surround the colour
green as long as I could but in the end there were clear indications
within the design world, both with fabrics and interior design, that
there was a need to face the challenge.
Green of course has a
colour blindness issue, and many men have partial colour issues while
not suffering from full colour blindness. I have found that while some
men are more comfortable with the stronger greens like British racing
green, women in general have little trouble with the subtleties of
this glaze.
Rockingham Tortoiseshell Reactive
The very organic nature of this glazes is one of the reasons it has lasted so long.
It
matches and blends with wood perfectly and the depth and complexity of
the glaze only adds to the tactile qualities of my Pots.
Cobalt Blue Reactive
The British love blue pottery.
Firmly fixed in our culture and the history of our Ceramics it strikes so many craft and artistic notes.
I loved this glaze as soon as it came out of the first test firing.
It sits well on both strong bold shapes and delicate shapes.
Lustre ware ……… an example in Blue
Craft into Art. In this case form and glazes adapted after being inspired by Venetian glass
Walking the streets of Brighton I came across some blue Venetian glass goblets
From that first sighting I started to play with form, glaze and image