My glazes are sometimes called 'Reactive Glazes'

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