Pottery
'Come down to the House of the Potter'
Come and view my workshop at Bishop's Palace Hereford HR4 9BN - but phone first! (on 01432 373349)
I am a working potter, not a ceramicist, firing mainly to stoneware temperatures.
My pots tell the story of the land, so I make glazes out of local clays from the 3 Choirs Counties, and my clay body is a combination of Staffordshire and Shropshire clays.
I make functional ware (designed to be used - oven & microwave safe) and decorative ware, using wax or leaf resist, sprigs, oxides and sgraffitto.
About Local Clays
Local clays vary and none of them are identical. I prefer to access regularly exposed earth such as gardens and open fields. The glazes they make are unique, not only to the particular source location but to how I process them in the workshop. They can be used as slips, as brushed or trailed décor, or as the principal component of another glaze recipe - which might also contain local clay. They also perform differently at different temperatures, so the variations can be immense.
Utilising local clays is a wonderful and rather awe inspiring process, a creative intervention in the life cycle of rock. Families in this part of the world might often have lived or farmed here for hundreds of years in unbroken continuity, and will be captivated by the idea that they can possess, for instance, a jug or bowl which has been glazed with clay from their own land, and which can be used for water from their own springs, or milk from their own cattle.