I’m a ceramicist based in Northamptonshire focused on making minimalist, functional homeware. My work’s designed to be used and viewed everyday to hopefully make that morning cup of coffee slightly more joyful.
I’ve always been creative but working as a Design Engineer in the construction industry hasn’t always allowed me to create the work I’ve wanted to. Pottery has given me the outlet to combine my engineering discipline with my creativity to put the refined beauty I want to out into the world.
The first step of making a handmade wheel thrown pot is, you guessed it, throwing clay on a wheel. This is the stage where you get the general shape and dimensions of the pot, leaving extra clay where you may need additional support and thickness.
After waiting for our pot to dry to a point call “leather hard”, we use a variety of metal and plastic tools to trim away excess clay and leave us with our final shape. It’s critical the pot is the right level of dry, too wet and it collapses, to dry and it cracks.
Once our trimmed pot has completely dried out we put it through its first firing. At this stage the pot stops being raw clay and can no longer be recycled, and is now ready for the glaze to be applied to it.
Glaze is a bunch of chemicals suspended in water, so as our bisqued pot (which is incredbly porous) is covered in glaze, it absorbs the water leaving just the glaze on the surface. Once the water has evaporated away, the pot is now ready for its final firing.
After all that work, this is what we’re left with! A fully glazed and pot that’s ready to use. This one is my current gravy jug, and roast dinners taste alot better when I’m pouring the gravy with something I’ve made. The whole proccess takes approximately 2 weeks and alot of work, but the final results are (almost) always worth it.
I’m currently building up stock for my next market. My next venue here will be posted on here shortly!
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