Ceramics

Past Work

Stoneware Coil Pots from 2015 when I started working with clay on the wheel again after a break of twenty one years.

First the bases are thrown on the wheel, then the bodies are constructed using coils of clay to build up height, pausing every so often to allow the clay to firm up so the form doesn’t slump under the weight of additional coils. The pot is shaped in stages, then stamped and left to become bone dry, at which point it is fired in a bisque firing. If the pot comes out unscathed it can be glazed and put through the final firing. Disaster can occur at any stage of the process, and you’re never entirely sure if it will be a success until you’re happy with the results of the glaze firing.

Re-creating a Viking/Anglo-Saxon style jug.

In 2016 one of my projects was to re-create a broken jug. The photos above show some of the stages in one of my attempts. I then went on to duplicate what I had done at a slightly larger scale, fully glazing two of the four to see how they compared to the oxide washed, unglazed exteriors. All of the jugs were made using stoneware clay for a modern interpretation of what historically would be earthenware pieces. Click on the photos for a closer look.

Playing with history

In early 2016 I attended an Anglo Saxon pottery workshop just up the road in Rothbury, Northumberland, run by Master Potter, ancient pottery specialist and experimental archaeologist Graham Taylor, of Potted History. I had a specific request for this – please can I have a go on your wheel?

Graham’s wheel is one he built for demonstrating historical pottery technology, and uses it regularly at heritage events, including up at Vindolanda Roman Fort on Hadrian’s Wall, where he also built a kiln to fire the pots. I’d been itching to try it ever since I first saw it in action.

In between creating thumb pot vessels using Graham’s own replicas and photos of Anglo Saxon pottery museum pieces as examples, I got my chance to use the wheel. It’s not easy! When I first learned how to throw back in the 1990s, one of the wheels I used was a foot powered kick wheel with a heavy stone flywheel. It was quite relaxing to use. Graham’s wheel made from a wooden cartwheel is lighter and faster, and requires using a long stick in between the spokes at regular intervals to ‘wind’ the wheel back up to keep it going. Managing the throwing and the winding was a steep learning curve and this affected the end result, but I loved the experience.

The coil and thumb pots made during the workshop were left with Graham and later fired in a pit firing, causing the surfaces to become blackened. One of the small pots was made with a ‘window’ of orange glass, which fused into the pottery during the firing. Of the pieces made it’s probably my favourite. The Potted History workshops are well worth experiencing.

Getting Medieval

Of the two forms I threw on Graham’s wheel only one survived, a squat heavy ‘jug’ which I took to Glyn’s pottery studio to work on, attaching a handle and pressing my thumbs into the base typical of the Medieval style of pottery. This inspired me to make more so I could use them for re-enacting purposes with the 14th century group based at the castle in Newcastle Upon Tyne, The Newcastle Array.

Fired pots from the Anglo Saxon workshop below.