So these were the original wonky pots that I made out of frustration of wanting to make the sort of work I wanted rather than being a production potter. The idea was to make them with plenty of chunky grog so fine details wouldn’t be possible. The slip was then dribbled down the pots and they were shock to encourage the slip to keep dripping
You may remember my post on Saggars and some of my results. I really want to talk a bit more how these wobbly pots are made.
It was when this wonky pot gained traction on instagram and ended up going to live in Portugal I decided it was time to make some more wonky pots.
Naked wobbly pots awaiting their decoration. They are made from a secret stoneware earthenware blend with some iron oxide added for effect. They were thrown loosely and then treated to a beating with a piece of 2 by 1 that was in the workshop.A stream of porcelain slip launched towards the wonky pots. I fill a cup of slip and fling it as hard and fast as I can.the impact of throwing the slip on the pottery sends it flying off in all directions. this is a different round of throwing slip to the video andthe splash is so violent there are still particles of slip in the air.Another batch of wonky pots all slipped and drying in the garden.Not all my wonky wobbly pots are saggar fired these days, this was fired next to the saggar and has gone to live with the amazing Lighthearts in Brum whom I owe a lot to.
I really love to make these, and I really want to make more, I don’t care about function with this form, I just want to create something different. In fact I want to make them more wobbly, wonky and uncontrolled.
I don’t make anything simply and I need more iron oxide and terracotta to make another batch of wonky pots.
I want to know as an audience if there is anything you want to see more off from my pottery videos or blog articles? Please just let me know in the comments below.
I have never been to see Winchcombe Pottery, so when I was visiting the Lighthearts earlier in July they suggested we should go on a trip there. In case you don’t know much about their history click here, needless to say Michael Cardew reopened the country pottery in 1926 with the help of Elijah Comfort and Sydney Tustin. It was then taken over by Ray Finch in 1946 and was run by him and his family until the last year. It is now run by Matt Grimmitt who is the Great Great Grandson of Elijah Comfort. Entering the pottery they…
Or should that be thinking backwards. Recently I have been finding myself rediscovering older thinking and going back to earlier ideas. For a start I decided to go back to my original title for my research and for my thesis, I also found a business card on my desk that showed marks into the clay that I had recently tried and thought was a new idea for my work. The business card was from my final year at university and I stopped making the marks as a tutor told me it made the work “too busy”.
Watching Alex Shimwell throw on YouTube always reminds me of watching Kevin Millward. Kevin Millward was a visiting tutor during my final year of my Undergraduate degree, he only taught at the university one day a week for four weeks. By this point I had been watching YouTube videos for a year to help with my throwing and I was truly awful. Not only did I not know what I was doing, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I had drawings of what I wanted to make which were far beyond my making abilities, so I just…
I didn’t know it at the time but James Hake gave the best advice to me when as an art student and I told him I wanted to be a Potter. His advice was simply that you should start off small, making only a small variety of objects, at most five or six. Those objects should be developed to the highest quality you can make before adding more objects to the range. I have to admit I didn’t listen having a whole shop to fill and I was too busy listening to the voices of potential customers, make this make…
So this week I made some prototype saggar formers and saggars, I mixed my own clay with sawdust, grog from broken pots and some molochite for added strength. Now if I didn’t have a deadline I would let them dry over two weeks, but I had a deadline so I force dried overnight and fired the next day so you will see some cracks in the larger saggar. Also if you want to make a saggar former don’t leave such big gaps as the clay can get stuck in them making the harder to remove.
So recently I picked up Tommy Kane’s An Excuse to Draw, as a treat for myself as I reached 400 days in a row sketching, and painting. I showed the start of the process on instagram but the randomness of my skill level changes daily and is still very frustrating. I probably wouldn’t have shared this book but there was something I discovered with the first few pages that really hit home with me.
