My Story

At the age of eleven I was introduced at secondary school to pottery. The lessons only lasted one term and since then I have always wanted to learn and do more. I particularly remember wanting to use the potters wheels in the studio, that never seemed to be used by students. Academic study took precedence during the Thatcher years and then life got in the way.

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I retired from telecommunications engineering in 2015 at the age of 54.

 

I purchased a second-hand studio potters wheel that I renovated and then started throwing pots. My pottery is hand thrown using 70% commercially produced earthenware buff clay and 30% locally dug clay that contains a proportion of naturally occurring iron oxide.

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A friend working at a local university fired a few of my early attempts along with his student's pieces.

 

I built my own top loading, gas fired down draft kiln in the summer of 2016, based on a design that was shared on YouTube by Simon Leach. I managed to acquire firebricks from a local brickyard to construct the outer walls and chimney of the kiln and purchased insulation bricks and the burners I purchased from Lithuania.

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I am now successfully firing my glazed pots in this kiln at earthenware temperatures up to 1150°C.

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