Putting the finishing touches to the wicket on my gas fired salt kiln. My work is divided approximately equally between three kilns. My new three chambered wood firing kiln has demanded much of my attention recently in part due to a Creative Wales Award from the Arts Council of Wales specifically designed to allow me to experiment and develop this aspect of my work. My other kilns are still in commission and the older and trusted oil kiln is, for the moment, the mainstay of my operation although I fully intend the wood kiln to take over that position. Salt Glazing is an exciting, but often less than predictable, method of firing pottery. As the kiln approaches the height of the firing the temperature has risen to a white hot 1260°C. At this point I throw small packets of common salt into the fireboxes of the kiln where it reacts with the intense heat and vapourises. The sodium from the salt reacts with the silica and alumina from the clay to form a glass or glaze. This process continues until I have used 15 lbs. of salt and the temperature has risen to the searing white heat of 1300°C. Three chamber wood firing kiln.

The manufacture of Salt glazed pottery first began in 14th Century Germany and spread to England by the late 15th Century. By the end of the eighteenth and throughout the nineteenth Century Salt Glazing became widely used in industry to produce millions of cheap utilitarian wares such as ink or Ginger Beer bottles. Salt Glazed pots are typically rich in texture and colour, the texture often compared to orange peel and the colours ranging from deep and intense orange to pink and yellow sometimes with a lustre reminiscent of Mother of Pearl.The wood kiln has a 'salt chamber' which has provided something of a challenge in acheiving the surfaces that I can obtain from the gas fired salt kiln.

In the oil fired kiln I fire reduction stoneware. I try to use as many local materials as possible for my slips and glazes particularly wood ash from the fires in the house and stone dust from a number of local quarries. A coarse, red clay that I dig from the woods on the other side of town makes a good slip that influences the colour of any glaze that I put over it. I believe what Hamada once said, to be true; he said that it is better to use a limited range of materials and glazes and come to know them well than have too great a choice and never fully explore the possibility of any of them. My work is not highly decorated; my main concern is the complex relationships that exist within the form of a pot and the subtle differences that make two very similar pots very different. However, I find it difficult to let a pot pass through totally undecorated. Most of my decorative technique takes place in the clay’s surface. Drawing, combing, faceting and Hakame are my most often used methods although I am drawn to wax resist between slips. Salt Glazing is a way of decorating by proxy in that the kiln performs a magic that isn’t entirely controllable. One can optimistically set the pots in the kiln in a certain pattern hoping to repeat the effect of a previous firing. Occasionally all goes to plan. More often the kiln and the vapours have a greater say.

Stoking the main firebox of the three chamber wood kiln.

Facceted Salt Glazed Bottle.

There is usually a full range of pieces available in the showrooms attached to the pottery. However, for those of you who live a long distance away or are overseas the following is a list of outlets that currently stock my work. Alternatively, you can email or write to me and I will email to you photographs of actual pieces available at that time. Postage is charged extra at cost only and there is no charge for packing. Please see our contact page.

Some Galleries where my work can be found.

Contemporary Ceramics.	Marshall Street.	LONDON.
St.Ives Gallery	Fish Street.	ST. IVES, CORNWALL.
Thackeray gallery	Thackeray Street, Kensington.	LONDON.
Harlequin Gallery.	Greenwich High Road.	LONDON.
Brook Street Pottery.	Brook St.	HAY ON WYE..
C.P.A. in the North.	Rufford Craft Centre.	OLLERTON.
Primavera.	Kings Parade,	CAMBRIDGE.
The Gallery.	Aberystwyth Arts Centre.	ABERYSTWYTH.
The Goldmark Gallery.	Uppingham	RUTLAND.
Gallery 9	St James's Buildings.	BATH.
Gallery St Ives.		TOKYO.
Fountain Fine Art	Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire.	WALES.
Pucker Gallery.	Newbury Street.	BOSTON. USA.