“For several years now I have been developing an interest in the pots and potters of the mid 18th C. I sometimes feel that modern potters have ignored this period of English ceramics as a source of inspiration, possibly because of its associations with the worse excesses of the industrial revolution.

However, this was the time of the Lunar Men, the Enlightenment, advances in Medicine and developing transport links. Pioneers such as Josiah Wedgewood, Thomas Whieldon and William Greatbach took what was basically a cottage industry and transformed it into a hugely successful worldwide concern. The pots were still made substantially by hand but with a sophistication born of newly discovered white clays and research into glaze and body technology.

Over this period I have been spending time in Museums, reading specialist journals and generally absorbing the forms and details of the pots of the mid to late 18th C.  Applying this research has meant manufacturing specialist tools such as roulettes and handle dies, which I have designed based on originals in Museum collections

I throw most of the pots and use press-moulds for spouts and knops, roulettes for decoration and extrusions for handles in the 18th C. manner. Bisque firing is to 1120*C followed by a glaze firing to 1020*C

More recently I have been moving towards decorative pieces again, still using the glazes developed for the creamware but building patterns using underglaze slips and pencils. Very recently, during the pandemic I have started to develop pots for the display of cut flowers based upon the ornate Tulipières made in the Netherlands in the 18th and 19th centuries.”