techniques

making

Most of the work is thrown on a momentum wheel, which I made at Chesterfield College of Art and Technology in the 1970s. I enjoy the relaxed rhythm and the quietness of the flywheel, as it is the only way to hear Radio 4 without interference! The wheel is built to exactly accommodate my frame and is therefore extremely comfortable. Altering and shaping thrown forms have always fascinated me. Consequently many of my pots are made into oval, rectangular or heart shapes. See my book Pots in the Kitchen p. 103 for how to make a lid for an oval casserole.

decorating

The pots are decorated either with thin white slip, which lets the colour of the earthenware body through, or with thick slip that is brushed on to the pot while it is rotating on the wheel.
Over the past years I have experimented with combinations of paper resist, first cutting and then tearing the paper to give a softer effect, then using colour infill and slip trailing to decorate with. Having decided that the surfaces I had been creating had become static with colours that looked too dense, I began exploring the qualities inherent in my materials such as pouring slips thinly to let the colour of the body show through or applying white slip very thickly with a brush while the pot is rotating on the wheel to give a 'wrapped' look. At present I am using paper to mask an area to decorate, which gives a greater flexibility for variation and experimentation. Using brush marks, highlighted with scraffito has created a greater sense of movement and a fresh perspective. I am always on the look out for new brushes or a way of applying slip - my two favourite brushes at the moment are a coarse pastry brush and another made from dried grass collected from the beach on Anglesey, North Wales. Many of the pots are decorated with coloured glazes used thinly but with detail in thick, rather like applying watercolour, moving from light to dark.

glazing

All the pots are made in earthenware clay, decorated and finally raw glazed at leather hard before being fired to Cone 03 (about 1085°C). I am still using the original 12 cu. ft. electric kiln I bought in 1978, which I have lugged round with me ever since. Hopefully it is in its final resting place now I have moved into a workshop at home in the garden. See Single Fire by Fran Tristram for further information about raw glazing techniques.

recipes

All the ingredients in these recipes are mixed together before adding water.

SLIPS

WHITE SLIP

90% Ball Clay (TWVD) or HYPLAS 71
10% Flint

GREEN:

add 3% copper oxide to 100% ball clay

BLUE

add 3.5% cobalt oxide to 100% ball clay

BROWN

add 10% manganese oxide to 100% powdered red clay

BLACK

4pts thick brown slip
11/2 ozs red iron oxide
1oz black nickel
1oz cobalt oxide
1oz manganese oxide

DARK GREEN (for decorating)

Copper oxide 20
Cobalt oxide 10
Ilmenite 10
Mix with a little water

GLAZES

RAW GLAZE CONE 03

Lead Bisilicate 75
Borax Frit 5
Potash feldspar (FFF) 10
Powdered red clay 10 (honey) OR ball clay 10 (clear)
Flint 5
Bentonite 3

DECORATING BASE GLAZE CONE 03

(this to be mixed in small quantities with oxides)

Lead Bisilicate 72
Whiting 5
Feldspar 16
China Clay 5
Bentonite 2

FOR COLOURED GLAZES

(oxide added to dry ingredients of decorating glaze before adding water)

Green: 1% chrome oxide Brown: 4% Manganese
Tan: 6% iron oxide Black: 10% Manganese

CLAYS

Valentines medium red earthenware
Valentines sculptural body
Potclays chocolate black mixed 50:50 with sculptural red

decoration

Recent work has been based on leaf motifs, particularly oak leaves, which are very appropriate to the Derbyshire countryside where I live. Drawings are used to embellish surfaces of the pots; particular favourites are chickens and fish. Graphic lines are used to represent the creatures, not as a direct replication of the real thing but by abstracting their essential qualities. Images of fruits are also a great source of inspiration, and I am continually intrigued by the way fat pears 'sit' or oval lemons 'lie'.

Site design: Duich McKay

decorated earthenware pottery