David Jones was born in 1953. He graduated in Philosophy and Literature from the University of Warwick, in 1974. His Raku fired ceramics have been exhibited, and are in public and private collections, in Europe, Japan, Korea and the USA. He is currently a senior lecturer in the ceramics department at the University of Wolverhampton. In 1993 he worked and studied in Japan as the recipient of the INAX Design Prize for European Ceramicists.

His most recent activities in the world of ceramics involve:

1999 The writing of a book: Raku Investigations into Fire.

2000 He curated a major international exhibition of Raku at Rufford Ceramic Centre.

2001 He was invited to be a keynote speaker and exhibitor at the International Raku Symposium at Biseul, Korea.

2001 Exhibitor Nyon Triennial International Porcelain Competition, Switzerland.

He is a fellow of the Craft Potters' Association of Great Britain

Ian Gregory, born in 1942, was educated at West Cliff High School and Southend Art School. His interest in the Arts led him to explore various fine art media, however he was also drawn to the dramatic arts after studying acting, he worked on many films, television dramas and in the theatre. He also made several hit records for the music charts in the late 1950's - 1960's.

Céramiste Sculpteur

Née a Paris  en 1955

1972-75           Travail dans la restauration de monuments historique

1977                Apprentissage de ceramique  dans les Pyrénées

1978                Travail la céramique chez Augusto Tozzola

1979                Travail la céramique chez Jacky Coville

1980                Travail dans un atelier de Montreal, Canada

1985                Construction de son four à bois Noborigama de 9 m3

1990                Travail avec des potières du Togo

Conférences et Démonstrations internationals depuis 1998

Partage son atelier avec Isabelle Pammachius depuis 2000

Expositions personnelles récentes

Avril 2007        CCCLB, La Borne, France

Oct 2005       Galerie Pierre,Paris, France

2003                Galerie Pierre, Paris, France

                        Take Away Kunst, Darmstadt, Allemagne

2002                Nadia B, Dieulefit, France

2001                CCCLB, La Borne, France

                        Galerie de l’Ancienne Poste, Treigny, France

2000                Le Lavoir, Clamart, France Galerie du Don, Montsalvy, France

1999                Galerie Ortillès Fourcat, Paris, France

1998                Galerie Ortillès Fourcat, Paris, France

                        Galerie Complément d’Objet, Rouen, France

1997                Galerie B15, Munich, Allemagne

                        Galerie l’Utopie, Fontarèche, France

                        Le lavoir, Clamart, France

Expositions de Groupes

 2007            Galerie A Rebours et Nicole Mabille , Exposition d’art contemporain aux

                       Atelier du Présent, Braine-L’alleud, Belgique

                       Galerie “Collection” AAF : Les couleurs du Blanc, Paris, France

                       Chemins de Terres 2007 “Terres métamorphiques”, Abbaye de la Sauve

                       Majeure, France         

2006                                “European Ceramic Context 2006”, Bornholms, Dannemark

                     Le Lavoir,  « l’émail », Clamart , France

                        Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, France

            “Céramic’art 2006, Amnéville les Thermes, France

Ancienne église de Vichte, Belgique

Musée de Sèvre, ”Terre Contemporaines, terres de liberté” France

Galerie “A l’écu de France”, “Terres et Matières”,  Viroflay, France

                        The 6^th Mashiko Ceramics competition 2006, Japon 

 Le Lavoir, L’émail, Clamart , France

 “Terres de Feu”, Brest, France

2005                Galery Kenbishi, exposition avec ryoji Koie Nagoya, Japon

Musée Nichidou, Kasama, Japon

“Woodfire conference 2005” Workshop, gundaroo, Australie

Handwerk Galerie, Münich, Allemagne

2004                “Naked truth” Woodfire conference : Workshop, iowa , USA

2003               Musée de L’Outil, Troyes, Musée de Gers, France

                        Galerie du Vieux Bourg, Lausanne, Suisse

2002                Biennale de Chartre de Bretagne, France

2001                CC Giroussens - Le Grand Pressigny -

                        Galerie Pierre, Paris, France

2000                Galerie Granberger, Oxelgarden, Suède

                         “Printemps des Potiers”, Intervenant, Bandol, France

                        Maison de la Céramique, Giroussens , France

1999                Musée Bernard Palissy, St Avit, France

                        Galerie Christel Knirss, Allemagne

                        Biennale de Châteauroux, France

1998                Maison de la Céramique de Mulhouse, France

                        Art Tendance Sud, “Villa Aurélienne”, Fréjus, France

                        Céramique Art Galery, Australie

                        Keramic galerie, Bremen, Allemagne

1997                Galerie Yufuku, Tokyo, Japon

                        Institut Français, Rostock, Allemagne

Collections public

Né en 1948 à Caldas Da Rainha au Portugal, Eduardo Constantino est l’élève du maître potier, Guilherme barroso.En France depuis 1976, Il exerce son métier en Bretagne et s’est installé dans la ville de Quimperlé en 1991.

Expositions personnelles :

1977- Atelier des 4A. Ploemeur. France.

1983- Galerie Ster Maël. Auray. France.

1985 et 1987-Maison de la culture. Caldas da Rainha. Portugal.

1988- Galerie le Carré d’art. Larmor Plage.France.

1988- Marinha Grande . Portugal.

1989 et 1990 – Caldas da Rainha. Portugal.

1990- Galerie Artialis. Rennes. France.

1994- Chapelle São sebastião. Caldas da Rainha. Portugal.

1995- Galerie Artialis. Rennes. France.

1998- Galerie Osiris. Caldas da Rainha. Portugal.

2000- Fondation Dom Luis. Cascais. Portugal.

2003- « Variations en rouge ». Musée de la céramique. Caldas da Rainha. Portugal.

2005- « Lumière blanche ». Torres Vedras. Portugal.

        - Galerie 18. Auray. France.

Expositions collectives. ( sélection)

1978- Foire de la céramique. Caldas da Rainha. Portugal.

1982- Annaba. Algérie.

1983- Vigo. Espagne.

1984- Galerie du Salé. Quimper. France.

        - Musée de Vannes. France.

        - Château de la Roche- Jagu. France.

1985- Pulheim. Allemagne.

1986, 1989 et 1994 – Biennale internationale de Vallauris. France.

1987- Galerie du Salé. Quimper.

1988- Galerie le Temps Présent. Montbéliard. France.

        - Foire de Munich. Allemagne.

1989- Biennale internationale de céramique .Aveiro. Portugal.

1993- Biennale internationale de Carouge. Suisse.

1995- Biennale de céramique contemporaine. Saintes. France.

1996-Galerie Terreiro das Gralhas. Caldas da Rainha. Portugal.

1998- Galerie le Lavoir. Clamart.

2001- Symposium international de céramique. Caldas da Rainha. Portugal.

        - Galerie Uffizi. Oslo. Norvège.

2005- «  Les peintres de la terre ». Giroussens. France.

2006- « Terre de feu ». Musée de Brest. France.

2007- « Where I fell in love » Gallery. Shipton-on Stour. Angleterre.

Collections publiques :

- FRAC de Bretagne.

- Musée de la céramique. Caldas da Rainha. Portugal.

- Musée national de l’Azulejo. Lisbonne. Portugal.

Armel Hédé is a potter whose work is elegant and timeless. His two ranges that compliment each other are pure porcelain forms with extreme control and subtlety of decoration; and smoked porcelain forms allowing him more freedom of colour and texture. He has had exclusive exhibitions in some the best galleries in Paris, London, New York, Belgium and Switzerland.

Mike Dodd was born in Sutton, Surrey in1943. He attended Bryanston School, Dorset, from the age of fourteen and studied pottery under Donald Potter who in turn was a student of Eric Gill. He left Cambridge University in 1965 with an honours degree, and took a post-graduate course in Ceramics at Hammersmith College of Art in London. Mike opened his first pottery at Edburton near Brighton, Sussex in 1968. He built a double chamber wood-fired kiln and produced ash glazed stoneware and porcelain for four years before moving the pottery to larger premises at Battle, Sussex. In 1975 he moved to Hale, Cornwall where he built a Korean style climbing kiln from local Cornish materials and started producing his own glazes from local granites, clays, wood ashes, irons and ochres. Mike's experience of building and using the Korean kiln led the organizers of the Amuesha Indian Project to ask him to build a similar kiln in the central jungles of Peru. The project was aimed at keeping the indigenous people in their natural home. He spent six months working with the American project leader, Connie Talbot. Cumbria was Mike's next home. He had been a Senior Lecturer and then Department Head at Cumbria College of Art since 1981, and in 1986 moved his pottery to Boltongate in Cumbria. Again he sought out local materials for his glazes, using granites, hornsfels (hornsfel is a metamorphic rock type created when igneous and sedimentary rock is subjected to great temperatures, pressures or both), andesites (volcanic rock), irons and ashes. Mike returned to the south in 1994, this time to Beaminster, Dorset, where he stayed until 1999 when he moved to his present home, Butleigh in Somerset. Mike says that when he moves from Butleigh it will be feet first. Apart from those already mentioned, Mike has held teaching positions at Farnham College of Art, Medway College of Art, Harrow College of Art, the Royal College of Art, Derby College of Art, Dundee College of Art, Manchester Polytechnic, Preston Polytechnic, and has addressed the International Potters' Camp at Aberystwyth, the Functional Pottery Conference at Bolton, the Landshut College for Ceramics in Germany the workshop at Golen Bridge Pottery in Pondicherry, India. He has written numerous articles for magazines and has been written about just as frequently. His work is in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the British Craft Council, Bath Study Centre, the Clevedon Craft collection and Ulster Museum. In Mike's own words . . . Form, quality of surface, sensitivity of touch, appropriateness of clay and firing incidentals all contribute to a visual and tactile language more visceral than conceptual, which deepens through continual acquaintance and use. To help develop this language I use naturally occurring rocks, clays and wood-ashes in formulating glazes. The complex of metal oxides present in granite, horsfels, andesite and basalt provide unique and beautiful glazes closely related to Mother Earth's seasonal colours. The search for strong form and for glazes which can enhance and elucidate this formal language requires commitment and continual choice. Finally, the work is surrendered to the fire. Although disasters occur, they are more than compensated by "gifts from the kiln" - those pots that are better than you could have hoped for. These prove the spur to deepen understanding - an understanding, it is hoped, which quietly communicates itself at times of use and contemplation.

 

Andrew has had an affinity with clay from the moment his parents bought him his first potter's wheel at the age of five. Enthusiastic schoolteachers encouraged this early enjoyment of art, in particular clay.
With a desire to know more he enrolled at the local college where he completed a Btec National Diploma in 3D Design Ceramics, after which he went on to graduate from Bath College of Higher Education with a Degree in Ceramics in 1991.

The inspiration for Andrews sculptures come from a variety of influences ranging from the standing stones of the Outher Hebrides ti the coastal defences on the Normandy beaches.

Due to the curvaceous form of his sculptures they find their own
settlement when placed, often balancing unnervingly.

Once the pieces are biscuit fired in an electric kiln, selected areas are masked off before being coated with a copper matt glaze. These are then put through their final and most exciting stage, which is Raku. This involves the pieces being heated to lOOO'c at which point they are removed from the kiln glowing orange. These are placed immediately onto a bed of sawdust, which bursts into flames on contact giving unpredictable but amazing results.

The Cup & Saucer Exhibition

14 July - 31 July 2007

Walter Keeler was born in 1942. He attended Harrow School of Art, London (1958-63).

Keeler set up his first studio at Bledlow Ridge, Buckinghamshire, later moving to his current studio in Penault, Gwent, Wales. He has taught at Harrow School of Art, London (1964-68), Central School of Art, London (1974-76) and is Professor of Ceramics at the University of the West of England. Keeler makes salt-glazed stoneware and draws on a range of influences, particularly early industrial pottery such as Staffordshire Creamware and agricultural ware such as milk churns. His pots are wheel thrown then hand-altere;, they are sculptural yet functional. His use of salt-glazed wares has had a strong influence on current contemporary craft. Keeler's work is held in collections worldwide.

Ben grew up and attended school in Shipston on Stour. He went on to study Ceramics and Design at Mid Warwickshire College and gained a BA (Hons) degree in 3D Design specialising in Ceramics from Wolverhampton University. Followed by his MA in Ceramics at University of Wales Institute, Cardiff.

Whilst Ben was still studying at Mid Warks College he was also working as the part-time raku-firing instructor. He went on to teach Ceramics at Arnold Lodge whilst simultaneously working at The Chestnuts Pottery in Stratford on Avon making and selling thrown domestic stoneware and one-off raku pieces.

He helped in building catenary arch wood fired kiln at Wolverhampton Uni in the summer of 1994. He built one again in Cambridgeshire in 1998 and in 2000 rebuilt the anagama kiln there.

He was artist in residence at Tettenhall College and was responsible for organising ceramics workshops in the schools studios and exhibitions in the gallery.

In 1996 he moved to Cornwall where he ran Tredenham Pottery, St Mawes where again he made and sold domestic stoneware, this time salt-fired and also worked as a part-time production thrower for the St Neots Pottery in Bodmin.

Since 1997 Ben has been a ceramics tutor in Loughborough and is clay, glaze and kiln technical instructor for the Ceramics Degree course there.

“ My ceramic work is concerned with the malleability of material through making and firing. I endeavour to capture the softness of wheel thrown clay in the finished objects. My work revolves around a concept of function sometimes breaking through into it and sometimes referencing it. Forms are informed by early animated films such as the ‘Sorcerers Apprentice’, where domestic utilitarian objects are anthropomorphised taking on human gestures and interactions. Also by Scandinavian design.”

Ben’s pots are assembled and altered while soft on the wheel. All pieces are fired in wood fired anagama kilns for three to five days, occasionally using the pyroplasticity of the firebox area to accentuate the softness of form.

Matthew Blakely I endeavour to make pots that are beautiful visually and physically, and that are a pleasure to use. Function is important to me because it influences the way a pot will be appreciated. I want my pots to be handled, felt and explored as well as being looked at. Often certain qualities present in the pot are quite subtle and will not be discovered easily or quickly. I throw all my pots on the wheel, and try to encourage the energy and movement of the process and the softness and plasticity of the clay to show in the final piece. I create undulating rims and put throwing rings into the forms, which though thrown quite loosely have well controlled forms. The softness is within a certain structure. Often I distort the forms from the circular, sometimes cutting them and rejoining bases. This treatment, combined with the throwing marks, gives an added tension to the pieces. I use porcelain for its smoothness, whiteness and translucency,its fired strength, and for the quality that it gives to the glazes. I have developed a range of clean, fresh glazes that compliment the porcelain. These are applied quite thickly to give richness and depth to the colour, and often move down the form, pooling on ridges, emphasizing the fluidity and softness of the forms. With the saltglazed pots I use a vibrant blue/black slip and a variety of glazes that react with the salt vapour, becoming extremely fluid and starting to run off the pot. The resulting glassy rivulets, runs and drips of glaze make the pot seem like a moment in time - captured and frozen.

 

Pierre Ohniguian is a master potter working in central France creating the most amazing raku vessels which can measure up to 5 feet in height. Raku means that the pots are taken directly from the kiln at about 1000°c and plunged into sawdust or other materials to create the patterns and textures. Pierre uniquely likes to combine different metals with his ceramic vessels
 

Victoria’s striking vessel forms sit firmly within the studio pottery tradition. Whilst the forms themselves are often quite remarkable, their intention remains utilitarian. It is through this conversation between purpose and structure that the meaning of Victoria’s work resonates:

"My work is an exploration of form through the language of the vessel. A vessel exists to be filled and emptied and my pieces are made with this purpose in mind, be it flowers or thoughts."

Victoria works in stoneware at a range of scales and each piece is hand-built, predominantly coiled. She uses strong contrasts between glazes and scarification in order to retain the movement of making, and to help describe and outline each form.

"I love the process of slowly building vessels from coils. It is partly the time taken in the making that brings me the most pleasure. The vessel emerges gradually over days and sometimes weeks. I find myself developing a powerful relationship with each curve and edge. Then suddenly, towards the end of this long process, the piece takes on a presence of its own. After hours of pummelling, cutting, scraping and smoothing, this thing, that was once just the air in front of me, looks back at me. It always takes me by surprise when this happens. I’m never expecting it and it always seems much more than of my own making. It’s a magnificent moment."

A ceramics graduate of the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, and further trained in the studios of tutors Colin Pearson and Janice Tchalenko, Richard is an established professional potter whose work has been exhibited throughout the UK and can be found in collections internationally.  He is a Fellow of the Craft Potters Association, and is on the Crafts Council of Great Britain's Index of Selected Makers.

Richard's broad pottery teaching experience spans twenty-five years.  He is a part-time member of staff on the Harrow degree course, and his speciality as a one-to-one tutor has attracted potters around the world for intensive training in his own studio.

Following an interest in early English slipware, Richard began an ongoing exploration of the medium.  Using traditional slip-trailing and sgraffito techniques, he spent two years developing ranges of honey and clear glazed tableware.  However, preoccupied with achieving greater depth and texture of surface, a more personal style began to evolve.  He brushed as opposed to dipping base colours on the terra cotta, building up layers of thin slip washes.  Using paper resist and sponge-printed motifs, the decoration became geometric and analytical, the forms concave and stylised.

Two years spent working as a volunteer on a crafts project in the Papua New Guinea highlands 1985-87 had an overwhelming impact, both emotionally and politically.  This led to a radical reappraisal of his work as a craftsman, and marked a return to classical vessel forms, a looser decorative style and a more sombre palette.

Recent work reflects a fresh sense of optimism and signals a further move back to the essential spontaneity and warmth of functional pottery.

Selected Shows
Alpha House Gallery, Amalgam, Anderson Gallery, Beatrice Royal Gallery, Black Swan Guild, Bluecoat Display Centre, Bettles Gallery, Clode Gallery, Collection Gallery, Contemporary Ceramics, Devon Guild of Craftsmen, Hugo Barclay, Ladygate Gallery, Leicester City Gallery, Mid-Cornwall Galleries, New Ashgate Galleries, Open Eye Gallery, Oriel 31, Paddon and Paddon, Plymouth Arts Centre, Porticus, Rufford Craft Centre, Rye Art Gallery, Sanderson George and Peach, Terrace Gallery, Tolquhon Gallery, Walford Mill, Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

Publications
'The Complete Potter ~ Throwing'   Series Editor Emmanuel Cooper  (Batsford - ISBN 07134 66480)
'The Complete Practical Potter' By Josie Warshaw  - Throwing chapter by RP (Anness Publishing - ISBN 07548 01950)
'Ceramic Review' Featured in issue 169 pp36-41

VHS Video
'An Introduction to Throwing' - Designed to complement Richard's Batsford book, it is a live introduction to the fundamental techniques of clay preparation and throwing.