Skip to main content
20th Century British Studio Potters Marks (new edition- forthcoming)

One for the Pottery Nerds....

A nice chap called James Hazelwood got in touch a while ago to ask me to submit my very own stamp for consideration for the new updated version of the much respected-  above tome.

I hasten to add I am still under consideration at this point, and with many varied talented fellow potters out there- there's only room for so many...so its not a "shoo-in"...But I was very pleased to be asked to send in my own "marks" and "stamps".

I guess I started by not signing any of my works- (not a good start really!) whilst at Uni- then progressed to using an old cylinder head block stamp set (courtesy of my Dad from his motor works- they still appear occasionally) then onto a variety carved plaster stamps. These are applied onto a small pad of clay- or impressed into the clay directly.  I also use an old co axial cable to impress a round ring mark- more a decorative touch really.

Well there you go- I took some photos- made some drawings and then submitted them off to James. Poor old James he has a tough job taking over from the late Eric Yates Owen and Robert Fournier. What a task  he's got on his hands....and where would you begin?










Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Making and firing Raku tiles

I have just had in one or two orders and enquiries concerning Raku tiles. Making them  can drive you to despair- what with their tendancy to warp, crack and shrink! It's amazing how something so simple is in actual fact so hard to make.  It's also very difficult to  lift a flat object out of the kiln with tongs from a red hot kiln. Well, with some prior experience,  I've developed a firing system for tiles now which is now working pretty well. Quite simply, I lay each tile on a flat bed of ceramic fibre. That way each tile is raised slightly off the kiln shelf- and it's then easy to grasp the tile with tongs and drop into your reduction chamber/smoking bin. I stack  two or three kiln shelves and can pack in  about 20 tiles in one batch - depending on size. I do let the kiln cool slightly before carefully removing each shelf of tiles. I back off the gas- get each shelf of tiles out- then power back up to temperature and repeat till they're all safely ...

Early days with volcanic and crater glaze part 2....

I glazed a couple of volcanic/crater glaze tapered bowls recently. They almost "half" work- but I'm still not convinced I've got it right- although it's promising. I layered combinations of glaze but I'm having a slight problem with the thick layers of silicon carbide glaze crawling. Sticky fingers maybe? Lots more to come over the next few months, probably with the next recipe- Pinnel Strontium Crater - with a variety of glaze stain additions . It's a pretty reliable recipe so fingers crossed.

Mo Jupp

My connection to Mo was as a student at Middlesex University in the dog days of the ceramics course during the 90's. He was my personal tutor for four years. Diminutive of stature and blinking in the funny way he did, we all came to love him as a tutor. Middlesex then,  had a reputation  for slip casting and mold making, and I was awful at both! Instead I had more of an interest in sculpture rather than functional tableware. Mo seemed to take an interest in my progress. He was very perceptive of individual students' abilities and offered guidance without ever dominating the discussion. He could be critical of course,  but in such a way that was constructive and not "dead ended."  At times he played down his reputation ,when we  first year students twigged what a great artist he really was. He simply claimed that he was a big fish in a small pond unlike his heroes - Giacometti or Modigliani. Modestly he said his income nearly all came from teachi...