TECHNICAL

WHEELS

I am primarily a thrower and use two Japanese style electric wheels – a lovely Shimpo Whisper RK-3E and an older slightly noisier but very powerful Creative Industries wheel I brought back from the States. I use bats for everything I throw and really like trimming with tungsten carbide tools from Bison Trim Tools.

KILNS

I have three kilns right now: a top loading Rhode electric kiln, the largest size I could find without having to switch to 3 phase and in which I mainly biscuit fire anything that will fit (it is brilliant at drying big pieces properly) and cook my sourdough; my large workhorse gas kiln which has been going strong for 26 years despite being cut up and rebuilt when I moved to Trebyan Forge – I am lucky to have mains gas and use two power burners imported from the States; and my big new wood-fired salt-glaze kiln, which will fire things up to 5′ tall, so watch this space!

CLAYBODIES

I use and/or mix clays from John Doble, Earthstone Handbuilding Body and Valentine’s Royale Porcelain

GLAZES

I use many glazes and have a back room jammed full of buckets which slowly degrade over time! I have tested and developed a huge range of glazes, recipes from teachers and books and myself, and use an Ohaus Triple Beam Balance for weighing out the ingredients. Glazes are very much in the ‘suck it and see’ category and can be surprisingly different between makers and firings. I am sometimes asked for my Oxblood recipe which is based on a well known recipe from the States called Pete’s Copper Red: Potash Feldspar 73, Whiting 12, Gerstley Borate 10, Silica 5, Tin Oxide 1, Copper Carbonate 0.3. The key here is the temperature at which you start reducing – too early and the reds are even but dull, too late and you get no reds at all. Try around 1000C.