Stuff that I've done:
- Technical
adviser and instructor, "Living In The Past", BBC2, 1976/77.
- From
about 1986 until 2000 I ran the BPS Roving Raku Experience, running one
day Raku Process courses for Schools, Colleges, Clubs, and in other
people's gardens.
- With
Lexa
Lawrance, Founded "Playing with Fire", an annual course in experimental
Kiln Building, run over two weekends every Spring near Bath. UK.
- Demonstrated
wattle and daub kiln at the International Ceramics Festival,
Aberystwyth, Wales, UK 1995.
- Demonstrated
wattle and daub kiln at "Fire over the North", Unthank, near Penrith,
UK 1996.
- Demonstrated
wood-fired brick kiln build and firing at "A Load Of Flaming Potters"
Stroud, Gloucester, UK 1998.
- Presentation
"Explorations In Fire", N.C.E.C.A., San Diego, USA, 2003.
- Demonstration
wood-fired kiln build and firing, Potfest South-west, Frome, Somerset,
UK 2003.
- Course
Leader, One-day wood-fired kiln building course, Noble Falls, Perth,
Australia, 2004.
- Wood-fired
kiln build at Newton Rigg College Community Kiln Site, Penrith, UK 2004.
- Demonstrated
building and firing wood-salt kiln at a Potfest In The Pens, Penrith,
UK 2004.
- Demonstrated
building and firing a Low Cost Wood Salt Kiln at the International
Ceramics Festival, Aberystwyth, Wales, UK 2005.
- Built the same design of Kiln at a workshop near Mashiko, Japan, April 2006.
- 2006. Attached as Technical Advisor to the International Ceramics Festival , a Bi-Annual event held at the beginning of July in odd numbered years at the Arts Centre, University of Aberystwyth, Wales. A truly wonderful Festival!
- One of four Presenters building Kilns at "Fantastic Fire", Mashiko, Japan, October 2007
DO YOU HAVE A CERAMICS BASED PROBLEM?
All the stuff I learnt over the years, passed on, and got feedback from , is still available to you if you need it. All it costs is initially an email and then possibly a phone call.I'm on Skype, so it needen't cost a lot, and if I don't have the answer there's a very good chance I know someone who does.
As always there is the caveat that I cannot promise to be right every time, and you don't have to take my advice!
A bit of biography
Born in 1937, my Parents were both Artists; My Father a Wood Engraver and Etcher, my Mother a Painter.
After Schooling I went to Hornsey College of Art and trained in Graphics with Etching and Aquatint as my crafts. By the end of the course in 1958 I'd had enough, I couldn't relate to two dimensions; it bored me and I wasn't a compulsive drawer like my Father, so the prospect of my deferred National Service or Draft was appealing as a way of leaving home- travelling- broadening the horizons-what have you!
However that idea fell through; I was failed medically.
What next?
Teach Art I suppose, my Father's idea, I wasn't wildly keen, but it seemed the best option provided I increased my craft skills. So I went to the then local Art School at Farnham in Surrey to fill that gap, and found Clay, or rather it found me.
I had the great good fortune to be taught by Paul Barron and Henry Hammond, two superb and imaginative Craftsmen, and they laid a foundation in me that has kept me going ever since.
Eventually after Teacher Training, meeting my Wife Kate, a variety of jobs that did include some teaching, and starting a family, I re-founded Bath Pottery in 1967 and after a shaky start potted full time until 1985.
In the interim Kate and I started Bath Potters' Supplies in 1979, and this grew until I had to stop taking orders for pots in '85.
BPS continued and continues to thrive after Kate and I and our Partner Mike Bailey left it in August 2005.
So now I am back doing what I love to do; making pots and firing them, preferably in wood fuelled Kilns, and using all the stuff I've learnt over the years to help other Teachers and clay addicts with their problems.