Level 1 - A (not so) brief glimpse at a growing obsession

I'm not sure if it's a necessary part of blogging etiquette or not, but having not added a second post to my new, and only, blog, since the day I started it, I feel the need to apologise to those waiting, breathe baited, for my next update. Quite who those unfortunate souls might be, or indeed, what the actual purpose of my blogging is, I have absolutely no idea. But if it acts as a useful journal of my ceramic career to date, it might at some future stage be helpful to me in my increasingly forgetful state, and, who knows, may even be of some passing interest to others. At the very least, it is doing no harm to anyone, as far as I know, and might even provide a welcome relief from the ever increasing political turmoil that we as a race seem hell bent on creating.

That said, it is over a year since I started my first, Level 1 NCFE course in pottery run by the Cornwall Adult Ed Service. Initially, I started the course, for an entirely unknown reason, with a view to learning and gaining experience of mould making and slip casting. Consequently, it was with a heavy heart that I left the very first session, having been told that the course would not cover these aspects of pottery, which were themselves outside the experience of Penny, our tutor. After a few early sessions, I began to realise that any thoughts I had of creating professional looking pots using the most basic of introductory techniques of pinching and coiling, seemed an awfully long way off. However, it was not uninteresting learning some of these basics, and we created a series of tiles so that we could test the different oxides and glazes available to us. That said, I was very keen to move on to what I considered to be rather more advanced techniques that offered more potential for producing successful results. The introduction to throwing covered all the basics of centring, hollowing out, and opening up, and within the first two hour session, I was moderately pleased with my largely asymmetrical results. It was not long before my one session per week was proving to be frustratingly inadequate, and I was soon looking for a potters wheel that would enable me to continue my experimentation at home between lessons. My first wheel, collected one damp November evening from Stoke-on-Trent, was a Wenger kick wheel. Sturdily built, and coming from the heart of the British Ceramics Industry, I felt I should have been able to turn out more professional pots within days of manhandling it out of my van and into the shed. However, as ever, it didn't quite turn out that way. Though I managed to produce some reasonable results, I always struggled to maintain a constant speed, and found it difficult to brace my elbows and forearms sufficiently to centre the clay as exactly as on the electric wheels at my Tuesday evening class, because of the constant movement of my left leg.

Working small on my Wenger kick wheel.

Selection of early earthenware pots

It wasn't long before my obsessional side was demanding what I considered to be a more professional means of production, and when I saw an electric wheel for sale on Ebay, in Cornwall, I decided I must have it, if I was to produce items of a higher quality, and more importantly, on a larger scale. From the very beginning, I wanted to be in a position to create large scale pots. My Internet research for the project we were required to produce for the Level 1 qualification, had made me aware of some of the greats of contemporary ceramics, like Nic Collins, Svend Bayer and Lee Kang-hyo (if you have any interest whatsoever in pottery, and if you're reading this, I hope you have at least a passing regard for the craft, or you'll quickly begin to find this blog increasingly dull, you should find the time to take a look at the Goldmark Gallery video on this fascinating character and the way he creates his beautifully massive pots - visit You Tube to learn about the work of Lee Kang-hyo ) all of whom work on a wonderfully large scale, and I, for a reason I have yet to comprehend, aspired to recreate work of a similar size.

On second thoughts, having reread the above paragraph, I feel I might be doing you a disservice by suggesting that only those with an interest in pottery should view the You tube video linked above. In fact,  I recommend it to all of you reading this as it may just refresh your belief in human kind, in offering a privileged glimpse into the world of a man at peace with himself and his work.

Anyway, back to the tale of my own progress towards clay-based enlightenment. 

Small earthenware bowl decorated with copper oxide and turquoise crackle glaze.

By the time I completed that first course, and was awarded my first ever qualification in ceramics, I was spending most of my spare time, working on my electric wheel, and producing endless small teabowls, and struggling to throw anything larger. Whilst pleased with the developing refinement of my thrown bowls, I was still frustrated not to be able to produce work on a larger scale. I was also disheartened by the lack of opportunity to further my ceramic learning in Cornwall at an affordable price. Having released a passion for working with clay, I was keen to pursue it further, much further. So much so, that I considered enrolling on the Contemporary Creative Practice degree course at Cornwall College, specialising in Ceramics. Unfortunately, having discussed this with the head of department, to establish the feasibility of studying part-time, whilst continuing to work; further investigation into how I might fund the course led nowhere, unless I was prepared to take on a huge new debt. Quite how we arrived at a stage where the desire to learn, meant undertaking to pay back a loan larger than the mortgage I took out on my first house, I have no idea, but am predisposed to blame Mrs. Thatcher, who. lets face it, is solely responsible for most of the negatives of modern British society, one way or another.  

As you can imagine, my progress seemed to have come to a halt. I would have to fathom it out on my own, with the help of You Tube. Possibly not the best way to proceed, so it was with relief when I received a call from my tutor, Penny, to let me know that the Adult Ed. service would be offering a Level 2 course starting in September 2015. At the same time, I also discovered that Richard Phethean, current chairman of the CPA, who had moved from London to Cornwall the previous year, had set up his workshop and was offering evening courses. I enrolled on a series of ten sessions. In the space of a couple of months, I'd gone from completing my first course, struggled to find a higher level course, then ended up enrolled on two separate courses. I couldn't wait.