Coiling's the way

Though still fresh to this new, and seemingly fantastic form of pottery construction, and yet to have any of my first attempts fired, I have taken to coiling with great vigour, and whilst I used to produce many a small bowl and the odd medium sized vase,  my throwing skills are still too limited to allow me to make anything larger without collapse.  However, I have now coiled a series of largish pots. all standing around 12-14 inches high, and up to 10 inches in diameter, and appear to be limited only by the size of the kiln, or the available amount of clay.

My most recent coil pot (shown left) is 14 x 9 inches, and is still drying out as I write. The discovery of coiling led to me carry out a little research to investigate which other potters mainly use this technique. Pinterest is a wonderful resource, and has been responsible for bringing to my attention some fantastic potters, like Toshiko Takaezu, Ashraf Hanna, John Ward and Monica Young and Sarah Purvey, all producing quite large scale work using hand building techniques, either coiling, pinching or slab building. The scale is a huge attraction for me, though I am still to figure out why. Follow my Pinterest boards at:

https://uk.pinterest.com/alwillsha/ceramics-inspiration/

https://uk.pinterest.com/alwillshaw/ceramics/

As we are lucky enough to live in Cornwall, on a recent trip to St. Ives, I was able to pop into the New Craftsman Gallery, and was delighted to see, up close, work by John Ward. It remains a mystery to me how he manages to produce such fine and delicate work, using the same basic techniques as Sarah Purvey, who, by contrast creates beautifully bold and robust work. 

 

Oval Pot with Shaped Rim and Green Banded Design by John Ward

Landscape Series – Visceral Form 2015 by Sarah Purvey