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Inside Steve Harrison Glazing big flat

things Extruding with Jim

Robison Hatfield hopefuls Alan Baxter

New

sletter S

umm

er 2005

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COMMITTEE 2004/2005 PRESIDENT Lady Sainsbury CHAIRMAN Victor Knibbs 8 Nightingale Way, St Neots,Huntingdon, Cambs. PE19 1UQ. 01480 214741 VICE CHAIRMAN Frank Logan Burbage, Thetford Road Coney Weston, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk IP31 1DN. 01359 221323 SECRETARY Susan Cupitt 62 Humberstone Road, Cambridge CB4 1JF 01223 311937. susancupitt@waitrose.com TREASURER Rosemarie Cooke 13 Biggin Lane, Ramsey, Huntingdon, Cambs PE26 1NB. 01487 813835 cooke@rosecooke.freeserve.co.uk EDITOR Mark Boyd 24 School Close, Gamlingay, Sandy, Bedfordshire SG19 3JY. 01767 650904 mark.boyd@rspb.org.uk MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY Tony Pugh Vine Leigh Cottage, Main St, Wardy Hill, Ely, Cambs CB6 2DF. 01353 778462 tonypugh@onetel.com PUBLICITY SECRETARY Penny Hayes The Four, Chapel End Way, Stambourne, Essex CO9 4NT. 01440 785688 PHayes2074@aol.com EXHIBITIONS ORGANISER Carolyn Postgate 5 Whitwell Way, Coton, Cambridge CB3 7PW 01954 211033. carolyn@clara.co.uk SELECTED MEMBERS SECRETARIES Liz Smith and Graham Smith 14 Oakfield Road, Long Stratton, Norwich Norfolk. 01508 536526 Landmarkplanning@hotmail.com Margaret Gardiner Glebe House, Great Hallingbury, Bishops Stortford, Herts CM22 7TY 01279 654025. magsgardi@yahoo.com GENERAL COMMITTEE MEMBER Brenda Green Hardys, School Lane, Gr Horkesley, Colchester Essex CO6 4BL. 01206 271019 WEBSITE Harvey Bradley 29 Meadow Rise, Billericay, Essex CM11 2DT 01277 659281. harvey@the-eapa.org EVENTS ORGANISERS Jerry Finlayson Mill Farm Barn, Wades Lane, Shotley, Ipswich IP9 1EG 01473 788423 Frank Logan (address above)

Summer events We have a busy season upon us. Our Summer Exhibition is at All Saints Church, Jesus Lane, Cambridge in July. Margaret Gardiner has arranged for us to have a stand at Hatfield House on the first weekend of August. This is quickly followed by our Potters Camp (fully booked) on 11th-14th August. Then there is a Selected Members exhibition at Primavera in October, with the year being completed by our Winter Open Exhibition at All Saints Church in November/December. There is also a demonstration day in early October. Look out for details. I hope you will support all or some of the events by submitting your work or helping in other ways. I look forward to meeting many of you.

Committee We are losing some Committee members, which is always sad. Liz and Graham Smith, Selected Members Secretaries, and Penny Hayes, our Publicity Secretary, have all resigned. I thank them on your behalf for all that they have contributed to the life of the Association in their time on the Committee. Rosemarie Cooke is also leaving after seven years as Treasurer. Again we are indebted to her for this long stint of willing and sterling service. As you can see, there is a continuing need for new blood to strengthen your committee. Can you help? We also need help with the journalistic side of the website, and Mark Boyd would welcome an assistant to handle advertising in the Newsletter.

Day events I apologise to those unable to attend the Steve Harrison demonstration in March. When the date was fixed last year, no one realised, not even Steve, that March 27 was Easter Day. We will try to avoid such clashes again.

Harvey Bradley The Committee has offered Honorary Membership to Harvey Bradley, as a token of appreciation

for his many years as Editor of our Newsletter. Harvey was instrumental in lifting the newsletter from a photocopied sheet to a quality printed magazine. He also launched our website.

Selected members Three candidates applied this year, one being successful. Congratulations to Ray Auker on being elected to Selected status. We look forward to seeing his work at forthcoming exhibitions. Constitution, logo and title

The updating and changes to our Constitution, Title and Logo are proceeding in stages owing to the many technicalities involved: changes of banking arrangements, stationery, e-mail addresses etc.

Future events Carolyn Postgate has booked Blackthorpe Barn for our Summer Open Exhibition in 2006. I hope that the major improvements to the junction on the A14 will make access easier and safer and so boost attendance. We have been approached by the events co-ordinator at Blickling Hall, a National Trust house near Norwich. He is inviting members to show at an exhibition, in the Grounds and House, between May and October 2006. Some of us took part in a similar event in 2001. If you are interested, contact Paul Gray direct. Tel 01263 738077 or paul.gray@nationaltrust.org.uk

Victor Pink teapot by new Selected Member Ray Auker

Chairmans report

Front cover: Sunflower perspective sprig, Steve Harrison (see pp6-7). Photo Mark Boyd

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I have done it again. And not for the last time, Ill wager. I have gone home after a demonstration day and felt inspired enough to have a go at some of the tricks and techniques that seem so easy, fluid and useful on the day, only to rediscover that the most important elements are a good eye and plenty of practice. There are quick fixes in potterypaper clay over the cracks works for some, a heatgun may help others in distressbut there is no substitute for practice. But these demonstration daysand I am thinking of Steve Harrisons featured on pages 6 and 7 in particularcan spark a new direction, a new enthusiasm or even just unblock a technical difficulty. Before long, these new nuggets will infuse our own work, and why not? To take what speaks to you from the finest practitioners of our age and to allow that to inform our own work is what artists have always done. Thats how we can recognise different movements in the craft and art worlds. Its not about the slavish imitation that dogs so much of amateur painting, but about using the best of modern work as a context for our own. Seen in this light, I am even more grateful for the effort that goes into organising our events programme.

Thrown by the Editor

Ceramica el Molino

While on a winter break holiday in La Palma, Jannie and I visited a pottery workshop and ethnographic museum run by Ramon y Vina, in Villa de Mazo. As the name indicates, the pottery is in a windmill, set in an interesting botanic garden. Ramon, together with his state-funded students, makes exact

replicas of the pottery produced by the pre-European aboriginal inhabitants of the island. This culture had no knowledge of metal and had no glaze technology. These pots are low-fired, coil-built burnished bowls with intricate incised designs. It was exciting to see how like it was to much of our smoke-fired work, and so like my coil building and burnishing.

Ramon was proud to point out that this work had to be accurate copies, in every detail, even mistakes, of the originals in his mueum collection. It was also a pleasing change to see the pottery shop selling well-made replicas, rather than the usual tourist fare!

Victor Knibbs

Jannie Knibbs

EAPA dates Summer Potters, All Saints Church, Cambridge, 9-31 July. Art in Clay, Hatfield House, 5-7 August, see p10 Potters Camp, Shotley 11-14 August. Contact Jerry FinlaysonNB there is a waiting list. Paul Scott Demonstration Day (tbc), 9 October, Mundford. Christmas Show, All Saints Church, Cambridge, 19 November11 December. For other pottery events, see www.studiopottery.co.uk/html/events.html Great Walsingham Gallery summer exhibitions The Gallery would welcome work especially from new Selected Members for its summer exhibitions. There will be two preview evenings, 20 May and probably 16/23 July. Contact Jo Lant on 01328 820900 for details.

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Eight of us assembled at Jim Robison's Studio and Gallery in Holmfirth, Yorkshire, on a very wet and windy Friday night in October, not quite knowing what was in store. Jim is well known for his large scale ceramics - he is author of a Ceramic Handbook on the topic - and has many commissions and installations around the country. He is an authority on all sorts of construction techniques, and runs several excellent courses on building and surface treatments. A very good example of Jim's work can be seen in the Grafton centre in Cambridge, commemorating the town twinning with Heidelberg. We were a mixed bunch, ranging from starters to professional potters with many years of experience looking for some new ideas. About half had been on one of Jim's

I'd got some very strange looks when I announced I was going away for a weekend Extruding!

longer courses, so had some idea what to expect. Not least the excellent food and hospitality provided by Jim's wife, Liz. All of the best discussions seem to happen over a glass of wine and one of Liz's nibbles! We spent Friday evening getting acquainted (or re-acquainted) and looking at slides of extruding techniques and work and some of the pieces in Jim's gallery. There was a mass of work from around the world - UK, US and Israel particularly, and some wonderful large pieces by David Frith. The slides showed working in a pipe factory, creating extrusions several feet in diameter and many feet long, and then modifying the basic tube into much more interesting sculptural shapeswell outside the range of my kiln. Many people have little experience of extruders beyond the rather bunged-up tube stuck to the wall of an evening class studio, used for making coils, so seeing the range of creative possibilities can be an eye-opener. On Saturday morning the work started in earnest. We made some very simple extruders based on mastic guns - simply cut the end off an empty tube of mastic or filler, clean out the inside (keep the plunger) and make yourself some dies the size of the end of the tube. Insert the die into the end of a mastic gun, fill the tube with a wad of clay and start squeezing. It's that simple. In next to no time we were making all sorts of interesting shapes - handles, rims and decorations. Then we moved onto the big stuff! Jim has a variety of extruders, giving pieces up to about 5 or 6 inches across, and had borrowed a magnificent construction in steel from David Frith, with some very strange-

Extruding with Jim Robison

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looking die shapes which David uses to extrude dishes, boxes - indeed whole pots. If you've got a pug mill with an expansion box, you can make almost anything. We all learnt how to design and make our own dies, about clay preparation and directional flow, as well as how to use the various tools assembled for us - a Dremel is a really useful little tool which can be used for drilling, milling, sanding, and almost anything else. This led us into extending the dies for structural elements for trays, dishes, sides etc. A fine butter dish was made, but very quickly turned into a side for something bigger. All too soon it was evening, and another fine spread, followed by a walk back to the B&B, via the local. On Sunday morning we started looking at hollow forms and the

more complex dies required. Making the support for the centre piece of a hollow die is more difficult than it sounds, especially accounting for the fact the clay is cut apart as it passes the support (usually a metal brace or U-bolt), and has to be encouraged to rejoin as it flows out of the die. Cue for many extrusions that fell in half as they came out, followed by much sanding and shaping of the edges of the dies. Jim demonstrated how to make more complex pieces, modifying and cutting, changing the surfaces and joining multiple sections. It all looked very easy. We carried on refining our personal efforts at die making and soon had the table covered with all sorts of weird shapes that would give a wheel-bound potter nightmares. At the end of the day we sat round the table (with a cup of Yorkshire tea and yet more of Liz's cake) and talked through what we had learnt from two crammed days. All of us felt energised and full of ideas to take home and try and could see ways of applying extrusion techniques to our own work, whatever style. It's really a very low tech approach that can add detail, structure and productivity to a wide range of work. Jim showed us a range of mugs he'd produced which were extruded in one piece, including the handle (the base came out of the slab roller) - anathema to the purist thrower! We all agreed that we'd also learnt from each other as well - working closely in a group of wide experience and

interest always throws up something to be remembered. I was fascinated by a demonstration by Penny McBreen, from Eglos Pottery in Cornwall, who showed us how she uses an icing bag and nozzles for miniature extruding to decorate her pots, similar to tube lining. As with the previous time I'd worked with Jim (on his Glazes and Surface Treatments course, a very intensive week which included making, biscuit firing, two stoneware reduction firings and a raku evening - exhausting), I thoroughly enjoyed myself, learnt some new techniques, explored some new ideas, made some new friends, renewed some old friendships and had to come back and spend more time in the gym to overcome the effects of the magnificent food. Jim, Liz and Jim's assistant Ian Marsh make you very welcome, and send you off enthusing. If you haven't had any experience of these techniques or want to get some new ideas I'd thoroughly recommend this weekend. If all you want is to enjoy playing with some clay in the company of a bunch of like minded enthusiasts, orchestrated by one of the most enthusiastic potters I've met, I'd still recommend it.

Words and pictures, John Masterton

Captions (clockwise from top left) Jim using a simple mastic extruder gun; using the big extruder; assembling a composite vase from two extrusions; making new die designs; some of the final trial pieces; extruded/slabbed pieces by Jim Robison;

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Steve Harrison, our Easter demonstrator, loves potteryhis own in particularmore than anyone else I have come across. He freely admits to being an obsessive, but has such a genuine, disarming and enthusiastic manner that he gets away with it. As with so many entertainers, Steve rides the edge of his personality to the full. He loves the freedom that his work allows and clearly revels in the happy accidents of firing. But he does this within a very precise technical framework. Steve claims that every demonstration he gives is different, but this is not to be confused with a slapdash, unplanned approach to his work. The refinement of his tool

Steve Harrisonpottery and a piece of cake

making, his press moulds and his extremely fine forms are testament to a meticulous approach to his studio work. As a demonstrator, either at the big pottery shows or for groups like our own, he allows himself off the leash. Making for Steve is a disparate process, starting with production and biscuit firing in Enfield, before transporting his work to rural Radnorshire for glaze firings. Salt firings and urban settings simply dont mix in the 21st Century.

*I couldnt find this as a product name on the British Gypsum website, so you may have to be inventive with the spellings if you want to track this down.

Pressed in to action Much of Steves making combines thrown and turned elements with press moulds that he makes himself from various types of plaster. He dislikes potters plaster, and prefers either Crystacal or ceramacast*, which are both hard and smooth. Advantages of press moulding parts such as spouts and handles are obvious: they are quick to repeat, have more strength than slip-moulded equivalents, are made from the same material as the rest of the piece (slips for moulding usually contain deflocculants), they are flexible and, unlike thrown spouts, dont uncurl from plastic memory. The great disadvantage is that the moulds take a time to make, and Steve may use each one only a few timesindeed he has recently ditched all his old moulds, so his limited editions really are limited.

Haunted by ideas The point of using the moulds for Steve, though, is not their labour-saving potential. Rather, it is that this is the way to realise ideas. Steve clearly worries ideas into submission. Many a potter would have given up long before achieving the goal of mixing stoneware and porcelain parts, or stoneware and metal additions on the same salt-fired pots. Even now, he has a failure rate of 30% for some of his workit is just as well that his primary concern is making work for himself rather than to sell. In fact, selling seems to be something that Steve does with remarkable ease considering his reluctance. Some of the prices he is able to command on the world

Moulds for decoration

The man in action. Not everyone can smile and concentrate at once.

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stage are quite remarkable. How does 2,500 for a gunbox containing two tea bowls and a teapot sound? Thought so. Again, though, the idea of working with a master woodworker to create a more diplomatic version of a duelling set was what drove Steve to this. In a Field of Dreams sense (build it and they will come) somehow Steve manages to find buyers for these more enterprising examples of his work.

Time for tea The limited edition gunboxes each included a motto Dont shoot. Its a teapot. Tea and cake are important to Steve. He described how in more financially restricted times he had to do some labouring workbut there discovered that he couldnt live without one of his own mugs and a proper cup of tea. If you are not already convinced of the individuality of this potter, need I say more than the only recipe he gave out during the day was for Welsh cakes!

Tooled up Just as Steve makes moulds to realise ideas, so he finds that certain ideas need particular tools that also need to be made. He has a fine set of turned metal rollers and stamps to complement his various moulds. He has always made his own toolsever since school days.

Craft echoes Elements of Steves work, particularly his detailing, echo those of other crafts. He date stamps much of his work in much the same way that silversmiths hallmark theirs. This has not depressed sales of his older work. One of the details that Steve is particularly enamoured with at present is of sprigs of flowers seen

in perspective. This is a curious homage to artists such as Van Gogh, who used perspective on sunflowers as a two-dimensional, single-viewpoint illusion. By contrast, Steves sunflowers are more three-dimensional and although he feels each of his works has a front and a back, they are clearly intended to be viewed from more than one angle.

Body works Much of Steves work is very fine for salt-glazed ware. Press moulding parts helps, but he also throws finely in the first place and then turns excess clay away as it dries. Using a clay body formulated for his own requirements by Valentine Clays also helps. Clearly

this clay takes the salt well, but most of Steves work is relatively small, so how it would stand up to larger work is for others to discover. And if that discovery is half as much sheer fun as the demonstration Steve Harrison treated to us, it would be well worth the effort.

Words and pictures, Mark Boyd

Pot in a boxone of a limited edition requiring an appreciation of both pottery and fine woodworking.

A different perspective

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Make your own low-volume glazing box

Plate

Tongs

Level of glaze fill

Two of 24 wide 3ply wood

Thin sheet of melamine-type material bent above bolts to form an elipse. Then clamped in place with nuts and washers. Width of sheet, 6 or width of dish to glaze.

As anyone who has packed a kiln knows, there is a huge difference between volume and useful space. The same goes for glazing. Plates, platters, saucers and other shallow bowls have a large surface area, but because of their shape apparently require a bucketload of possibly expensive glaze to dip completely. Something more closely corresponding to the shape

of the work would obviously help. This device at the scale shown will happily glaze bowls up to 16 wide

and 5 deep.

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Gilda Westermanns slideshow included a picture of her glazing a moderate-sized platter in a dustbin. This prompted Geoff Elmore to share the low-volume glazing box design he uses.

Materials: Two sheets of 3 ply wood,

24 square A strip of flexible sheet, 6

wide and 46 long Six 1/4 diameter bolts with

nuts and flat washers. PVA glue to seal To make: Drill each plywood sheet

according to the diagram below.

Position bolts with nuts and washers, with over 6 space between the plywood sheets.

Bend flexible 6wide sheet inside the bolts between the plywood to form an elipse.

Bolt firmly in place. Seal the edges of the flexible

strip with glue before bolting together, or seal the whole device with PVA when complete.

Glazing box drill positions

Two of 24 wide three ply wood

6

Six 1/4diameter bolts (with nuts and washers)

1

2.5

10

1.5

9.25

6.75

7

24

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Its strange how things happen. A few months ago, I was talking to Raymond Scott about the early days of the EAPA. Ray, a founder member, was telling me about fellow founder member Alan Baxter. Alan (to those of you who dont know, as I did not) is a successful potter who has been based near Ipswich for many years, and members will have been on his popular pottery courses. Ray was regretting having lost contact, no longer knowing his whereabouts. A couple of days later some friends in Somerset called to invite my family to visit their house in the south of France with them. We had not been before, but apparently it was in a beautiful medieval town in the Catalan Pyrenees called Prats de Mollo. They also asked if I had ever heard of some friends of theirs who were setting up a pottery there - Alan and Pat Baxter. We went down at Easter to find that the town is idyllically set. It is close to the Spanish border, surrounded by wooded mountains and streams. The locals are especially welcoming and helpful. Its the sort of relaxed place that makes you want to move there immediately. Alan and Pat came for a meal and invited us to go and see what they were up to. When we did, we were impressed. They have bought premises containing a suite of 11

apartments which they have transformed for rental. Beneath these are two cavernous spaces with twelve-foot-high ceilings. They have fitted them with mezzanine floors and galleries with a view to one of them being Alans new workshop and pottery school. There are at least six wheels, as many electric and gas kilns, and the whole space has been designed to be a pleasant and practical place in which to develop ones skills. The internal infrastructure is now in place, though there is still much work to do, including installing a custom-built glass entrance. Alan has asked me to apologise for his lack of communications for the last year or two, but he has been extremely busy with the move. Should you wish to contact Alan and Pat, they can be reached via their website: www.mediterranean-pyrenees-holidays.com. I am looking forward to returning in the spring to see how this exciting project has developed. I hear that the interior of the pottery is progressing well. Alan tells me that he will be making pots there himself by the summer, with the school opening towards the end of the year. With the combination of the Baxters enthusiastic hard work and the beautiful location, it is destined to be a big draw for pottery students from around the world.

Jeremy Peake

Fine art ceramics in Cambridge Penny Hayes is opening a venue in Cambridge for ceramic artists to sell their work. The gallery will be promoted as a venue for art buyers to invest in artists whose work will become future collectibles. Priority will be given to work that would not usually sell well at craft fairs/shops, ie non-functional. Each artist will be able to hire space by the square metre for between three and nine months. The gallery will take 33% commission plus VAT, but will then sort all the marketing, promotion and sales. Artists will be selected for originality; bookings will then be on a first come first served basis. To be considered for exhibition or for further details, send a CV with a selection of images (prints, CDs or small email attachments to Penelope Sackett Hayes, The Four, Chapel End Way, Stambourne, Essex CO9 4NT. Tel 01440 785688 or email Phayes2074@aol.com

Alan Baxter found

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For this, our second year at Hatfields Art in Clay show on 1-3 August, we are showing work chosen from the entire membership. Here, in their own words and pictures, is what the exhibitors say about their work. Cathy DArcy: I use special porcelain, throwing bowls, disks and cylinders on an electric wheel. Each piece is turned, then assembled into a vessel that consists of one, two or three pieces. This is done by scoring joining edges, dampening with water and then gently pressing and turning them together, a final damp

sponging is given for a smooth surface. The work is biscuit fired to 1000. The finest grade of wet and dry sanding paper is then used to give them a smoother finish. Most of my glazes I mix, and these are applied by brush on the exterior and poured for the interior. A mixture of wax and paraffin is used as a resist that gives clean lines to the edge of the glazed surface. Brightly coloured glazes are often used for the interiors of the pieces. Work is glaze fired to 1260. If needed, the work is given a final sanding with wet and dry paper. Margaret Gardiner: My work is mainly thrown, useful pottery made from Audrey Blackman porcelain and white stoneware. I fire with both salt and soda to 1300C (Cone 10) in a gas kiln and then fume with

stannous chloride to create a light, lustrous, rainbow effect. Juliet A Gorman: During the last three years, I have been developing my smoke-fired figures. The whole process is exciting and exhilarating; the unpredictable effect of smoke a constant surprise; and learning process stimulating. The control of the burnished, traditionally hand-built ceramics is surrendered to fire to create a fascinating, unique result that encourages further experimentation.

Heather Graham: I make a range of functional stoneware using a smooth, white clay. The forms are for the most part simple and traditional and are decorated with a number of overlapping glazes ranging from matt to glossy

Hungry for Hatfield textures. Glazes are poured from jugs or ladles to follow and enhance the shape of the pots. The long, slow electric firing serves to marry the glazes together and create a very varied surface.

Helen Humphreys: I make individual wall pots with faces and decorated dishes. Ideas for the faces come from many sourceslocal carvings, portraits and some from my imagination. I use Earthstone Crank and fire to high stoneware temperatures. The dishes are decorated with foliage and impressed lettering, enhanced by coloured slips. Recently, I have started to experiment with these ideas on some of my faces.

Tony Pugh: I am drawn to pots that are heavily dependent upon the presence of fire in the kiln in order to achieve the finished result. Pots are made in stoneware and porcelain clays. Currently two distinct types of pots are produced, high-fired glazed and low-fired smoke decorated. Most work is thrown, though some slab dishes are being made and large spherical pots for smoke firing are hand finished and burnished. Glazes are mostly copper reds, mottled purples, blue opalescent Chuns, Tenmokus, celadons and

Cat

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Margaret G

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Heather G

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Helen H

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ash, These are used in various combinations and reduction fired in gas kilns. Various clays, underglazes, stains and terra sigillata are used to produce the ceramics for smoking in a dustbin or brick kiln with sawdust or newspaper. Kate Reynolds: I mostly make slab-built raku-fired forms. Themes include vessels and jugs, the figure and especially the head. The heads are often reminiscent of classical or ethnographic influences. I try to produce a simple profile, paired down or exaggerated to produce a strange beauty. I also make large tiles for the pure enjoyment of brushing slip, painting wax and pouring glaze over a large expanse of surface.

Directory Fine art books Rodney Hunt Long Row Cottage, Sudbourne Suffolk IP12 2AT 01394 450238 10% reduction to EAPA Members Brick House Ceramic Supplies Ltd The Barns, Sheepcote Farm, Sheepcote Lane, Silver End, Witham, Essex CM8 3PJ Tel: 01376 585655 Fax: 01376 585656 retail, trade, mail order materials and equipment 10% discount to EAPA members with membership card Arterial Engineering Works Ltd Morston Road, Blakeney, Holt Norfolk NR25 7BE 01263 740444 materials, equipment etc.

EAPA clay stores

Clay from Valentines, Staffordshire. An inexpensive source of clay for Association members. Phone to confirm availability. All now will be sold in 12.5 Kg bags with the exception of paper clay. Special Fleck stoneware 5.00 Firing 1150oc -1300oc Red earthenware 3.10 Firing 1080oc - 1140oc White B17C stoneware 4.40 P2 Porcelain 6.65 Firing 1220oc - 1250oc Royal porcelain 8.50 ES5 Stoneware Original 6.50 ES130 White earthenware 5.80 Audrey Blackman porcelain 9.85 ES40 Handbuilding material 8.50 ES50 Crank 5.85 TS Flaxpaper clay ES200 6.00 per 5 Kg bag ROGER PHILLIPPO The Old Bakehouse, Harston, Cambridge, CB2 5NP Tel: (01223) 870277 DEBORAH BAYNES Nether Hall, Shotley, Ipswich, Suffolk IP9 19W Tel. 0473 788300 LEN KNOWLES 4 Fairview Avenue, Stanford-le-Hope, Essex SS17 0DW Tel: 01375 404031 Please remember that the Clay Stores are run by volunteers. Kindly phone or collect during normal office hours. Telephone to arrange a convenient time to call. On collecting the clay, make out a cheque payable to EAPA with cheque card number and membership number. Roger Phillippo is hoping to relinquish his clay store now that he has retired. If any member in the Cambridge area would like to take it on, please contact Roger or Victor Knibbs.

Having a bit of bother that your supplier cant resolve? Why not contact one of these members who have agreed to share their expertise? Youll find their contact details in the membership list. Allan Foxley - handbuilding & reduction firing Colin Saunders - plaster mould-making Victor Knibbs - oxidised stoneware, electric kilns, modifying clay bodies Jackie Plaister - slip decorating stoneware Deborah Baynes - Raku, stone/earthenware (reduction & oxidised), salt glaze Mary Baulch - very basic throwing and glazing, electric kiln Beryl Hines - general, earthenware, Raku Usch Spettigue - raw glazing/single firing Tony Eeles paperclay Erica Mattingly some woodfired kilns Margaret Gardiner salt glaze Sonia Lewishigh-fired ware including porcelain If you are willing to give advice, and are willing to be added to this list, please contact the Editor: Mark Boyd 01767 650904.

Ceramic Helpline To

ny P

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Kate Reynolds

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But what are we to make culturally of the blue of the Virgin Mary, the Imperial Blue of Rome, the blue of Gallic slavery or even that of Hitlers eyes? Is it forever to be dismissed as popular but uncouth? That depends. In todays Turkey and ancient Egypt, blue beads (glass or ceramic) are said to ward off evil, and blue is supposedly Americas favourite colourblue magazine covers outsell other colours there, but not in Europe; here red wins. Oscar Wilde collected willow pattern china, which derives its life from the same cobalt as Leyden blue in Holland (where, incidentally the huge cash prize for the first blue tulip remains unclaimed). So the next time you get a commission for a blue pot. Dont groan in sympathy for Leach. And when you ask what sort of blue would they like, dont accept a nice bright blue. Educate your public by asking whether they want the blue of space, depth, cold lips, the tropics or glaciers, or even that of the wild blue yonder. And then see if your skills can provide it.

Virtual potting

www.the-eapa.org www.annamcarthur.co.uk www.animalceramics.co.uk www.helenmartino.co.uk www.jeremypeake.co.uk www.madeincley.co.uk www.phillippoceramics.co.uk www.potterycourses.net www.rebeccaharvey.com www.richardbaxter.co.uk Whats your website? Tell the Editor.

Membership of the EAPA is open to all

Ordinary : 27 (half year, 15) Joint (for two people at the same address) : 45 (half year 25) Institution for a college or workshop: 45 (half year (27) (details on application to the Membership Secretary) Student open to full time students studying ceramics (proof of status is required) : 10 Apply to the Membership Secretary.

Copy date for Autumn 2005 NewsletterJuly 15th

All contributions are welcome, be they, typed, emailed, hand-drawn, phoned in or even slip-trailed (someone take me up on this, please). Prints, slides or fine-quality picture files (over 100kb) either to accompany articles or with a caption are also welcome. Your Editor is still desperate!

For sale Moulds for sale: Mugs (9); five very old, one tall and fancy. Bowl and lid. Cup, saucer and jug. Tall ginger jar with lid (12 inc. the lid). Teapot with lid. Large plate. Fancy chess set in two moulds. 40 for the lot, perhaps of use in a class. Molly Tring 01621 854732. PS Molly advertised a kiln in a previous Newsletter, had several enquiries, and sold it to someone who lived nearbyadvertising in our Newsletter works! Ad details from MB

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Everyone wants blue pots. The bluer the better, apparently, or at least thats what Bernard Leach rather disparagingly claimed in A Potters Book, and it remains a popular colour. But what do we know of this colour of sky, sea and melancholy. In a shameless filler, Mark Boyd takes a sideways look at blue in pottery and elsewhere. Blue in glazes usually comes from either copper or cobalt. Cobalt is an extremely powerful colourant and flux which comes as either a black (the oxide) or mauve (the carbonate) powder. It is toxic, but stable and food safe as a glaze (the human body supposedly requires 1,000,000th of a gramme of cobalt daily as a trace element, but I dont know why). The name cobalt derives from Kobold, an underground gnome or elf that was said to poison German cobalt mines. Arsenic gas pockets released during mining operations was the real culprit. But why is blue so sought after in pottery? I suspect it is because blue is a rare colour in nature: there are few blue birdsthe vivid electric

blue of a kingfisher or a jays wing result not from a pigment, but from refraction of light from the feather structure. Most blue plant dyes are fugitive and blue rocks are rare. The Welsh bluestones of Stonehenge are, frankly, dull grey! And there were no blue pigments used in genuine prehistoric cave paintings (as a few fakers have discovered to their later cost!). However, the startling blue of lapis lazuli has been used to colour glass and ceramics for thousands of years. It was first used in Mesopotamia around 2000 BC, and rose to prominence in Chinese and Korean ceramics 3000 years later. If you doubt its significance, just look at some of the stunning blue-tiled mosques of Persia. Blue is, of course, the colour of the oxidising flame in a gas kiln. Yet it is a reduction atmospherewith an orange flamethat brings out the blue in vapour firings. Clay itself can be blue. Madagascan tanimanga clays were regarded as magical for going into the kiln blue, but coming out red. And in Dorset, a local beauty spot called the Blue Lagoon gets its tropical colour from iron in its deoxygenated ball clay walls. Many languages have no word for blueit may share its meaning with green or even black. In Iceland, the colour bla-r supposedly can represent the sky or a lump of coal. Where languages do develop words for colour, blue is usually the sixth. Black, white and red always being the first three.

Feeling blue