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Michael Cardew Techniques?


PottaFella

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Apologies if I've posted this in the wrong section...

 

I've attached an image taken at the pottery museum at Stoke, UK. It is a shallow bowl by Michael Cardew CBE who died in 1983. I've read that he was known for his stoneware and slipware and wondering if anyone knows how a bowl like this might have been produced? It look like a terracotta clay, but how high would these have been fired too? Would pieces like this have been fired in a wood kiln and to what temperature? I think of terracotta as always low fired – was that always the case? I'm guessing his stoneware work would have been high fired, so how would a small pottery handle producing earthenware and stoneware – 2 separate kilns?

post-61816-0-69726900-1503396925_thumb.jpg

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The design is slip-trailed, the glaze is a nice lead glaze - none of your frits here, we're looking at raw galena.

Probably fired to something like a maximum of 1050 deg C (1920 deg F), maybe less, and probably in a wood-fired kiln.

Excellent bowl, isn't it?

 

This bowl (or charger as it is described at the Pottery Museum) jumped out at me – the Studio Pottery Gallery at the museum is chock a bloc full of exceptional work, but of course certain pieces speak to an individual louder than others, and this one just does it for me.

 

Makes me wonder what other countries have in terms of historic ceramics displays? After all, it isn't just Stoke-on-Trent in England that has a pottery heritage.

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when i visited england in 2003 i first headed for john leach in Muchelney and seth cardew in Bodmin.  i was allowed to wander through the studio where michael cardew work was stacked and not just visible but touchable.  they were wonderfully graphic, nothing like the flat photographs in books.  and the size of some was incredible.  the building surrounded the kiln and was full of treasures.  

 

so glad i saw that tiny ad for british airways flights for $99 one way.  spent 10 days visiting potteries and the sights of cornwall and the southwest area of england.  could not believe that the whole trip was only $1000, love hostels!!

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Guest JBaymore

Many terra cotta bodies can go up to cone 3 or 4.

 

In a multi-chamber wood kiln, it's possible to high fire at the front and low fire at the back, using the waste heat from the front.

 

One of the reasons that I built my 5 chamber noborigama is just his fact.  I fire different cones and different atmospheres (and techniques) in different chambers.  If I want to, I can bisque in the last chamber if I manage the climb there well.

 

best,

 

.................john

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Guest JBaymore

 

 

Makes me wonder what other countries have in terms of historic ceramics displays? After all, it isn't just Stoke-on-Trent in England that has a pottery heritage.

 

 

Japan is amazing in this regard.

 

I assume since you ae in the UK that you've also been to the Victoria and Albert in London?  (I just spent 3 full days there researching a few weeks ago.)

 

best,

 

................john

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This bowl (or charger as it is described at the Pottery Museum) jumped out at me – the Studio Pottery Gallery at the museum is chock a bloc full of exceptional work, but of course certain pieces speak to an individual louder than others, and this one just does it for me.

 

 

Then I suspect you have the same aesthetic for pottery as I do. European country pottery is pure poetry, and that's certainly what Cardew was trying to express.

Similarly, French country wares can positively drip with an almost mystical life - yet their makers were just that: pot makers, who went home to a supper and thought no more about it.

Look at the Verwood pottery in Dorset, particularly in the strong years when those astonishingly perfect jugs were being made. The shapes make you weep.

And all this works - this alchemy - in part because of the soft-fired clay, and in part because of the limpid lead glazes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Makes me wonder what other countries have in terms of historic ceramics displays? After all, it isn't just Stoke-on-Trent in England that has a pottery heritage.

 

 

Japan is amazing in this regard.

 

I assume since you ae in the UK that you've also been to the Victoria and Albert in London?  (I just spent 3 full days there researching a few weeks ago.)

 

best,

 

................john

 

 

 

when i visited england in 2003 i first headed for john leach in Muchelney and seth cardew in Bodmin.  i was allowed to wander through the studio where michael cardew work was stacked and not just visible but touchable.  they were wonderfully graphic, nothing like the flat photographs in books.  and the size of some was incredible.  the building surrounded the kiln and was full of treasures.  

 

so glad i saw that tiny ad for british airways flights for $99 one way.  spent 10 days visiting potteries and the sights of cornwall and the southwest area of england.  could not believe that the whole trip was only $1000, love hostels!!

 

 

I should be going to V&A next month, but yes I have been there before, it is extraordinary and as you will know not just for ceramics. The British Museum was my last trip (before the Stoke on Trent Pottery Museum – where you could probably spend a lifetime studying).

 

The Contemporary Craft Centre near the British Museum in Great Russell Street London which is full of astounding modern work by members of Craft Potters' Association. 

 

I did visit John Leach I suppose 3 or 4 years ago, they were getting things back together after being flooded, he very generously gave us a throwing demonstration and answered all my silly questions :)

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john used to come to our guild and give a weekend long demo every year.  because one of our very elderly members visited his studio when she was on a tour of england. instead of visiting some tourist thing in london, she just took a train, a bus and a taxi, found his studio on her own and walked in.  he was shocked because he is so far off the main roads and enchanted by her simple admiration for his work.   we were lucky to have him visit.

 

seth cardew came to the area to give demos also.  i have the piece he made with the two birds.  he used only iron and water to draw them with a brush, cobalt in water for the blue.

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oly that piece reminds me so much of persian pottery. i love drawing. i love textures. i am trying to figure out abstract or representational myself or do i have to choose? havent decided philosophically.  i do combinations. persian designs in slipware. 

 

persian is not slipware but usually RIO drawings. 

 

its the shape of the bowl. i love that shape and i have not been able to perfect that shape. 

 

i wonder if the first is a metal bowl. i came across a few books (couple really old) on persian pottery (mostly bisqueware because only ten percent of pottery was glazed) and i was smitten. 

 

its the form i really want to get. i cant really figure out the depth of the michael cardew piece. but i have an imagined idea coz of it being called a charger/ bowl. i'd love to get a shallow bowl to use as a plate bowl where i could use a knife to cut. its the U that i really like. 

 

i think the V&A have an exceptional collection of persian ware. 

 

07df339be60cfc0b492fb6efef8a3de9--th-cen

 

c50b4eee1eacdc452eebb362914fb258--potter

 

f3e274a54f9ce323244a9cfd983d948f--cerami

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oly that piece reminds me so much of persian pottery. i love drawing. i love textures. i am trying to figure out abstract or representational myself or do i have to choose? havent decided philosophically.  i do combinations. persian designs in slipware. 

 

persian is not slipware but usually RIO drawings. 

 

its the shape of the bowl. i love that shape and i have not been able to perfect that shape. 

 

i wonder if the first is a metal bowl. i came across a few books (couple really old) on persian pottery (mostly bisqueware because only ten percent of pottery was glazed) and i was smitten. 

 

its the form i really want to get. i cant really figure out the depth of the michael cardew piece. but i have an imagined idea coz of it being called a charger/ bowl. i'd love to get a shallow bowl to use as a plate bowl where i could use a knife to cut. its the U that i really like. 

 

i think the V&A have an exceptional collection of persian ware. 

 

07df339be60cfc0b492fb6efef8a3de9--th-cen

 

c50b4eee1eacdc452eebb362914fb258--potter

 

f3e274a54f9ce323244a9cfd983d948f--cerami

 

 

That is wonderful work, thanks for posting it :)

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