Ceramic Review

May June 1979

Editors:

Eileen Lewenstein Emmanuel Cooper 17a Newburgh Street London WlV lLE

Number 57

CONTENTS Pottery on a Shoe-string Pete Brown 4 Potters' Tips 7 Calculating Glazes 8 Off Centre Lorna Low 10 Koryo Pottery Jill Fanshawe Kato 11 CPA Exhibitions 14 Peter Voulkos David Leach Pots and Potters Books 26

Elaine Levin 20

16

22

28

The Pots of Val Barry A Powered Foot Wheel Dick Shattock CPA News 32 Letters 33 Forthcoming Exhibitions Oassified Advertisements 36 36

30

Cover: Peter Voulkos- plate 1975: made in Berkeley: stoneware and porcelain with pass-throughs: lightly sprayed glaze, dia. 18" (collection Peter Voulkos, photograph J.P . Oren) see article page 16.

An Expanding Tradition

Winter Television provided yet another opportunity to see the popular 'Craft of the Potter' and there was a welcome second showing of the excellent geology series 'On the Rocks'. But perhaps most remarkab le of all was David Attenborough's exquisite natural history 'Life on Earth'. Over 3,000 million years of life gives us pause to think and may provide a welcome sense of proportion. If this enormous period is likened to a year then one day represents 10 million years. The first fish appeared in Limestone seas roundabout the third week in November , the first lizard scuttled across a beach during the middle of December and human beings did not appear until the evening of December 31st. Continuing the analogy it is only in the last minute of such a year that pottery has been made and studio pottery only just makes it in the last second.

As we become more and more specialized in our world of clay so we look more and more through a magnifying glass and detect the minute variations that distinguish one individual's work from another. To an outsider these differences may not be apparent and it may sometimes be good to try and look at the world of clay from a slight distance and perhaps even attain an objectivity.

Two potters whose work is featured in this issue of Ceramic Review represent two greatly different approaches although both may now seem as classical scholars to today's art school students. For Peter Voulkos clay is a material with which he is prepared to engage in a life long encounter extending and encouraging it to its limits- thrown, slabbed, pierced, pinched, pulled it thrives in his hands and he has never hesitated to assimilate ideas from other branches of the arts such as painting and sculpture. By contrast David Leach follows the quiet traditional role of the potter who makes pots. He coaxes and controls his clay with careful precision, but through this very control he exacts a performance from his materials which is in no way less remarkable than Peter Voulkos. Both potters seem now at the peak of

David Leach demonstrating to students on the studio pottery course at Medway College of Design - January this year their capabilities and both have helped form the expanding tradition of studio pottery.

For New Readers Just in case this is the first issue of Ceramic Review that you have seen this is what you have missed in back issues still available at cover prices plus postage and handling charges: - 25p - 1 copy, 40p - 2 copies, SOp - 3 copies, 65p - 4 copies, 70p - 5 copies. No.39 Egyptian Paste by Sylvia Hyman. Vamps & Floozies by Hilary Brock. Glazes , Try it and See by Robin Hopper Part 3. SOp. No.40 Michael Cardew at 75. This is Clay. SSp. No.41 Art School Survey '76. Spanish Potters. An introduction to clay geology. SSp. No.49 Charcoal Kiln by David Burn. Crystalline Glazes by Michael Machtey. Throwing plates by David Lloyd Jones. 90p. No.SO Special Celebratory 50th Issue, featuring the work of Bernard Leach, in colour. Also Lucie Rie, Shoji Hamada and Karen Karnes. £1.20. No.SS The Fatal Impact by Michael Cardew. Nickel Glazes by Emmanuel Cooper. Clay Survey Part 3. £1 . No.56 Moche Pottery from Peru. Crich Pottery. Clay Survey Part 4. £1.

Ceramic Review Binders hold 12 issues of the magazine and cost only £2.70 from Ceramic Review, 17a Newburgh St. London W1V lLE

Next Issue Dartington Pottery Workshop A Solar Kiln Pottery on a Shoe-string, Part 2 . Ceramic Review, 17aNewburgh Street, London WlVlLE 01439 3377 MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTIONS Next copy date (Ceramic Review 58) June 1st Annual subscription (six issues) £6.00 Overseas rate £6.50 surface mail, by International Money Order only Airmail rates on application. · Sing!e copy by post £1.20 Overseas £1.30. Opinions exp~e~d are those of contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opmton of the Craftsmen Potters Association. © Ceramic Review 1979 No articles may be reproduced without the Editors' permission.

3