Oxford Clay

You might want to write on your pottery as part of the design, to create your maker's mark or to write a dedication to someone who will receive your pot as a gift. However, I’ve always found writing letters and words in pottery really tricky! In this episode, I tell you about 6 ways I’ve tried to write letters and words in pottery with varying success! ✔️Etching handwriting into clay at the leathe...

Rutile is a form of Titanium ore with Iron deposits and is used in pottery to create brown, orange and yellow colours in pottery glazes. Rutile is also used to create beautiful speckled effects in glazes. However,  there are some issues with the global Rutile mining industry, such as high energy consumption and the displacement of people from land, in order to mine Rutile. If you didn’t want...

Being inspired in pottery can happen anywhere, at any time! In this episode, I talk about 5 surprising sources of inspiration for making pottery that I’ve experienced as a Potter:  💡 - Archaeology books - depicting the shapes and surface decoration of ancient pottery. 💡 - Books for collectors of pottery -  (or glass!) about a specific pottery industry.  💡 - Food packaging - which...

Making neat holes in pottery can be really tricky!  In this episode, I talk about the importance of making holes in your pottery at the leather hard stage and tell you about my favourite way of making neat holes in pottery - with a drill bit!  You can watch the video version of this episode on YouTube. ✨Support the Podcast ------------------------------- Resources for Potters: ⭐ Potter...

Imperfections are a natural part of pottery, and many of these only manifest after a pot has been either bisque or glaze fired. But you don’t need to throw a pot away just because of a minor imperfection! In this episode, I talk about four very common imperfections in fired pottery and simple ways to fix them:  ✔️Hairline cracks appearing in pieces of pottery after the bisque firing, in piece...

I’ve got very interested recently in making pottery glazes from things that would normally be thrown away.  In this episode, I tell you about a stoneware pottery glaze that I’ve made from grape stalks collected over six months from bunches of grapes bought at the supermarket! You can watch the video version of this episode on YouTube. ✨Support the Podcast ------------------------------- Reso...

Some potters create coloured pottery by mixing oxides and stains into the clay itself before firing. A technique that uses this is called agate, where different coloured clays are combined in layers and mixed, to create a design.  Recently, I’ve been wondering whether this would work with the home-made pigment verdigris created from recycled copper. In this episode, I talk about some experime...

In this mini episode of the podcast I tell you about a beautiful greeny-brown coloured stoneware pottery glaze I’ve made with ash recycled from incense sticks. Rather than throwing the incense ash away after burning, it can be collected and recycled into a pottery glaze coloured only by the natural trace metals in the ash!  The stoneware pottery glaze recipe used in this episode is:  40...

In a pottery class you might have a defined project to work on, but you can still experiment lots!  In this episode, I talk about three ways to simply and easily experiment with surface decoration in a pottery class by; ✨ - Pressing an object into the surface of the clay ✨ - Making a bespoke tool to create a specific mark in your pottery, for example, fish scales!  ✨ - Leaving areas o...

It's Spring in the UK, and this is an ideal time to identify deciduous trees that will drop their leaves in the Autumn. Or perhaps you live in the southern hemisphere, where deciduous trees are doing this right now! Did you know that any plant material can be burned into ash and made into a pottery glaze! Leaves are no exception to this, and many beautiful pottery glazes can be made with leaves th...

Doing pottery brings so much joy! Join me for this episode of the podcast where I talk about some mental re-frames that can support your joy as a Potter even more! 🌈 - The importance of enjoying making pottery in the present moment  🌈 - Seeing ‘failure’ as an opportunity for learning  🌈 - The importance of not judging your early work and instead celebrating the evolution of your potte...

Flat rolled out clay has a very annoying tendency to curl up as it dries!  In this episode I talk about the three things I do in my pottery to make ‘perfectly’ flat (although nothing in pottery is ever perfect!) drinks coasters.  ✔️ Wedging (or kneading) the clay very well before making anything. ✔️ Rolling the clay out at an even thickness using rolling guides.  ✔️ The importance o...

Yes you can! In fact they are an amazing way to add beautiful decorative details to pottery. Silicone sugar craft moulds from cake making can be used by Potters who want to create intricate surface decorations for their pots. Clay is simply pressed into the mould, left to dry a little, removed from the mould and then attached to pottery as a sprig decoration. I use silicone moulds in my pottery to...

For the last 200 years, industrial society has used a linear economic model that takes raw materials, makes them into products, sells them to consumers who then eventually throw them away. Natural resources are ‘lost’ in this process and this model is widely regarded as unsustainable.  Contrastingly in the circular economic model, resources are continuously reused, recycled and retained in th...

In this episode, I talk to you about the 6 different ways in which I use my favourite pottery tool - a cotton tea towel!  💡 - To reclaim wet clay on.  💡 - To wedge (or knead) clay on to remove excess water from clay thats a little bit too wet.  💡 - As a rolling cloth when rolling out clay.  💡 - Between pieces of wet flat clay as it’s drying.  💡 - In a technique to mak...

Some thoughts created by our brains, support us when making pottery, and some definitely less so! Join me for this episode where I talk about some thoughts I've had in pottery that haven’t supported my pottery such as ‘I’ll never be good at pottery’, ‘I’ll never be as good as them’ (in an evening class setting) and ‘I don't like my finished pot’!   I talk about some alternative thoughts...

I created this episode for anyone who thinks they might like to write a book but hasn't yet - you can do it! The world needs to hear your ideas and unique voice!  In this episode, I talk about how I follow my curiosity to write books on pottery. I speak about how my ideas form, and how I experiment, research, write and format my books before publishing.  You can watch the video version o...

Designing for the environment is a way of creating products where the minimum possible negative environmental impact on the environment is intrinsic to their design.  In design for the environment, a product is thought of holistically, from the raw materials used to make it to its manufacturing process.  Potters have a huge opportunity to design for the environment because we have direct...

Clay can be infinitely recycled before it’s fired! This process is called ‘reclaiming’ and it involves turning clay that is either too dry or too wet, back into a usable state.  In this episode, we talk about how to reclaim your own clay without any specialist equipment, in four very simple steps.  *Scooping sloppy wet clay out of the reclaiming bucket onto a tea towel, inside away from...

I read a really interesting book recently on regenerative fashion and it really got me thinking about whether any of the concepts could be applied to the handmade pottery industry. In this episode, I explore author Safia Minney’s ideas in the book Regenerative Fashion: A Nature-based Approach to Fibres, Livelihoods and Leadership and think about ways we could use them as Potters.  The ideas f...

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year! ⭐In this episode, I tell you about my four New Year’s resolutions in pottery.   *Talking to myself kindly about my pottery, especially when things go wrong - an inevitable part of the pottery-making process! Creating a kind, safe space in my own thoughts to make mistakes. *Prioritise experimentation and playing in pottery. *Creating a joy list of t...

Every person creating in clay is totally unique and therefore has a totally unique creative style in pottery! In this episode, I talk about the ways you can cultivate your own unique creative style in pottery, such as;  *The importance of following your curiosity and joy in pottery.   *How practising pottery techniques reduces the gap between what you want to make and what you can a...

Refiring is firing pottery again after it has already been glaze-fired once. But why on earth would a Potter want to do that?! In this episode we discuss what refiring is, and some reasons why a Potter may want to fire their work again.  Potters may re-fire their work for example if their pot has been underfired in the first firing, which can sometimes happen if the kiln switches off accident...

I learned the concept of a ‘Second Brain’ from the book: ‘Building a Second Brain: A Proven Method to Organise Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential’ by Tiago Forte. In this episode, I talk about what a second brain is, and why it’s so amazing for anyone with creative ideas (ie everyone!).  I explain four reasons why having a second brain is particularly useful for Pottery make...

Making your own casting slip can save money and be more environmentally friendly. CO2 is saved from transporting powdered ingredients rather than the water present in ready-made casting slips. In addition, Potters can control exactly what ingredients they are using, sourcing ones mined in areas of high regulation. Making casting slip is also really fun, especially when you see the magic of how a d...