It’s great to be back on the Blog! The most exciting thing that’s happening right now, is that I’ve been asked to appear on Channel 5’s TV show Harvest on the Farm I’m being filmed live and have been asked to talk about and make a harvest jug live on air! By  My bit will be on Wednesday 27th September at 8pm. Of course I’ve been brushing up my Harvest jug knowledge  and thinking things through whilst on my dog walks around Barrington. Every day I think how lucky am I to be making pots and living in this wonderful village in Somerset. I’ve made a Harvest jug for the show So I’ll ..read more

Apart from a quick clear up in the workshop and the loading of a biscuit firing, to help warm the pottery up tomorrow, today we just gave ourselves time to sit and think!  In all of the time we’ve had off I hadn’t sat and thought too much about the pots I’m going to make this year, the nucleus is there I just haven’t put any meat on the bones as such, if that makes any sense? Until today! Looking at a pot in our kitchen that I made in May 2020, I suddenly noticed what I liked about it so much, I mentioned it to Marion and my thoughts were confirmed “ I love that pot” she said,  it w ..read more

 When it boils down to it, we are just a small Pottery. But this is the start of our 14th year in business, and in that time I feel we have achieved a lot, the key word to me in that previous sentence is  "Business"  Right from the start of this journey in becoming a potter I was sure that to survive I had to treat it as a business. I wrote my business plan whilst at 33,000 feet sat in business class aboard a  British Airways Boeing 747, on the return journey from a business trip to China,  when I worked for a British tile manufacturer in Stoke on Trent. Space and tim ..read more

Following the sad news of the Death Johnny Leach last month, I had been asked to write a tribute to him for the  Westcountry Potters Association Newsletter. It led me to think about my relationship with Johnny  and it worked out that I had known him for 40 years! The piece will be published in the November/December issue. What I didn't get chance to mention was, that by the time I had finished the piece and Marion read it back to me I found myself in tears realising I was never going to see him again! also the very odd experience both Marion and myself had   on the Sunday mornin ..read more

The private self and  the one the world demands to see? For over a year now I have been quietly working away on some new slips and glazes that I feel will move my work on to the next level. I’ve always been able to see a next level in my mind but found myself too busy with my current workload  to develop the ideas towards it! Something I’ve know for a long time, that has been eating away at me and my private self. As a consequence my work has suffered and most noticeably myself, but this past year I feel as if the world has been spinning at a far more comfortable pace. With many di ..read more

With the sad news that Phil Rogers had died just before Christmas  I started to write a blog about him and his influence over me as a potter since as early as I can remember!  Then I began to see all the other people writing about him and I was overwhelmed by the many wonderful things people said about him? What more could I add to that, he was in all ways a giant in the pottery world!  We even added another brown jug to our collection from  the Goldmark Gallery  I’ve often had Phil’s videos playing in my workshop as a source of both information and inspiration&n ..read more

2020 has undoubtedly been the biggest rollercoaster ride of my life as a potter. The year had started so well and to be honest we felt we were going to fly this year, turns out nobody was flying! Then Enter the Dragon! In August- September the gallery-st-ives  in Tokyo included 23 of my pots in an exhibition in a large department store in Tokyo Japan. As a kid Japan to me was a world of hi tech toys, Casio calculators and Mazda cars. I remember my Dad taking a Mazda 626 on a test drive in 1979, it was an amazing car but my dad just couldn’t bring himself to buy a Japanese car ..read more

Over the past months the Pottery seems to have evolved into something  far greater than I ever imagined! If ever there was a week that summed this up It was last week! The week started with lessons in on our 6th Wedding anniversary  not something we had planned but we made the most of it and enjoyed our day. The day was greatly boosted by these two lovely people  Matthew & Louise They had been in for a pottery lesson with us 3 weeks earlier and had come to collect their pots!  but what Louise was totally unaware of was Matt had arranged with Marion a little surprise ..read more

We are back Open We Threw our doors open at 10.30 on Saturday 4th July 2020 and we have been pleasantly reassured by the response! People actually seeking us out to come and support us and checking that we are both Ok ( which we are Thank You ) Talking to customers again has been a delight!  “There I said it!” Being interrupted while trying to slip some bigger Pancheons has been a pleasure! Without customers where would we be? “You’ve probably Just spat Your tea out at this point” Is this really Paul writing this? Yes it is Honest! I have a new spring in my step since we came back and ..read more

I’ve just started to come to terms with this Coronavirus lockdown business! up until now I have been trying to understand why I haven’t been able to relax into the groove of it? It probably doesn’t help that we live in this beautiful village of ours and for many of the folk here it’s pretty much business as usual for them as they are either retired or don’t need to work. ( obviously with some exceptions here amongst our friends) The first couple of weeks were Possibly the hardest to cope with, as we needed to deal with banks and building societies to sort out payment holidays, with differin ..read more