BACKGROUND TO MY POTTERY
All photographs and the work they portray are © Copyright Jane Vernon.
Immediately after my training to teach textiles, in 1977, I became interested in pottery and went on a one-week course at Douglas and Jennie Phillips' Ridge Pottery. Handling clay did not come as naturally to me as handling cloth (rather to my surprise) and my early struggles have helped me to become an understanding teacher in later years. However, I felt drawn to the material and returned to Ridge Pottery many times before eventually buying my own wheel and kiln.
While my throwing improved (thankfully!), actual production of pots was slowed by the diversion for several years of mixing my own clay using clay dug from my kitchen foundations, combined with ball clay to bring it to stoneware temperature. The clay was fine but it was a long battle to find glazes to fit. Eventually I gave in and started using clay bought by the bag and things immediately became easier. During this time I was also still working as a full-time textiles teacher and producing and selling embroidered textiles.
Having swapped full-time teaching in schools for part-time work, while still working as a textile artist, I was able to increase the time spent on ceramics and held my first "Open Weekend" in 1992. This effectively launched the selling of my pottery on a serious scale.
I make a wide range of domestic ware. The function of the pot is the most important thing. Teapots must pour well, bowls should be a good size for a portion of cereal or soup, plates should have a deep rim to take plenty of gravy! All the pots can be used in the oven, dishwasher and freezer and (except for lustre-ware) in the microwave, making them flexible for cooking and serving alike.
I now work in two clays, one "grogged" brown stoneware and one smooth white stoneware. The grog (sand) in the darker clay contributes to the rich iron speckles in the brown, blue and oatmeal glazes which are then decorated with abstract designs to complement the fluid nature of the glazes. The white clay provides a plainer background for more figurate or colourful decoration on cream or white. As I hope the pots will be used every day I try to make them visually interesting but at the same time comfortable to live with.
All the pots are thrown on an electric wheel and raw glazed, that is they are glazed before firing and therefore fired only once (with the exception of lustre-ware.) This saves fuel and time but means that glazes need to be specially tailored so they can be applied to the bone-dry pots. I mix my own glazes, mainly adapting recipes which I have been given. Lustre-ware is given an extra firing.
My small kiln (4 cu ft) is powered by gas, which enables me to do reduction firing.