Jim Keeling set up the well-known Whichford Pottery and was instrumental in the Oxford Anagama Project. Keeling spoke to a sizeable audience of potters and other makers in Making Lewes member Studio Hardie’s ad hoc evening venue on Friday 28th. Alongside exploring his thirty year Whichford Pottery journey, Keeling also told us about making and building a version of the ancient Japanese Anagama kiln, in the heart of Oxfordshire’s Whytham Woods, and his hopes and fears for the future of craft in current times.
Tag Archives: Ceramics
Ceramics Series 2019
Ceramics: public and personal change and regeneration
The first in an occasional series of talks about ceramics presented by Making Lewes.
Friday May 17th 7.00 -10.pm, Lewes Depot, Pinwell Lane, Lewes BN7 2JS (map)
Cost £5.00 or £3 student concession. Booking through Lewes Depot, tickets available HERE
Artistic director of the British Ceramics Biennial, Barney Hare Duke will talk about the aims and activities of the Biennial which takes place from September to November 2019 in Stoke on Trent.
Past Biennial award winner, Brighton based ceramicist Louisa Taylor will discuss her work and career as maker in porcelain, designer for industry, researcher, author and teacher.
The talks will be preceded by a screening of the 1947 short documentary The Five Towns which shows the production techniques of the skilled workers of Stoke and addresses the challenges of post war reconstruction in the region; a challenge which has been picked up by the British Ceramics Biennial in the face of regional decline and the increasing globalisation of ceramics production.
Making with Sussex clay past and present
Wednesday 12th June 2019, 7pm upstairs at the Elephant and Castle,White Hill, Lewes BN7 2DJ
Cost £5.00 or £3 student concession. Pay on the door
Talks on the medieval potteries around Lewes will be followed by a presentation about contemporary pots made with local clay
David Gregory ‘The early medieval pottery kilns at Ringmer’
David has had a long interest in the medieval pottery industry in Ringmer and has helped dig a number of kilns in the area.
John Bleach ‘The Medieval Potters of Ringmer’.
John has researched many medieval matters and worked at the Museum of Sussex Archaeology for 35 years.
Susie Ramsay-Smith, a potter inspired by the environment of her lakeside Sussex farm will present a recent collection of pots made from clay dug on the farm in pursuit of her current Craft MA at University of Brighton. Susie is a member of Kent Potters and exhibits with Sussex Arts Collective.
Image credit: BCB general view by Joel Fildes
Pop-up Pottery & Kiln firing workshop
Clay workshop for families. Part of Martin Brockman’s Sussex Claylands Tour 2018-19
September 29th, 10.00 – 17.00 at the Linklater Pavilion, Railway Land, Lewes BN7 2FG (map)
FREE EVENT (donations welcome)
Respond to the landscape, plants and animals of the Railway Land by drawing with clay pigments and making miniatures. Fire your work in a popup kiln. Follow the process of firing ceramics in the wheelbarrow touring kiln.
Martin Brockman is touring Sussex woods, downs and towns, making and firing a single pot at each stopping place. The pot is formed from clay dug from that location or nearby and fired in a wheelbarrow clamp kiln.
The series of vessels made during the tour will reference the pots made over centuries by local makers to celebrate births, deaths, weddings and harvests.
The completed series will tell a story of Sussex ceramic geography and history.
Pop-up Pottery & Kiln firing workshop is part of Make Lewes Festival 2018
For more information email: info@makinglewes.org
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