Monday 26 August 2013

Cornwall Ceramics Trail 2013 Map

The map for the Cornwall Ceramics Trail 2013 is now available to download as a PDF

DOWNLOAD CCT MAP

Thursday 22 August 2013

Leach Pottery Sponsors Cornwall's First Ceramics Trail

The Leach Pottery and Fine Art Communications are sponsoring the first Cornwall Ceramics Trail to take place between September 14th and 28th 2013.  For two weeks in September 2013, potters and ceramicists across West Cornwall have joined together to offer this special opportunity, inviting the public into their workplaces to meet them, watch them at work and buy pots direct from the maker. A downloadable map will be available in the next few days from the Leach Pottery website but in the meantime details of the participating potters can be found on the CCT blog http://cornwallceramicstrail.blogspot.co.uk/ or on their Facebook group page - Cornwall Ceramics Trail

Friday 9 August 2013

Vancouver Apprentice Returns to the Leach Pottery after Fifty Years

In August the Leach Pottery welcomes back former apprentice, Glenn Lewis from Vancouver, for the first of the pottery’s international residencies for 2013. 



Lewis was apprenticed at the Leach Pottery in St Ives between 1961 and 1963, inspired by a friend from art school, John Reeve, who had arrived back in Vancouver from Cornwall with stories of his own time at the Leach Pottery. Lewis, who had graduated in painting and ceramics from the University of British Columbia, worked in the St. Ives studio under the direction of William Marshall and alongside Kenneth Quick, John Leach and Nirmala Patwarden, producing the workshop’s handmade standard ware pottery. These two years was also a time for aesthetic and spiritual growth under the mentorship of Bernard and Janet Leach. 



At the end of this period, John Reeve returned to England, and along with Warren MacKenzie, Reeve and Lewis bought an ancient house and barns in Devon, and built a pottery workshop there called Longlands, where they began producing their own pots in 1964. Shortly after setting up Longlands, Lewis returned to Canada, teaching in the University of British Columbia Education Faculty and exhibiting in Vancouver and Toronto. His work moved towards sculptural pieces and he was awarded grants to allow him to continue his experimental and innovative work.





Glenn Lewis is resident at the Leach Pottery between August 24th and September 6th. During his two weeks at the Leach Pottery this summer he will be making pots in the old pottery workshop where visitors will be able to watch him working and making pots, and talk meet about his memories of being an apprentice there fifty years ago.





Tuesday 6 August 2013

Cornwall Design Fair - Aug 16/17/18


Preparations are well under way now in the studio for the Cornwall Design Fair which opens on August 16th at Trereife House, near Newlyn.  The Leach Pottery has taken a whole marquee for the three days of the event and will be holding demonstrations and taster sessions as well as raku firings and of course selling our pots.  The opening times are Friday & Saturday 11am to 6pm and Sunday 11am to 4pm.  Tickets £6, under 16s FREE.  Do try and join us there.
For more information visit www.cornwalldesignfair.co.uk

Friday 2 August 2013

A Focus On ..... Britta Wengeler

A reminder to anyone who hasn't seen it yet that we are showcasing the personal work of Leach production potter, Britta Wengeler in the shop until the end of August.  Britta Wengeler, who is from Germany, has been making our tableware since 2012 and is currently on maternity leave from the studio.

After finishing her training in Germany 2009, she travelled for three years through France, Germany, New Zealand and England to learn more about different techniques and cultural aspects of ceramics. Especially, her time with New Zealand potter Petra Meyboden and her time in France had a strong influence on her work.

Britta loves cooking and the simple things of daily living. It is important to her that she produces work that is beautiful and a pleasure to use. Britta therefore produces a range of table and kitchen ware that is functional yet playful, while being rooted within the formal language of traditional European pottery. The pots are all produced at the Leach Pottery, decorated with stamps and glazes then fired under reduction in a gas kiln to 1300°C.