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Twice a year, the sleepy village of Muchelney
in Somerset comes alive to a kiln opening at John Leach's
Muchelney Pottery. Time Team's Phil Harding was an added
attraction demonstrating his skills at producing "stone
age" hand axes.
Louis Mulcahy's pottery in the beautiful
Dingle peninsula in South West Ireland producies a wide
rangle of hand thrown stoneware pottery at reasonable prices
to visitors from all over the world and provides valuable
employment to the local community.
Mandy Parslow is a regular exhibitor at
the UK's pottery festivals but was missing this year as
she took time out to complete a masters degree. She set
up Parslow Pottery in the beautiful Glen of Aherlow in County
Tipperary 14 years ago, converting a derelict building into
her home, pottery and showroom.
Whichford Pottery is a thriving traditional pottery whose
main output is traditional flowerpots of all shapes and
sizes. The pottery is a family run business and the visitor
is made to feel very welcome and can wander around the site
and on working days meet the potters and watch the pots
being made. Their recently opened Octagon Gallery is a wonderful
exhibition and selling place.
The Leach Pottery in St. Ives was reopened after a major
restoration project in March 2008. These pictures, which
were taken a couple of weeks later show the work that has
been undertaken and hopefully give the viewer an idea of
the way in which the pottery hopes to carry on the work
started by Bernard Leach in the early twentieth century.
David Leach passed away in February 2005 after a lifetime
dedicated to studio pottery. I visited David a couple of
times and received an enthusiastic welcome on both my visits
to his pottery in Bovey Tracey, Devon.
John Leach
- Muchelney Pottery
John Leach continues the Leach family tradition of producing
traditional studio pottery at the Muchelney Pottery, near
Langport on the Somerset Levels. John and his fellow potters,
Nick Rees and Mark Melbourne produce a range of woodfired
stoneware largely for kitchen use together with individual
pots for exhibition. Twice a year John hosts kiln openings
where pots may be bought straight from the kiln and visitors
can sample local Somerset food and drink. These images shown
here are from the kiln opening event in April 2004.
The Leach Pottery was started by Bernard Leach way back
in the 1920's when he returned from Japan with the young
Shoji Hamada.
Over the years many potters have learned their trade at
the Leach Pottery which is currently closed pending redevelopment,
see the Leach
Pottery Restoration Project site for details.
The pottery village of La Borne has been a centre for wood
fired stoneware for many centuries. In the last 50 years
it has become a place of pilgrimage for many potters from
all over the world, some of whom are still to leave. In
a brief visit in August 2004, I sampled the atmosphere,
met a few potters, took a few photographs and bought a few
pots.
Michael Cardew left St. Ives in 1926 to take
over a then derelict Winchcombe Pottery. Ray Finch joined
in 1936 and 70 years later is still producing traditional
stoneware pottery. Winchcombe is now managed by Ray's son
Mike. The late Eddie Hopkins was the mainstay of the production from 1971 until his untimely death as a result of the great floods of the summer of 2007.
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