Advanced Pottery

A couple of weeks ago a parcel arrived at the workshop.



When I opened it, inside I found a copy of this book, Advanced Pottery by Linda Bloomfield. What a lovely book it is, packed full of numerous photographs of wonderful pots, historical and contemporary, accompanied by a thoroughly well researched text.

Linda asked me a while ago for some images that she might include in the book, so I employed the fine skills of my photographer friend Johnny Thompson. John takes a lot of pictures for me and they're always top quality. Because of the high standard of his images, Linda was able to use quite a lot of them and it was a lovely surprise to see my pots and my working practices scattered throughout the book. On the left page, one of my puzzle jugs and on the right, slipping and decorating a large jug.



I remember this jug well, because it was the first pot I ever bisc fired in my new at the time, electric kiln and I blew it up into a million tiny pieces.

Here, demonstrating leaf resist, a traditional technique used by the country potters of North Devon.

A finished leaf resist jug and on the opposite page, Hannah demonstrating her great slip trailing skills.

The book shows a whole range of processes, handbuilding, slipcasting, throwing etc. with sequential photographs showing how it's all done by leading exponents of each discipline. It also has all the chemistry, maths and clever stuff, that usually brings me out in a cold sweat, explained in a way that even a simple potter like I can understand.

If you'd like to get your hands on a copy, you can buy it from Amazon, but it's cheaper and better to get it from Linda via her website

It's a great book, congratulations Linda.