Frome, Somerset · one wheel, one kiln
Wedged, thrown, glazed, fired — then priced
Glaze decided before the clay is wedged, and fired twice.
Stoneware and ash-glazed tableware, made to order in a converted cider barn. The making is above the shelf on this page because that is the order it happens in: the glaze is decided before the clay is wedged, and the firing decides what leaves the workshop.
The workshop
The wheel, the glaze, the kiln
Frome
The shelf
Two ways to have a piece
Ready-now pieces leave within two days; everything else is thrown to order, and the kiln adds three to six weeks.
Ready now
Tenmoku bowl, 18 cm
Stoneware, tenmoku over an iron-rich body. One of four that came out of the last firing.
Slipware jug, one and a half pints
Earthenware, trailed slip under a clear glaze. The handle is pulled, not cast.
Made to order
Ash dinner service, six covers
Six plates, six side plates and a jug. The glaze is agreed on a test tile before the first piece is thrown.
Coil-built vase, 40 cm
Hand-built in coils from grogged stoneware, ash glaze poured over the shoulder.
The shelf and the wheel
Pieces, and the making of them
The Ash Set
Stoneware · six covers
Twelve Covers
Stoneware · set of 12
Coil & Grogg
Hand-built · 40 cm
Trailed Slip
Slipware · earthenware
Thin Wall
Porcelain · 32 cm
Smoke & Crackle
Raku · display only
Before you order
The firing window
- 1,400
- 18
- 2
Commission clients
Pieces that are being used
“The test tile arrived before the service did, and the glaze on the plates is the one on the tile. Six covers, all the same weight.”
“We asked for a set that would take a restaurant dishwasher twice a day. Two years on, not one chip.”
“The firing window was the part I did not understand until they wrote it down. It came when they said it would.”
The practical questions
Glaze, dishwashers and the kiln
No, and it should not. Ash and tenmoku break differently in every firing, so the surface varies from piece to piece. The glaze you choose is the glaze you get; the variation is the craft rather than a fault.
The workshop
Outside Frome, open on collection days
Ring the bell at the barn door. The kiln is usually still warm.
Hearth & Wheel, Unit 3, the old cider barn, Frome BA11
Directions →Boxed in twos and threes, double-packed and insured. UK and Europe; collection from the workshop on Friday and Saturday.
The commission
Tell us the piece, the glaze and the date
Form, size, glaze, how many, and when the table needs them. One pass of answers and we come back with a test tile and a firing slot.