David Richards

A potter who since retiring from a teaching career has been working from his studio in Guernsey specialising in one-off pieces and commissioned items in glazed stoneware and the smoke-fired process.

The clay used is a smooth white stoneware body perfectly suitable for all manner of making and firing processes and he concentrates mainly upon throwing and hand-building with slabs.

For smoke-firing the pots are mainly thrown, as the cylindrical form has the strength for withstanding thermal shocks, and then burnished at the greenware stage to give the surface a strong, impacted finely smooth surface. Some decoration may take place at this stage with white/red terra-sigillata or coloured slips. All items are fired in an electric kiln to 1000°C.

The smoke-firing is done in the garden in an old copper water cylinder using a mixture of sawdust, shavings and garden debris, as well as the pots being wrapped with rags, strings or seaweed. After firing they are scraped clean, washed and polished with beeswax.

Glazed items have their finish determined by the use of a white tin base along with coloured glazes and body-stains that are put in place with wax-resist and paper masking. The final firing is to 1235°C.

He is a member of the Craft Potters Association.