Leach Pottery - St. Ives - Kiln Opening - April 2010

Lead potter Jack Doherty unpacked the kiln and the other potters - Jacob Bodilly, Kat Livsey and Midiro Endo were on hand to help clean off the pots hot from the kiln in front of a crowd of visitors.

John Leach - Muchelney Pottery - Kiln Opening - September 2009

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 - Balliferiter, Dingle, Ireland

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 - Parslow Pottery, Glen of Aherlow, Tipperary, Ireland

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, Whichford, Cotswolds

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.

Leach Pottery - Restored and Reopened - March 2008

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 - Lowerdown Pottery

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, St. Ives

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.

La Borne - The Village of Potters, France

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.

Winchcombe Pottery

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.