I am Sally Smith and I run South Park Pottery in the Yorkshire Dales.
I have been a potter for most of my life and I make a wide range of domestic and giftware using an electric kiln. When you look at my Gallery you will see the range of things I make.
Whilst in times gone by I have potted for a living I am now retired and only make the pots which give me pleasure and allow me to indulge in getting the most out of my glazes by constantly experimenting.
I love making slab pots. Rolling out the clay and using it almost as a canvas. I apply my red, white and black slips and occasionally a bit of blue by brushing, dipping and trailing. I find this very exciting and decorate with abandon using almost anything I can lay my hands on to get an effect.
At a time when I was unable to pot, I drew plants; building up rich texture using oil pastels and then scratching through with a pencil. I enjoyed the resist this created with watercolours. I can remember feeling a sense of frustration because I never seemed to achieve an end product. That disappeared when I started potting again as the images have been a unique decorative resource. It seems you can’t take the potter out of the artist!
A book, handed to me on a family visit - 'this might be of interest to you' – has proved to be a huge inspiration. The book, an American publication , is about the life and work of C.F.Binns who started work in the sales office of the Royal Worcester porcelain factory in the mid 1800s ( his father was co managing director there) but emigrated to America in the late C19th. He was well respected as a writer and lecturer in ceramic art and in fact opened the first ceramics course at Alfred University in New York. It is said that Binns took clay work from the factory to the studio and was certainly a pioneer in combining science with art. I have used a simple recipe- reputedly one that Binns used- and added a range of oxides and the odd extra something to increase the reaction. The results from these tests were promising. Applied thickly, dipped and sprayed, they show a rich, buttery texture and gradation of colour. This lead to memory-slip back to college days and projects exploring Chinese glazes plus more and more images of early Chinese ware appearing in my husband’s antiques magazine help fuel this aspect of my work.
Long may it all continue!
