Janet Leach

摘要

I arrived at the Leach Pottery in late 1988 when Janet Leach asked me for help with clay preparation, mixing glazes and general assistance in her workshop. At that time she was making loosely thrown stoneware pots with iron-enriched red or manganese-black clay, on low-tech Japanese momentum wheels. There were two; one for each type of clay she was using. She also slabbed pots in red stoneware or heavily grogged porcelain, sometimes raised on roughly cut feet. The finished surfaces were often left bare except for two very characteristic black or white glaze pours, one on each face, with asymmetrical lugs or vestigial handles marking the sides. The porcelain was glazed in celadon or bone ash white, with black or white pours. She used limestone and ash glazes on low open dishes and on thrown pots, which she sometimes smacked while still relatively soft, once on each side, with a roughly broken piece of wood. This was something she saw used on Bizen pots and which she had used to decorate the pots she made in Tamba in 1969.