A COLOURFUL PAST Raku stands as one of the icons of the twentieth century studio pottery movement and rarely fails to provoke excitement in all that participate, as Bernard Leach found in 1911 whilst visiting Japan. My personal journey with raku began in 1983 whilst studying ceramics at Derbyshire Higher Education College, where I became intrigued by rich, colourful glazes, and their potential for tonal variation. In 1987, after a successful period of eighteen months producing terracotta planters and kitchenware, I moved into shared workshop premises - a rather rustic, quaint stable yard annexed to a large country house in Stone, Staffordshire. In an intoxicating atmosphere of creative self-determination and hedonism my focus turned once again to raku, envisioning endless possibilities of strong, vivid colour counterbalanced by the earthy overtones of post-firing reduction. I immersed myself in the physical and artistic exploration of raku, culminating in a joint exhibition with a group of local artists.
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