TECHNIQUE:

Clay and other materials: the clay used is T material, with the occasional addition of small amounts of porcelain or other white-firing clay, to create a smoother surface. T material on its own is finely grogged and readily takes on an encrusted, ancient appearance. The piece is then bisc fired, with or without the addition of oxides, or coated with a slip of some kind, then fired again to 1135°C, sometimes with the reluctant addition of a real glaze, e.g. one based on Gordon Baldwin's opaque white or one cobbled together from bone ash, Finnish wood ash, frit and oxides.

FORMING:

the pieces are all handbuilt: pinched, coiled and scraped. As T material is especially good at being taken from a dried-out state back to plastic, alterations can be made to certain areas even when the main body of the piece is dry. The work is as thin-walled as is practicably possible, sometimes with an encrusted surface, achieved by applying a number of layers of clay or grogged slip or both, with intervening firings.