“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”
William Morris
The most useful pots are the ones at the top of the stack or the front of the shelf; it almost seems as if they are self-selecting. I like the way they become part of our lives; held and touched repeatedly by friends and family for (hopefully) many years. They don’t have to be interesting or beautiful but they have to feel nice, particularly drinking vessels which are the most touched and the pots we seem to get most attached to.
Our white mug is a good example of a quiet pot which tends to be in constant use.
A few of our pots aren’t useful or nice to touch. Sometimes the creative possibilities of clay persuade us to use it in ways not suitable for functional pots and we enjoy the creative freedom associated with letting go of function.
Detritus 2012 h: 7.5cm (sold) Made with collected waste clay.
Snow Grille 2015 h: 25.5cm (sold) Made with dry powdered clay.
James and I find it helpful to categorise pots as Useful / Beautiful when considering how to present them, but some pots defy the binary; a vase, ink bottle or tea bowl could all be useful but are probably more likely to stand empty on a mantelpiece – believed to be beautiful – than to hold flowers, ink or tea.
Ink bottle, unglazed. 2016 The Stratford Gallery.
Tea bowl 2017
The easy justification in making useful pots is nicely solid but one of the great things about the ceramic medium is that it is also able to satisfy a more complex approach to creativity.
We will soon be embarking on a period of making non-functional pots for a private collector and are looking forward to it. She won’t be drinking tea out of any of them but we hope she will believe them to be beautiful*.
*or interesting / intriguing / satisfying / poetic etc.
That’s such lovely feedback David – thank you for buying our work and It’s great to know that it gives pleasure on a daily basis.
I find all of the images of the pots you’ve posted, beautiful. (Two are especially beautiful).
At breakfast I drink herb tea from a warm yellow J&TW mug (similar to the white mug you posted) ’cause it’s beautiful and it has a cheery feel about it in the morning. To hold and touch, to drink from and to look at. But my favourite is a lovely celadon espresso cup (J&TW) because while I sit and sip the coffee from it, the shape and deep-sea glaze remind me of other beautiful things.
Thankyou Tilla and James.
Hello again.
I was perusing your blog (which is very worthwhile) and I came across the above photo of the pot which now rests on a small cabinet in my bedroom – the Ink bottle unglazed, 2017.
I look at it every day and sometimes hold it and it’s beautiful . . . the geometry and colour of the inlaid marking is delicately animated and converses quietly with the shape of the pot – lovely.
Hello David,
Thank you for such a lovely comment! I’m so glad it continues to please you.
I was interested to look at that image again because I was working on bottles today and although they have changed considerably since then, I can spot common themes: the straight lines becoming curved by the form and the overlap, for example.
I hope you’re keeping well,
Tilla