Mark Griffiths has a retrospective at the Leach Pottery in St Ives. He is a potter truly in the ‘Leach’ tradition and has made his name as a thrower of very large forms. I was fortunate to have been taught by Mark during the residential I attended two years ago. Fabulous techniques, great surface decoration, beautiful forms and a master of wood firing to high temperatures.
It was great to wonder around the Leach pottery and see the spot were the master, (Leach) practiced his craft, I learnt to throw on an identical wheel. The three chambered, ‘stepped kiln’ was really interesting to look at. Originally he fired it using wood but converted it to air blown oil burners considering the time and effort needed to stoke the kiln with wood too much. Leach managed to retain the fly ash effect on the surface of his work by inserting sticks into the fire chamber right at the end of the firing cycle of about 25 hours.
St Ives is a beautiful Cornish town, out of season! Chris and I stumbled across a real gem The Pier Coffee Bar. A lovely Italian coffee shop, great place to sit eat and watch the world go by. The board of Italian meats and Cornish cheese is fabulous and great value at £10, you get more that enough for two.
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