Exciting exhibition now replaces the Graduate Show in the Coach House at The Gallery at Bevere
The work of renowned potters – Walter Keeler, John Pollax, Phil Rogers, Carolyn Genders, Jane Hamlyn and many others. Also Andrew Hazelden whose ceramics have been influenced by his time in the Aldermanston Pottery.
This Pottery kindly let us have on loan a small collection of fine works by
ALAN CAIGER-SMITH
Alan Caiger-Smith is now 79. In 2006, he and his colleagues undertook the final earthenware and lustre firings at the Aldermaston Pottery, which he established in 1955. Described as the master of majolica, Alan was almost solely responsible for the renaissance of tin glazed and lustre pottery - a style popular in the 17th and 18th centuries. Notwithstanding his personal vision he was particularly concerned to work as part of community of like-minded potters.
Alan has never been in the mainstream of studio potters. Nevertheless his wonderfully decorated pots, with their deft, flowing brushwork, have been exhibited and sold widely in the UK and internationally, particularly in the Southern Hemisphere. The examples of his work shown in our gallery are testament to his skill as well as the appeal of his work over the last fifty years.
To produce lustre ware takes three firings and it is the third with the addition of compounds of copper and silver which produces the desired effect during an extensive low temperature firing, around 660°C, with several periods of reduction (restricted air flow).
Writing in Crafts magazine in 1981, Alan argued, “pottery for use does not necessarily have to be basic. It can easily and naturally add a touch of ceremony to many everyday situations”. There must be many thousands of kitchens and tables across the world whose daily routine is enhanced by the presence of these fine pots.
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