Nick Rees

Electric kiln fired to low stoneware temperature. Wax resist decoration.

THE PANDEMIC EFFECT

‘Fair of line and eye sweet'

I believe this may have been a saying by some of the old country potters but I don't know where I heard it quoted. In lockdown I wanted to take the chanc e to quietly work away with less distractions in search of those goals; 'truth to material' and expression of handwork that read of the maker's skill. After all I hold a D.N.A., a gene bank, of traditional training tracing back generations of production potters and the recent 'Leach' tradition. Surely these have become more important in these times of pandemic - essence of meaning in the beauty of handcrafted work that has the very soul of its maker there in its presence.

So I have quietly worked away in my very small home workshop, retired from Muchelney Pottery over two years now, gently continuing to explore the subtleties of shape, glaze and decoration through firing in my electric kiln with renewed purpose in these Covid times of 2020.