The past year gave me a chance to explore a form that I have long been obsessed by….fascinated with for over thirty years. The form, as you might know from previous posts is that of the pancheon (a bowl for mixing and rising dough or separating cream from milk) that has been used for centuries in the British Isles, and is one loved by many potters and bakers. However, bakers have moved on from these beautiful, practical but heavy and ultimately breakable pots over the past fifty years. More on this in later posts.

The past year has been busy, but a crucial part of it has been the exploration of old / abandoned potteries (such as Isaac Button’s “works” at Soil Hill), searching out natural clay outcrops (and permission to dig samples), and increasingly – visits to the bakeries nearby as I seek to explore the connections between place, material, form and function.

This might make sense of many of the photographs and notes you can see in the blog below. In future posts over the coming weeks, I will expanding on the overall aim and purpose of this project, as I prepare for my final MA assessment and MA show.

The piece below is a pancheon I made for my mother – it was during the experimental phase and is made with Valentine’s earthenware rather than with clay from one of my exploratory trips.