David Frith

The richness of the North Wales landscape never fails to inspire me and I have valued living and working here since I started my workshop with Margaret some forty years ago.
My work explores the thrown form - searching for that essence - a quality that survives time and where the traditional and contemporary meet. I use the techniques of the past with the eyes of the present. Pieces are individual, often on a large scale and include platters, bottles, ginger jars, store jars, pressed and extruded dishes. I like flat surfaces, which enhance innovative decorative techniques. I use celadons, ashes, and iron rich glazes combined with wax motifs, heavy overglazes and trailed pigments, plus the added gift of wood firing.
I started my first workshop making earthenware slip decorated dishes. It soon became apparent that the higher the pots were fired the more interesting and beautiful the glazes became as the bond between the oxides of glaze and clay became stronger. At one point I was firing soft earthenware glazes to 12400C, in fact, almost stoneware temperature. Consequently I drifted into oxidised stoneware and I look upon this period simply as a stepping-stone as it gave me time to develop an understanding of the high fired stoneware clays and material available at that time.
The move from oxidised to reduction stoneware represents the only real marked change, otherwise progress has been more a continuous climb. Consider the casserole that I made in my early days as a potter. It started out as a broad, flat-based form with straight inward sloping sides. Now it is a low, rounded form with a fairly narrow base. I never consciously altered this shape but my perception of form and understanding of function has developed over the years with the consequential evolution of the nature of the pot. I still consider myself to be a repetition potter because the pots spring from familiarity of form and the integral nature of the materials used, although now I work mainly on individual pieces.
The materials are selected and prepared here in the workshop. The clay body is based on Devonshire ball clays, china clay, felspar with silica sand or grog. I used to slake down the raw materials into a thin ‘slop’ and run it out into drying troughs. Now, I mix using the dough mixer and a de-airing pugmill. It is a fine light firing clay, hard and durable and a rich base for the celadon glazes. Experiment and research into glazes takes place all the time and every firing holds some new development. The return to firing by wood has given an added dimension to the pots with the fly ash on the unglazed surfaces giving a rich toasting and it contrasts well with the glazed surfaces.
I hope that the work shows an individuality and maturity that comes from experience, self-confidence and personal conviction about the current role of a craftsman and potter.