Training
Late 1960’s – Studied ceramics at Bournemouth under David Ballantyne & Peter Stoodley
Late 1960’s – Workshop practice during one summer with Alan Caiger-Smith, what a privilege! His freedom with the brush proved to be the biggest influence on my subsequent work.
1970’s – First workshop at The Pumphouse, Avon Dassett near Banbury under the name Liz Blundell.
1999 – Opened present workshop in part of former water mill near Chipping Norton. Made dozens of millennium mugs!
2006 – A year of experimentation & development of completely different range of coloured slips.
Technical Information
I use a blend of red Staffordshire clays from Valentines.
All the pieces are thrown by hand on the wheel, and decorated at the ‘leatherhard’ stage with a range of Slips coloured with metal oxides or stains.
Working with Slips (runny clay) can be messy, but is exhilarating as brush strokes or sgraffito drawings must be executed with great confidence & freedom.
Several layers of Slip may be applied, often over hand-cut paper resists. Real leaves may be pressed into wet slip, before being painted over with different colours. These resists are always removed before firing.
A great deal of experimentation goes into the development of the Slips. Liz is constantly testing new recipes and blends & fresh decorative ideas.
Final colours are not obvious until after the second firing (with a transparent glaze) to 1100oC.
The pots are designed for use and are microwave and dishwasher safe.
