Prehistoric and Anglo Saxon Pottery Workshops

When I talk about making Prehistoric Pottery, Neolithic, Bronze-Age and Iron-Age, or indeed Post Roman Anglo Saxon/Early Mediaeval  ceramics, I often get the response "Oh, that's coiled isn't it?".  Coiled pottery is a term that jars with me, it conjours in the mind images of primary school classrooms with pots made of little clay sausages, gradually falling apart as they dry. The range of techniques used by potters before the Romans introduced the potters' wheel to Britain and in the centuries after Roman Rule ended, are wide and varied, they are robust and were carefully chosen to create strong, functional vessels. The same is true of their choice of tools, materials and firing method.  In a one day workshop, I can't teach you everything there is to know about Ancient Ceramics, but I can give you a pretty good grounding in the basic methods, I can show you how to select the best materials for the job and I can get you to make a couple of decent replicas. The first three workshops at our Rothbury Studio, for 2019, are now available for booking on our website 

https://potted-history.co.uk/collections/workshops

Visit my website at www.pottedhistory.co.uk

Hebridean Bronze Age Replicas

Just finishing work on a replica Cordoned Urn and Food Vessel for a client.

Visit my website at www.pottedhistory.co.uk

Replicas as Christmas Gifts

Over the past few weeks I’ve been working on a number of different replicas including Neolithic Carinated Bowls & Unstan Bowls, Bronze Age Beakers, Iron-Age Decorated Bowls & Roman Hunt Cups and these are now on display in Crown Studio Gallery, Bridge Street, Rothbury.  So if you need a special gift for the Archaeologist, Historian, Antiquarian or Re-enactor in your life, or even for yourself, I may be able to help.  Whatever festival you’re celebrating, be it Christmas, The Pagan Solstice, The Saturnalia, Dies Natalis Solis Invicti (The Birth of the Invincible Sun, Mithras), or any other mid Winter Festival, I should have something that will suit.  If you can't get to Rothbury just ask and I can post items to you.

I take a great delight in the idea that I'm part of a potting tradition that stretches back thousands of years and try to make and fire the pots in ways that the original makers would recognise.  I take even greater delight in the idea that the pots will be owned and used by someone who truly appreciates their heritage, and will use them as they were intended.

Visit my website at www.pottedhistory.co.uk