Ways with clay, glazes

Press, 26 May 1979, Page 17

Ways with clay, glazes

flew Zealand Pottery Workbook. By Howard Williams. Beaux Arts. 87 pp. $9.95. Glazes for the Studio Potter. By Emmanuel Cooper and Derek Royle. Batsford. 182 pp. $18.25. (Reviewed by Chris Neale) Illustrated descriptions of types of pottery, types of clay, and methods of handling it go to make up a good deal of the “New Zealand Pottery Workbook” now in its third printing. While there are many books on the market which set out to do just this, Mr Williams has done it better than most. His text is well supported by excellent photographs by Brian Wilson. This edition inevitably goes over old ground, but there is a section of new material on slip-casting and mould-making. These are techniques which amateur and studio potters tend to leave to the commercial potteries, but which are most, welcome here. The author has touched on types of pottery, the preparation of clay and methods of using it such as tile making, press moulding, coiling and throwing on a potter’s wheel. He briefly covers design, decoration and glazing, and the joys and sorrows of the kiln. This is by no means a ceramicist's

textbook, but it is undoubtedly one o the best of its type and to bi recommended to the amateur potte who is beginning to lake -tudu pottery seriously. "Glazes for the Studio Potter” is ; moderately comprehensive book ot choosing, making, applying, ant assessing glazes It is specifically for the studio potter anc describes the method and logic o experimentation with various material' and their effects when glazed or various surfaces. The authors atternp to show the studio potter the way t< achieve successfully that elusive “uncontrolled" effect, be it visual tactile, or a combination. tha occasionally lifts a pot from a work o an artisan to a work of art. The authors provide a good range o slip and glaze recipes, and carefu instructions on how to achieve th< desired results. The text is adequately illustrated with photographs — eight in colour — and diagrams. They en< the book with a brief historical outlini on the development of glazes in th« East and the West, and a very goo< set of appendices This is ar attractively presented book, and it terms of its application, to Neu Zealand materials, should compart favourably with the better-known texti by Daniel Rhodes.