Collecting, making, refining and wood-firing Netherwood Pinch Pots
My participation in the Hereford College of Art's #Get Out Get Inspired initiative in 2021 led me to visit the Netherwood Estate on the beautiful Herefordshire - Worcestershire border. Here I found a ready supply of molehills, tumps of beautiful red clay soil amongst the crops. I made test pinch pots on site, exploring potential for making. Then I took soil to use as a medium for community pinch pot workshops. I did this during HCA's 2022 Ferrous Festival in Hereford and at Spring Greens, an environmentally focused festival held in North Herefordshire. More on this in Making is Connecting - see link below.
After making test tiles and pinch pots, I fired them in my wood-fired cob oven at my Leintwardine studio, reaching temperatures around 750ºC - just into the realms of vitrification.
100s of artefacts were made and fired this way. The pieces reveal a beautiful range of fired colours, touches of carbon from the wood fire, pits where organic matter has burned away, and small colourful stones.
pinch pots made on site
pinch pot upon raw soil
pinch pot upon raw soil
water and soil
pots drying in the grass
building a collection of pots
harvesting soil
exploring forms
pinch pot
using a cob oven to fire the pots
bringing pots up to temperature
fired pinch pots
fired pinch pots
fired pinch pots
refined pinch pots ready to be fired
refined pinch pot
refined pinch pot
collection of refined pots
pinch bowls
wood-fired pots
wood-fired pot
wood-fired pot
wood-fired pots
wood-fired pot on slate
wood-fired pot
wood-fired pot
refining pots in the sunshine
pots waiting to be fired
recording timing and temperatures
wood-fired pot
wood-fired pot collection
