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
