Chris Francis - My Potting History

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I am Chris Francis a part time potter of 48 years standing who was also a town planning consultant.

Over the last two years I raised over £3,800 for St Raphael's Hospice by auctioning 80 Yunomi from 1lb balls of clay (450g) & 80 bowls from 2lbs balls of clay.

It is now time to sell some of my pots, recently made along with some from the archive.

The majority of the pots I have made over the past 47 years are functional and based in the Anglo/Oriental 'Leach' tradition geared predominantly to the production of reduction fired stoneware. 

The flame of the kiln, the position of the pot in the kiln and the atmosphere in the kiln each contribute and affect the outcome, sometimes serendipitously, sometimes less so. 

Most of the glazes I use are based or developed from the classic glazes of China and Japan along with Ash glazes, each of which vary depending on the source of wood. 

I also use Shino which gives a wonderful and unpredictable variety of results.

My involvement with ceramics dates back to when I was nine or ten years old. It was then my Uncle Bert, home on a long vacation from Africa, decided to build a potters wheel and learn to throw and make pots.  As part of this particular venture he dug a deep pit down into the London Clay at the bottom of the garden in North Cheam. We lived next door and much to my mother’s horror I was down the pit digging this wonderful yellow mud. The wheel was turned by a bicycle which my Aunt Kath peddled while Bert developed his skill at throwing. My cousins Mary and Trisha and I all had our turn. The products were then fired in at rudimentary kiln built with house bricks and with coke and wood as the fuel. It was immense fun which lasted for about three months before Bert went off once again to Africa.

Several years later my interest was rekindled following a visit to a working pottery studio in Stowe-in-the-Wold. This led to me enrolling at SCOLA (now Sutton College) for the summer term in 1977 and I have been potting ever since at SCOLA and with my own set up at home. Brian Starkey, as head of Pottery at the college invited me to join the teaching staff in 1991 and I continued taking the Friday evening class until 2010.