Current Work
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Welcome to the website of Steve Mills the Bath Potter.
These pages are set out to share with you the pleasure I get
from my involvement with Clay and associated activities, and
the building and firing of Kilns.
I
have
been involved with these activities for a few years now,
though the years spent as a production potter didn’t leave an
awful lot of time for experiment.
Since
helping to found Bath Potters’ Supplies in the beautiful
English West Country, odd moments of spare time began to appear,
and consequently I was able to experiment a bit, observe the efforts
and expertise of others who shared my interests, and develop
my own thoughts and ideas, including focusing on kilns that can be
built and fired by the individual rather than large ones that need
a team to operate them. I hope you enjoy the following pages.
With my own making, I am trying as much as possible to use locally sourced
ingredients.
Until recently this was restricted to glaze materials, and included a certain amount of
recycled waste, which I find very satisfying, especially as it is by and large free!
However this also means that a fair amount of work has to be done to make them viable, but
I enjoy the process.
After a few excursions into other clay bodies, none of which gave me what I needed, I have
now sorted out a local high firing brick clay, which although loaded with iron-rich mudstone
which I have to sieve out, has proved to be just what I want, so yet another area of exploration
has opened up while I try different additions such as other local clays and home-made grogs.
On its own it is a joy to throw, but needs some temper included for larger wares.
A nice by-product of the clay making process is that the sieved out mudstone when milled is
really nice for decorating, either with a brush or as a slip!
"Waste not want not!"