Masterclass with Patia Davis

I pot at Wobage Farm Craft Workshops in Herefordshire and have done since my student days. There is an ethos at Wobage that remains true to the ideals of Mick and Sheila Casson, who set up home and workshops here in the 1970s. It is an ethos of sharing, creatively and practically, the all-encompassing aspects of a creative life, a life to be lived well. I feel lucky to be here.

The Wobage Makers, as we refer to ourselves, share chores, mow lawns and manage the gallery for the benefit of us all. Importantly, we come together often for leisurely tea breaks, where, with no agenda, supportive chats and light banter flow. As a group of independently minded creatives, we can also quietly retreat to our own workshop spaces.

Patia Davis masterclass for Ceramic Review magazine.

Patia Davis masterclass for Ceramic Review magazine.

The Wobage Makers, as we refer to ourselves, share chores, mow lawns and manage the gallery for the benefit of us all. Importantly, we come together often for leisurely tea breaks, where, with no agenda, supportive chats and light banter flow. As a group of independently minded creatives, we can also quietly retreat to our own workshop spaces.

I use two very different clays for my work, one for slip-decorated earthenware fired to 1120°C and the other for high-fired reduced porcelain. I then use apple, chestnut and yew ash variations in my glazes. I make pots for daily use and pleasure.

The making of this screw-threaded jar blends the many challenges I love about working in clay. I do not consider myself particularly technical and there is definitely no hint of an engineering mind in me. My drive, which is to simply echo the jam jar with its satisfying screw thread, was my starting point.

The essence of my pot making is about achieving a soft aesthetic that pleases me. I do this  by exploration, utilising my chosen materials and equipment, in this case the wheel and a screw-threading tool. Function is crucial, but this does not mean it is a limiter to creativity. The parametersof function for me are there to be stretched aesthetically. I love this; just where might it lead?

Patia Davis masterclass for Ceramic Review magazine.

Patia Davis masterclass for Ceramic Review magazine.

The Cardew book, Pioneer Pottery, gave me the design of the toothed screw-threading tool I use, but I quickly rejected the tap and die method. I also dismissed Italian potter Cipriano Piccolpasso’s method, which describes how to throw a parallel grooved collar using the tool. This is later cut vertically down one side, the grooves become a continuous thread when the collar is displaced by one groove each side of the cut before re-joining. This seemed somewhat awkward to me, and Cardew also mentions in his book that the cut in the neck tends to reopen during firing. This was enough for me to try just throwing the screw thread, without all these extra complexities. Embracing the challenge, and being prepared to accept failures, is often how I come to understand a little more.

Ergonomics aside, my jar aesthetics lie in the balance between slip and glaze. The way I use slip is responsive to small moments of mark-making and the gap between control and disaster is small. I can feel like a control freak, aiming to release a calm mood and a softness, or, depending on the moment, energy and freshness.

Part of what I am trying to say is best quoted from a novel I re-read recently, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson: ‘Creative work bridges time because the energy of art is not time-bound. If it were we should have no interest in the art of the past, except as history or documentary. But our interest in art is our interest in ourselves both now and always. Here and forever. There is a sense of the human spirit as always existing.’

For more details visit patiadavis.co.uk; wobage.co.uk

Patia Davis masterclass for Ceramic Review magazine.