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Hamish Jackson | Episode 1135
Hamish Jackson is a potter from England, and he started potting at Winchcombe Pottery in the Cotswolds. Hammish got married to his lovely American wife, Lauren and moved to the states about six years ago. Hamish completed a four year apprenticeship under Mark Hewitt and is now headed off to USU for grad school.
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What were you expecting to happen in your brain before you did anything? What was your expectation?
Well I was expecting the nuts to flow around the kiln nicely and really get into pots and around pots and cover them. And for the reduction that worked really well. Better than charcoal. Charcoal is all different sizes and shapes and you can push it around but it’s not going to actively roll. So the nuts were really well suited to that.
In this experimental kiln did you end up getting pots out of it that were keepers?
Yeah, I have had quite a lot of good pots out of there. You can fire it pretty quickly.
What is the criteria from your personal perspective on what makes a good surface from a wood-fire?
Yeah, it’s so subjective. I like a lot of different surfaces that can result, for different applications. For say, an eating bowl, a cereal bowl, I don’t really want a super dry matte, crunchy surface. It just requires so much sanding to get it to the point of being smooth and functional. But for sculpture or something where you are just concerned about the outer having a rougher exterior is fine.
Are you comfortable having “B” grade pots going out into the world?
There are a lot of losses, you know. Each firing you loose, it depends, but it could be up to fifty percent of the pots are just not good. It keeps you humble and you’ve got to get rid of the ones that are not right. I do sell seconds sometimes. What I am going for is not always what the customer is looking for. They often like what isn’t my preference.
What do you have going on right now?
I have been recently been teaching some classes in wild clay and wild glazes, going out and collecting materials and making with them. That’s what I kind of spent most of my grad school doing. Making a palette of glazes from one granite and doing lots of glaze experiments with it.
Book
Pioneer Pottery by Michael Cardew
Contact
hamishjacksonpottery.com
Instagram: @hamish.jackson.pottery