About
 Tony and Barbara White live and work on the historic Hafod Estate, Cwmystwyth, Mid Wales. They are full time makers producing Raku fired studio pottery to their own designs. Like many ceramic practitioners today Tony did not set out to become a potter. His early working life was in the light engineering industry; by 1979 this came to an abrupt end with recession and redundancy. Since 1972 he had been attending pottery evening classes at his local college and during this period began to acquire skills in hand building and throwing at the same time purchasing his own equipment and pursuing a process of ceramic self-education. Tony then took the post of ceramic technician and part- time adult education lecturer at this college and remained there until 1988, when to fulfil his ambition to set up his own pottery, producing domestic Stoneware, the family moved to Wales. In 1986 he took another technical post at the University Art Dept in Aberystwyth leaving there in 1990. He set up his present workshop at Cwmystwyth, where the family had moved to in 1987. With new ideas and skills he began to produce figurative work, which was fired using the Raku process It was an immediate success, so much so that Barbara joined him in the studio to help manage the ever-increasing demand for the work. The success of the work afforded him time to visit the Joan Miro Foundation in Barcelona, which inspired the decoration on his new work,his rectangular & triangular forms. Tony White is a professional member of the Craft Potters Association of Great Britain Raku, what is it? Today any firing process which involves the work being removed from the kiln in a high temperature condition can be called raku. This differs from the other firing processes where the work is left to cool inside the kiln for a long period. Raku glazes melt at around 1000°c after this temperature is achieved the heat source is turned off & after a few minutes the piece is removed from the kiln with metal tongs. The dramatic drop in temperature causes the glaze surface to craze, the work is then placed into a lidded container along with a combustible material, sawdust, paper, leaves etc. This creates an oxygen starved atmosphere around the work and the carbon produced penetrates the body of the piece. Unglazed areas become black / grey, the crazing appears as black/grey lines. On cooling the work is cleaned. There are many variations on this process and many surface decorations can be achieved. The nature of raku lends itself easily to experimentation. Stockists Aberystwyth Arts Centre Penglais Campus, Aberystwyth, SY23 3DE www.aberystwythartscentre.co.uk The Biscuit Factory 16 Stoddart Street, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE2 1AN www.thebiscuitfactory.com Fenwick Gallery 21 Castle Street, Warkworth, Morpeth, Northumberland, NE65 0UW www.fenwickgallery.co.uk Mission Gallery Gloucester Place Maritime Quarter Swansea SA1 1TY www.missiongallery.co.uk Royal Exchange Theatre Craft Shop St Anne's Square, Manchester, M2 7DH www.royalexchange.co.uk Pyramid Gallery 43 Stonegate, York, YO1 8AW Old Chapel Gallery East Street, Pembridge, Leominster, Herefordshire, HR6 9HB www.oldchapelgallery.co.uk Wonderwall Gallery 7 Goditch Street, Cirencester, Gloucestershire, GL7 2AG www.thewonderwallgallery.com |
