North South in the West
It is 30 years since St Ives Ceramics opened the gallery, so for the coming year they will be staging various events their website and in the gallery, kicking off with an exhibition with Pots by John Bedding and Sam Hall titled “North South in the West”. It has now ended, and despite covid we had a wonderful response to it, making a very successful exhibition.
St Ives Ceramic’s Leach Centenary Exhibition was postponed due to Covid, but they will be staging it next Easter alongside the Leach Pottery’s postponed events under the umbrella title Leach 100+1. St Ives Ceramics exhibition will tell the story in the work of the potters that worked there through the 100 years, I will be exhibiting as part of that story.
Makings Waves
St Ives Ceramics – September 11th – November 6th
In 1920 Bernard Leach, and his friend Shoji Hamada, came to St Ives and set up the Leach Pottery. Their ambition – to turn the tide of industrial production and introduce again the beauty and values of handmade pottery. In this small town at the very end of the British Isles, they started the first ripples of an emerging studio pottery movement.
This exhibition is the story of how those ripples turned into waves, that influenced generations of Potters around the world and gave the Leach Pottery an enduring legacy that has lasted a hundred years.
John was at the pottery from 1968-70 and 1972-78 at a time when Bernard Leach was alive. He was also instrumental in helping the restore the pottery after it’s decline and subsequent sale. He is now “Honorary Potter” of the Leach Pottery, and is on the enterprise board.