We’re pleased to introduce a solo exhibition of celebrated studio potter John Bedding; ‘60 Years On’. John has created new works in his Illustrated Pot series: striking vase and bottle forms in high-fired earthenware paired with intricate surface decoration and richly built-up colour, resulting in pots with many layers of interest.

The exhibition features new pieces from John's Copper Glazed Pot series; these more sculptural pieces are raku fired, then finished with patination chemicals to give spontaneous colours and unique surface finishes.

John uses, as a canvas, unglazed burnished surfaces for their softly polished tactile quality. Inspiration for his Illustrated Pot series comes from the work of Morihiro Wada whom he met during a residency at the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Japan. This led John to developing a technique for tattooing complicated patterns onto the burnished surfaces of his pots. John says:

I have always enjoyed exploring the chemistry of pottery. I love the thought that the materials we use are the building blocks of our natural world, and that we can recreate, to our own design, objects of nature.

The inspirational core for my work comes from a desire to explore the boundaries of shape and technique, rather than following the traditional reduced high fire pots of my training. Many years at the Leach Pottery gave me a heightened awareness of shape and proportion, and the skills and discipline needed as a craftsman.

I continue searching for new ideas and to stretch the boundaries of a craft that has given me 60 years of creative challenge and purpose.

John’s pottery career began in South London in 1964, moving to St Ives in 1967 where he eventually worked with Bernard Leach as a Student-Apprentice from 1968. John went on to pot in France and travel in Europe before returning to the Leach Pottery as a member of staff making Standard Ware and developing his own work from 1973-78; this period culminated in three solo exhibitions.

In 1978, John became the second potter sent to Japan by the Leach Pottery, where he worked for a year in Tamba’s Sasayama pottery town with his friend from the Leach, Shigeyoshi Ichino. Part of the experience involved firing the long wood-fired Noborigama kilns – also called dragon kilns because of the flames that roar from them in the firing’s climax. His year in Japan culminated in a sell-out exhibition at the Hankyu Department store in Osaka.

John returned to Cornwall in 1980, starting out as an independent potter in Penzance before returning to St Ives with the opening of St Ives Ceramics in 1990; a dedicated ceramics gallery. He now works in the town’s Gaolyard Studios which he opened in 1998 as a place for potters to work. John continues to experiment with a wide range of pottery styles and techniques.

John was deeply involved in helping to save the Leach Pottery when it was at risk of being lost in the mid-2000s. He then became a valued Trustee of the Bernard Leach (St Ives) Trust Ltd. and today is ‘Honorary Potter’ at the Leach.

The exhibition runs in the Leach Pottery Entrance Gallery.
All works for sale.

Free admission; open Monday - Saturday, 10am - 5pm & Sunday 11am - 4pm