Ceramic Review: Masterclass with Ruthanne Tudball

[Music] my name is Ruth Ann tudball and I'm lucky enough to be a full-time Potter I was a journalist I know South Wales echo while my husband was training to be a journalist and I was there for six months and I used to go down to the market place regularly and found a Potter there whoever it was was making wonderful very simple throne pots ash glazed and I had a visceral experience I just wanted to make them I was at university soon after that in between classes you could go in and use the facilities and not actually be taught so I went in between my classes at the University and sat with Nick Casas craft of the Potter which had pages telling you how to Center clay and about how to make his bowl and the cylinder and so I just sat and tried to Center clay for a very long time and then after I graduated we moved to a house that had a coal cellar and the coal cellar was just about big enough to turn around and I got a rented a wheel from Mervyn Fitzwilliam for three pounds a month got it down into the cellar and it just fit and I bought two bags of clay didn't have a kiln and I just tried to make pots I had no reason to keep the pots because I had no way of firing them so I just made them and and put them back in the bag so it was a real a gift to learn about how clay works and and I loved it I absolutely loved it and then after I'd been making putts for about ten years strangely I talked to Mick Kassadin when I was at Aberystwyth once and he mentioned Goldsmith's and his friend Ken bright was head of department why don't I have a word with him see what he says anyway long story short Ken bright gave me a place on the part-time course three three days a week for two years and that's when I started working away I'm working now because I wanted to make enough pots in one week so I can put them in the kiln and fire them with soda the next week and I just discovered that making pots wet on the wheel and getting them finished was a wonderful thing to do I just loved the way the clay behaved and the way I could manipulate it and have a pot at the end of it it was like drawing a picture I could do a sketch as opposed to do a long-term painting and that was important to me and of course the soda glazing followed that as well because the marks I was making on the surface were being picked out by the soda and the kiln and so it all came together in the end making pots wet on the wheel is I use very soft clay first of all and that because it's more organic you don't fight with it it actually moves with you you have barely have to touch it and it will do something so the one thing that I love making a teapots and while I was at Goldsmiths I developed this way of making them all on the wheel wet because again I wanted to be making them so I could fire them soon and not have to biscuit fire them they I just finished them and then fire them the following week so I tried lots of different ways of doing it because if you put a normal teapot spout on wet clay after you've made holes in it then the holes are gonna move and the teapots got a pour sometimes in this sometimes not going to pour and sometimes it'll sort of pour but I really wanted it to be functional not only did I want it to be organic and beautiful and soft clay but I also wanted it to be usable what kind of alerted me to the way I started doing the spouts was when the Romans used to put handles on on pots on large pots they'd actually put the handle through the clay and then push through there on like a rivet so I thought well if I put the spout through the path that small end through the pot then the big end would be open then I could just close it up then it there wouldn't be a problem but I didn't want just one hole I wanted it to be able to be used with leaves so I wanted several holes so after several ways of experimenting in ways of putting it on the spout the spout on the body I started doing what I'm doing now is throwing a small like a small pot cutting off the back and putting it on that's open at the top putting the holes in and then folding it over closing it and they pour very well I just love doing it it's just magic you know it's the way you can put something on it as if it's growing out of the thing and it settles down into this wonderful movement and organic quality and that's why I do it I cuz I love it I read I just love doing it and the facets that I take off I start using those in various ways back onto the pot they become handles they become knobs they become a ribbon over the top of the dancing bottle they various various things and I I just it just is magic for me and I'm so lucky to be a Potter I can't tell you how much I love being a partner it is magic [Music]

Channel: Ceramic Review

Views: 50,542

Rating: 4.9591422 out of 5

Keywords: ceramics, ceramic, ceramicart, art, pottery, keramik, ceramicreview, masterclass, tutorial, throwing, teapot, sodaglaze, soda, glaze, review, ruthannetudball, ruthanne, tudball, studio, wheel

Id: jW_hZF7yDr4

Length: 6min 1sec (361 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 28 2018