Dear Mr. Leach: Some Thoughts on Ceramics [While Supply Lasts]

by Sebastian Blackie

Paperback: 128 pages
Publisher: A&C Black (2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0-7136-6942-X
Dimensions: 9.7" x 7.5" x 0.4"
Shipping Weight: 0.83 lbs.

Many years ago as a teenaged budding potter, Sebastian Blackie wrote a letter to the grand old man of studio ceramics, Bernard Leach. Bernard sent an encouraging reply and Sebastian went on to make a career in ceramics.

Now, more than 30 years later, Sebastian has picked up his correspondence with Bernard. In a series of emails, he reflects on various modern trends both in and outside the ceramics field and muses on what Bernard's response to them might be. The result is a lighthearted but serious look at some of the issues that are facing the ceramics world today.

Bernard Leach (1887-1979) is considered the godfather of the modern studio ceramics movement. Along with Shoji Hamada, in 1920 he set up a pottery in St Ives and started propounding the idea of ethical potter. Between his pottery, his tours and lectures, the students who came to work with him and, above all, his writings, particularly A Potter's Book, he laid the philosophical foundations for much of the studio pottery movement as we know it today