TONI RICHARDS

BEHIND THE KILN

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I was always meant to be a potter, but I didn’t know it.  I just knew, at the age of 20 during my first encounter with clay, that pottery is good for the soul.  After a long career in education, I came back to ceramics.   Now I spend my time in my wonderful studio which adjoins my home in Wimbledon.  I am partly self-taught.  On retiring from teaching I attended adult education classes to learn the basics and then joined an HNC course at Richmond Adult Community College, under the tutelage of Emma Johnstone and Megan Rowden.

 

Primarily I make things for myself.  Things I enjoy looking at, touching and using.  I love living with beautiful things that give me joy and contentment and I strive to make things that are visually attractive, that catch the eye, that people want to touch.

 

I mainly work with a stoneware clay which has a high porcelain content, it is fine yet versatile.  I throw some pieces and hand-build others, both techniques are highly satisfying, but the time-consuming part of the making process is decorating.  I love to use coloured slips, to draw, paint and print on the surface of my pieces. 

 

What motivates me, intrigues me, influences me? Everything.  Everything from the silver peeling bark of a birch tree to a fish lying on a wet slab, a twisted, rusted wrought-iron gate or a shadow. 

 

I hope you enjoy looking at my work.