Charlie Collier
2025 – Taking part in Potfest by the Lake – Compton Verney and Potfest in the Park – Hutton-in-the-Forest and Potfest Suffolk – Haughley Park
I make pots for use. Functional pots for the home and garden. Great pots, beautiful pots, can enhance a meal, from preparation, to cooking to presentation. How you display and serve that meal makes a difference – pots are, and have always been, integral to this. There needn’t be a distinction made between ‘art’ and function, it really doesn’t matter. Simply put, it’s a case of using beautiful things that can enrich your daily life.
I’m keen to continue and promote the tradition of handmade pottery. It’s important to look to the past to help inform the present. Be it techniques of making, forms, decoration, glazes or kiln design – we can learn from the past masters and aim to evolve. Making pots from the ground up (literally) is the best way to learn and develop.
I love the philosophy of the best pots being ‘born and not made’. You can’t contrive a beautiful pot. You can only make and observe, and when you see it, stop. For me, pottery has a lot to do with form. Michael Cardew called it ‘the majesty of form’. Once a pot is taken off the wheel, it can’t improve. A great form will remain no matter what decoration, finish or firing it’s exposed to. Pottery is also about choice. Choices made during the making and firing processes define our character. Pots therefore, have this ability to communicate the maker’s character and vitality to the user. Every handmade pot offers this personal connection, even when the maker’s identity has long been forgotten. This is part of the reason I see no need to sign my pots – it’s not about who made them, just the spirit and feel with which they’re made.