Fiona Duckett – Watergaw Ceramics
2026 – Taking part in Potfest Scotland – Scone Palace
My original creativity was in textiles. When I first threw a pot over 30 years ago at a local potter’s classes I was hooked, I knew that this was what I wanted to do. I worked for two different potters before I was awarded a place at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee where I gained a BDes (Hons) in Ceramics. I then went to Grays School of Art, Aberdeen where I studied for, and was awarded an MA in Art and Design.
During my Honours year at Dundee, I started to specialise in Reduction (In Glaze) Lustre taking the movement and reflective colour found in water as my inspiration. This theme continued during my time at Grays and now forms the foundation of most of the work that I do.
Reduction (In Glaze) Lustre is a technically challenging and complicated process, where the lustre salts that are present in the glaze are changed on the surface during a period of reduction (this is when the kiln is starved of oxygen) creating many different colours depending on the composition of the glaze. Each firing produces unique pieces and even when the pots are fired in the same firing with the same glazes on them, they are different. The glazes are iridescent like oil on water or a peacocks feather and are ever changing
Watergaw is Ancient Scot for a partial or incomplete rainbow. When you are creating In Glaze Reduction Lustre it is said that you are chasing the rainbow and trying to capture all the colours of the rainbow in that glaze.