Joss Hibbs- Powdermills Pottery
2026 – Taking part in Potfest in the Pens Penrith – Autumn
Joss lives right in the middle of Dartmoor in the South West of England, at about 1325ft. Everything here is wild and harsh – the landscape, the weather and the ones who stay.
Constantly feeling the pull of where she lives, Joss makes a range of pots made from Dartmoor. Pots are made from clays quarried from the moor; glazes are made from river gravels, granite rock, ash from the woodburner; pots are thrown slowly on a foot-powered momentum wheel; then fired in a wood-fuelled kiln for as many days as it takes to coat and colour their surfaces. The result is a pot reflecting the moorland landscape.
Pots must be useful to make sense on Dartmoor – frills are swept away quickly here.
The compulsion to make pots from found materials began when reading ‘Ash Glazes’ by Phil Rogers in 1996. Joss is still trying to read ‘Pioneer Pottery’ by Michael Cardew.
Joss was taught to throw by Richard Phethean; learned all she knows about firing a wood kiln from Nic Collins and Svend Bayer, and is indebted to the late Brian Sutherland and glaze technology tutors at University of Westminster.
Joss makes and lives at Powdermills Pottery, Dartmoor.