Village Raw - ISSUE 15

VILLAGE RAW
ART & CULTURE
SPACE TO THROW
There is a deep love of ceramics and pottery in the UK, with more
people looking to take up the craft both as hobbyists and artisans.
Words by Becky Lima-Matthews. Photos by Kate Kuzminova.
The long months of lockdown have inspired people to take up
crafts and this winter The Great Pottery Throw Down returned to
our screens. According to the Crafts Council, pottery made up 74%
of crafts bought between 2018 and 2020, and the biggest buyers of
ceramics today are under 35. But people from different age groups
and backgrounds want to come together to learn how to throw. And
all three studios we spoke to have personal experiences and reasons
for sharing their skills with those who want to learn.
Ricky Grimes Ceramics is a studio based behind his home in
Muswell Hill. Ricky is a practising artist and runs classes alongside
his colleague Jenny Williamson. But he started his career in electronics
in Glasgow, before coming down to London in the mid-80s
where he took a job as a baker in Neal’s Yard then later took a City &
Guilds course in pottery which led to him swapping dough for clay.
After working in schools and later in adult education, Grimes set up
his own studio in 2003 to teach ceramics and pottery courses for
adults. “It’s really taken off since then, especially in the last five,
six years,” he explains. “I expanded the studio and allowed for more
wheels. And demand has been very high. Especially now The Great
Pottery Throw Down is back on, so enquiries have spiked again.”
People come to his classes to learn throwing, hand-building and
the studio is also set up for Japanese Raku Firing too.
Raku translates as enjoyment or happiness, and the technique
goes back to the 16th century. It’s a fast-firing technique where
bisque fired pots are dipped in glaze and brought rapidly to temperature
until the surfaces have a shiny orange-yellow glow and
the glaze smoothes out. Then they’re extracted from the kiln with
tongs and covered in leaves and sawdust to build a lustrous and
crackled smoky surface. “You pick up the lid of the kiln and that’s
when everybody always goes ’wow!’. People enjoy it because of its
excitement factor, it’s very visual and immediate.”
Raku is just part of what Ricky Grimes offers and pottery isn’t
just a passing interest for people that come to his studio, and you
only need to peek at his Instagram to see there is plenty of room
to play while you learn, with his pets making the odd appearance
too. “My classes are fun, sometimes people are intimidated by it all
when they first come but I’m quite funny, and I’m very gentle with
people when I’m teaching.”
Making ceramics a more accessible craft was the vision behind
Turning Earth. Founder and creative director Tallie Maughan was
14 15
Opening page: Ricky Grimes in
his studio. This page: Jenny
Williamson at the wheel.