I recently realised that my favourite clay is shipped in from Spain - not even as it’s powdered form. I want to make sure that all of the materials I use are as local as possible, to minimise it’s impact on the environment. I make very efficient shapes and use very little clay, so bringing in local materials would be even better.

I took a short course with Matthew Blakely at The Ceramic Studio, which is local-ish to Brighton. We were able to bring our own sample clays and rocks to test with - useful to see how other’s worked, too. It was a very interesting approach - rather than being reliant on knowing the chemistry beforehand to create a glaze, we used empirical methods to deduce what was in it from various melt and combination testing.

Just a simple mix of clay and ash can make a really beautiful glaze at cone 10, even into chun blues, which I love. A better understanding of biaxial testing will help me to refine my standard glazes to include local materials… watch this space.