Unlike the plethora of Craft magazines we have today, there were few available during the early 50s, so when a new publication, ‘Pottery Quarterly’ priced at 3/- came onto the market, Derek, still living in Hillesden at the time, decided to try a copy. In the 1955 winter edition, he came across a couple of articles that were to change his whole life.
The first was ‘Reducing atmospheres in firing pottery’ an article by Alfred B Searle, in which the author goes into quite some depth, over eight pages, ending with…
‘…in short, the use of reducing atmospheres for studio pottery is often very disappointing, but the occasional wholly beautiful wares so obtained yield a satisfaction, which outweighs all the disappointments.’ (Page 139–146)
If this didn’t get Derek thinking, then the next article, a couple of pages further on, ‘A small pottery kiln’ by HV Hueber D.Ph, certainly did. Here was a six page article with diagrams and dimensions, describing the building of various kilns, kilns that he could carry out a reduction firings in.
The publication, ‘Pottery Quarterly’ priced at 3/- came onto the market in 1954.
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