Sanders, Lee

There was scanned file of Bernard Leach pots… which I load as my screen saver…. I just knew this was something that I had to go with…

I helped scan a few thousand images from slide to digital format… most about the potters at a craft centre, and many about traditional Zulu ceramics.

Soon there was a field trip to Rorke’s Drift, a battle site between the Zulus and British. I met the most wonderful people, artist working at a pottery studio at the Rorkes Drift Arts and Craft Centre… I made them tea… and on subsequent visits too… now they know me as Lee… the tea boy. I think the thing I liked the most was making the tea in cups and mugs which they had made, glazed and fired… although they had not made the showroom floor…. they were the best for our tea.

From then on, I have been hand building vessels, learning to fire in a traditional method… having fallen in love with blackend-ware… learning mainly from forms that are functional, like the storage and drinking vessels used for home brewed beer.

The fire is the best part… and the worst… I have a bag full of sherds.

From pit and drum firing, I have since built myself a Raku kiln… after watching a member of that Leach family do a really good job of showing his version on youtube. Using the gas is certainly not as awesome and devastating as the fire… but to blacken the pots… I still get to use fire.