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Clive Bowen
is Britain’s most highly regarded
earthenware potter, having potted from his own studio in North Devon since 1971. He had
originally studied painting at Cardiff School of Art but joined Bernard
Leach’s second son, Michael as an apprentice at his Yelland Pottery in 1965.
After a stay of four or so years he began working as a thrower at the Brannam
Pottery in Barnstaple and helped Michael Cardew at Wenford Bridge at weekends with
firings before starting out on his own. It was these wood firings at Wenford
that convinced him to follow this route, remembering “the self-willed,
flaming kiln and the liveliness of the results.”
He kiln is a down-draught circular
wood-fired double-chamber kiln with a 400 cubic foot capacity that he built in 1976. The red
earthenware pots are fired for around 24 hours and are taken up to a
temperature of 1060 degrees Celsius.
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