info@studio-pots.com	Harlequin Gallery
Svend Bayer
Below are examples of work currently available : -
A wood-fired jug with heavy ash deposits made in 2000. Height: 26.5cm (10.4") Price: £185		Wood-fired bottle with botomochi type decoration 2006. Height: 18.3cm (7.2”) Price: £90
Side fired jar with attached shell. Height: 15.0cm (5.9”) Price: £250
Svend Bayer was born in Uganda to Danish parents in 1946 and was educated in Africa, Denmark as well as Britain. It was whilst studying Geography at Exeter University that he became interested in pottery and, after graduating with honours in 1968 he began a three and a half year apprenticeship with Michael Cardew at Wenford Bridge in early 1969. Svend describes his time at Wenford Bridge as "the most exciting of my life - finally I was doing what I wanted". In 1973 Svend travelled to Japan, Korea and South East Asia to look at potteries and wood fired kilns and even today he says he is still in awe of the Great Jars of Martaban. After helping to set up a pottery in the USA, Svend returned to Britain and established his own workshop at Sheepwash in Devon, where he has remained since 1975. The site was chosen for its proximity to the North Devon ball clays and local sawmills whose off cuts are used to fire the kiln. Svend says that he has "always fired exclusively with wood but hated firings. I had developed a negative Pavlovian response to all that work and wastage but could not bring myself to fire in any other way." Fairly recently he has lengthened the firings from 36 to 110 hours and paradoxically this seems to have turned the firings into much more relaxed affairs, concerned more with gentle coaxing or nudging the flame than engaging in Titanic struggles. Svend has had five solo exhibitions at the Harlequin Gallery, with the most recent of these taking place in September 2008. Besides these; he has shown at other galleries in this country as well as in Europe, the Middle East, North America, Australia and New Zealand. He has also carried out numerous workshops here and in the United States, Australia and New Zealand, and demonstrated at events such as the Rufford Ceramic Fair in 1999.
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