About

Jonathan Garrett F.R.S.A.

Since 1980 I have concentrated on making terracotta plant pots, sculpture and glazed slipware from local clays and firing the pots exclusively with wood from the locality. Tribal arts, especially prehistoric chinese and african, provide powerful influences for my designs.

Jonathan Garratt

Jonathan Garratt grew up with his father’s collection of Ming porcelain from Shanghai and Sierra Leone’s narrow strip weaving, bought as curtains, in the living room. Pots and textiles were normal. His mother ran an all women architecture practice in Notting Hill, so the idea of design was normal too.

In 1968, he discovered pottery, at school, courtesy of Gordon Baldwin. In 1976, he received a BA in archaeology at Cambridge University, but opted for the life of a craftsman in the countryside. So, in 1978, he became an assistant to Michael (Seamus) O’Brien, Michael Cardew’s associate.

In 1980, He set up ‘Bartley Pottery’ in the New Forest and in 1986 he established ‘Hare Lane Pottery’ in Cranborne, Dorset using a larger wood-fired kiln.

1993 – The independent’ – profile by Anna Pavord.

1997 – Fellow of The Royal Society for Arts

1999 – Teaching (artifacts module at Harrow Art College, University of Westminster: ‘20th Century British Sculpture’: installation of hanging discs at Canary Warf.

His Work:

The outdoors has always had a gravitational pull for many people and it is no accident that he refines all his own clay, from local clay pit. The raw clay is dug and ”blunged” i.e. mixed with water into a soup and sieved then dried to a malleable condition. Once thrown, the pots are immediately decorated while still turning on the wheel with homemade roulettes of fired clay, to print the surfaces with pattern. Having poured over the glazes and done the drying, cobalt oxide on foam rubber stamps cut from sheets can be applied along with other colours to produce the effects desired. Wood-firing will then complete the process, giving a subtle ”flavour” to the work and connecting the pots to the countryside that produced them.

Guided by seven thousand year old cooking pots from China and West African textile designs exert a strong guiding hand on his ceramic language, coupled with a particular interest in whether pots work well in their intended roles.