Born in 1954, Jonathan Garratt grew up with his father’s collection of Ming porcelain from Shanghai in 1948 and Sierra Leone narrowstrip weaving bought in 1940 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. Discovering pottery at school, courtesy of Gordon Baldwin, he received a BA in archaeology at Cambridge, but opted for the life of a craftsman in the countryside.

The outdoors has always had a gravitational pull for many people and it is no accident that he refines all his own clay for a natural feel in the work, firing all the pots with wood. 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.

Blue Glazed Arrows, Woodfired Earthenware

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 home made 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. Woodfiring will then complete the process, giving subtle ‘flavour’ to the work and connecting the pots to the countryside that produced them.

Images by Jonathan Garratt

Meet the Makers

Here are some of the Makers and Artists we feature in our shop. Check back on our website or on Instagram @craftsstudycentre for future updates.

Jonathan Garratt

HOW TO FIND US:

The Crafts Study Centre is open from 10am - 5pm Tuesday to Friday and 10am - 4pm on Saturday. The centre is closed on Sunday and Monday. Research visits by appointment only.