Historical pottery videos
Posted: November 17th, 2009 | Author: Benjamin | Filed under: Pottey | No Comments »As a followup to my previous article on my favourite YouTube potters, I would like to share these fascinating historical pottery videos.
The first is a four part series about Isaac Button, at Soil Hill Pottery near Halifax, England. The video was shot in 1965, and has no sound, but is absolutely fascinating, looking at every aspect of pottery-making, from digging and processing clay to firing a giant coal powered kiln:
- Isaac Button; Country Potter Part 1
- Isaac Button; Country Potter Part 2
- Isaac Button; Country Potter Part 3
- Isaac Button; Country Potter Part 4
Next we have some lovely videos of Shoji Hamada, a japanese potter at the origin of the studio pottery movement in the UK. His videos give you a sense that evenness, “centeredness” and straightness are not absolute requirements in pottery:
Third, a video of Michael Cardew, a potter in the same generation as Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada. According to the documentary below, he was Bernard Leach’s first student.
- Michael Cardew, throwing off the hump
- 1984 CBC documentary
Next, some Bernard Leach videos:
- Bernard Leach
- BBC Documentary, The Rock of St-Ives Bernard Leach part 1
- BBC Documentary, The Rock of St-Ives Bernard Leach part 2
- BBC Documentary, The Rock of St-Ives Bernard Leach part 3
And finally, for a bit of colour, a BBC documentary series with potter Michael Casson:
- BBC The Craft of the Potter, decoration part 1
- BBC The Craft of the Potter, decoration part 2
- BBC The Craft of the Potter, glaze and fire part 1
- BBC The Craft of the Potter, glaze and fire part 2
- BBC The Craft of the Potter, throwing (extract)
Let me know if you know of other such videos, I would love to add them to the list.
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