WORKSHOP AND DISPLAY AREA

Open 10:00am - 4:30pm most days
 

If you are looking for information about Pottery Classes, click here

The horses have long gone from the old stables at the Mill and two potters have moved in. Don Hudson and Berey Pealing share the workshop and small sales area which, between them, they try to keep open to the public seven days a week.

Both Don and Berey produce fairly traditional table ware, along with some more exotic pieces, while retaining their own individual styles and methods. Don's is the earthenware, Berey's is the stoneware.

In addition to their day-to-day production work, the two potters are involved with activities connected to the Town Mill complex as a whole, such as the talks and demonstrations they give to visiting school parties.

They also organise public participation weekends during the year, such as 'Throw a Pot' during Lyme's Lifeboat and Carnival Weeks in July/August and an annual 'Fiery Festival', using Japanese Raku pottery techniques, in the mill courtyard in conjunction with Lyme's Artsfest Week in October. Finally they run pottery making evening classes for the local community.

On one weekend a year, usually in October, potters Don Hudson and Berey Pealing offer visitors the opportunity to participate in the ancient Japanese craft of Raku pottery making - a spectacular thirty minute process. Visitors of all ages are invited to purchase a small bowl from the pottery, decorate it with the wide range of glazes provided, then wait as it is fired and given its distinctive finish.

The decorating tables, gas-fired Raku kiln,  a sawdust container and a dousing bath are located in the mill courtyard so all can see the production sequences in action.

After the earthenware pieces have been individually decorated with Raku glaze, they are rapidly heated to about 950 degrees centigrade in the kiln. About 20 minutes later, the red hot earthenware pieces are removed and come into contact with the much cooler outside air, causing the glaze to crack - a step much revered in the original Japanese Raku process.

Whilst still very very hot, the pieces are dipped, using thick gauntlets and long tongs, into a drum of sawdust, where the burning sawdust blackens the cracks and any unglazed surfaces of the piece.

Finally, the Raku pots are plunged into a dousing bath filled with cold water. When cool enough to handle, the pots are scrubbed and cleaned to remove the burnt sawdust deposits and reveal the bright colours, metallic effects and crackle finish typical of the Raku process.

Dousing a Raku pot

Some of the finished Raku pottery

Don Hudson runs the pottery evening classes twice a week, starting towards the end of September. They take place in the pottery at the Town Mill, with up to six people on each course.

For further information contact Don by telephone on 01297 444633/0775 1447963,  or send a stamped self-addressed envelope to Don at the Town Mill (full address at the bottom of this page).

The Town Mill
Mill Lane, Lyme Regis, Dorset DT7 3PU, England
Tel: 01297 443579     e-mail info@townmill.org.uk