Joanna Wason

I grew up near Bideford in North Devon. I came to the Leach Pottery to work for Janet Leach in 1988, mixing her clays and glazes, making saggars for her smoke firings and acting as her general workshop assistant until her death in 1997.

After Janet died I continued making pots on my wheel here in the old workshop, until late 2005 when it was closed for renovation to become the Leach Pottery Museum. Now I have a caravan workshop and I also work part time here in the shop.

 Most often my pots are thrown. The porcelain is then glazed with iron, white or ash glazes, and stoneware pots are glazed with iron or ash. All these pots are fired to 1280 degrees C in a reduction atmosphere in a gas kiln.