John’s pottery career began in South London in 1964, moving to St Ives in 1967 where he eventually worked with Bernard Leach as a Student-Apprentice from 1968. John went on to pot in France and travel in Europe before returning to the Leach Pottery as a member of staff making Standard Ware and developing his own work from 1973-78; this period culminated in three solo exhibitions.

In 1978, John became the second potter sent to Japan by the Leach Pottery, where he worked for a year in Tamba’s Sasayama pottery town with his friend from the Leach, Shigeyoshi Ichino. Part of the experience involved firing the long wood-fired Noborigama kilns – also called dragon kilns because of the flames that roar from them in the firing’s climax. His year in Japan culminated in a sell-out exhibition at the Hankyu Department store in Osaka.

John returned to Cornwall in 1980, starting out as an independent potter in Penzance before returning to St Ives with the opening of St Ives Ceramics in 1990; a dedicated ceramics gallery. He now works in the town’s Gaolyard Studios which he opened in 1998 as a place for potters to work. John continues to experiment with a wide range of pottery styles and techniques.

John was deeply involved in helping to save the Leach Pottery when it was at risk of being lost in the mid-2000s. He then became a valued Trustee of the Bernard Leach (St Ives) Trust Ltd. and today is ‘Honorary Potter’ at the Leach.