Peter Consentino - Ceramist

I have been fascinated by the technique and creative potential of throwing from my initial discovery of a pottery kick wheel in the art room of my secondary school over 40 years ago. My love of throwing has never diminished and consequently all my work begins its life on the wheel.

My current interests lie in the exploration of tensions between shape, proportion and balance and a personal enjoyment of pushing clay to extremes of what it will allow me to do. I frequently alter shapes after initial throwing is completed by combining sections or re-throwing parts of a piece such as a base or stem with the initial thrown part inverted. In this way I develop the final shape ‘upside down’ while the clay is still malleable enough to continue throwing. I find that this technique enables me to achieve some of the more dramatic shapes which would normally be too unstable to throw in one piece.

I prefer to produce work in small batches of up to a dozen or so pieces at a time with each piece evolving and altering slightly from the previous one. Natural and organic forms have been a constant source of inspiration for my work, particularly in terms of surface qualities and pattern.

In terms of technical detail – I prefer to use a limited range of matt glazes such as simple dolomite and ash based glazes in combination with colouring oxides and basic resist techniques. I use mostly white stoneware clay and occasionally porcelain fired to 1250 C in top loading electric kilns.

Most recently I have been experimenting with crystalline glazes. A relatively complex firing schedule is required to produce crystals and there is never any guarantee that crystals will appear, a factor which both fascinates and frustrates in equal measures but makes opening the kiln after a firing an even more exciting event !