Mike Dodd
Artist Statement
Pottery is a very tactile craft. Throughout the process of making I try to keep the clay’s soft and plastic qualities alive. In formulating glazes from naturally occurring local materials, I usually try to do the same, that is, enhance those plastic qualities I so respond to. The attempt is to make objects which are both practical and delightful to use and which at the same time enrich our visual and tactile environment.
Training
1957 – 1961 Bryanston School, Dorset
Studied pottery under Donald Potter (a student of Eric Gill)
1962 – 1965 Cambridge University
Studied Natural Sciences Tripos (Medicine). Honours Degree
1966 – 1967 Hammersmith College of Art, London
One year postgraduate course in Ceramics
Potteries
1968 Started 1st pottery in Edburton, Sussex. Two-chambered wood- and oil-fired kiln. Ash-glazed stoneware and porcelain.
1971 Moved pottery to larger premises at Woods Place Farmhouse in Sussex.
1975 Moved pottery to Cornwall. Built a wood-fired Korean climbing kiln. Used only local materials for the bricks. Started making glazes from local granites, clays, wood ashes, irons, ochres, etc.
1979 Asked by Survival International and Oxfam to build a large climbing Korean kiln, similar to the one in Cornwall, in the central jungles of Peru for the ‘Amuesha Indian Project’ aimed at keeping the indigenous people in their natural home. Spent 6 months there under the guidance of the American project leader, Connie Talbot.
1986 Moved pottery to Cumbria, concentrating on using local materials, granites, hornfels, andesites, irons, ashes etc. in the making of my glazes.
1994 Pottery at Manor Farm, Cheddington, Beaminster, Dorset.
1999 Moved to present pottery at Dove Workshops.
Teaching
Full-time 1981-1986 at Cumbria College of Art, Carlisle, first as Senior lecturer, then as
Head of Department of the Vocational Pottery Course.
Part-time at Farnham College of Art, Surrey in 1972, also from 1972-74 at Medway College of Art, Kent, 1974 Harrow College of Art, Middlesex and 1977-78 at Royal College of Art, London.
Articles by Mike Dodd
In Defence of Tradition
Pottery Quarterly, 1974 (on the strength of this article followed a discussion with Bernard Leach in St Ives) Vol.1.11, No.41
Confused Ramplings
Artists Newsletter, 1982
Letter from Peru, Oxapampa project
Ceramic Review, 1983
Makers or Breakers
Artists Newsletter, March 1984
Running a Vocational Course
Real Pottery (Formerly Pottery Quarterly) 1986
Healthy Roots
Artists Newsletter, June 1987
An American Experience
Artists Newsletter, January 1993
Function and Dysfunction
Ceramics: Art and Perception 1998
Trembling on the Edge, article on Patrick Sargent
Ceramic Review, May/June 1999
Other articles
Tim Proud article on Mike Dodd – Unambiguous Potter
Ceramic Review, Sept/Oct 1987
Eileen Lewenstein, Review of China Clay – The Eastern Tradition in British Studio Pottery – Crafts, Sept/Oct 1991
An Interview with Mike Dodd
Studio Pottery, April/May 1994