We are delighted to present a solo exhibition featuring new work from William Plumptre. Trained by a Japanese master Mingei potter, Tatsuzo Shimaoka, William Plumptre has been making pots in the Anglo-Oriental style for over three decades. A Very English Tradition features his iconic wood ash glaze and rope marking decoration – a technique he learnt in Japan with Tatsuzo Shimaoka.

‘I left Chelsea Art School in 1983 and lived for 2 years in Mashiko from 1985 where I worked for a year in the workshop of Tatsuzo Shimaoka; a National Treasure of Japan. It opened up a vast wealth of pottery technique and interpretations of clay. I have returned four times to Japan and still draw on my experiences there. I was curious to learn the technique of Zogan the inlay of slip on clay and rope decoration on the surface of clay which is the main reason why I went to study under Tatsuzo Shimaoka. I love the surface texture created by this method and the use of different types of wood ash glaze to bring out the rope patterns.’ – William Plumptre

William Plumptre

In 1985, having studied ceramic design at Chelsea College of Art, William Plumptre travelled to Japan. There he continued his training in the workshops of three different potters, including one year with the Japanese master, Tatsuzo Shimaoka, a National Treasure. The training regime was rigorous and repetitive but he returned to England with greater knowledge and understanding of the Japanese way of producing and firing pottery in a traditional climbing kiln.

In 1987 William Plumptre set up his first pottery in Hartsop near Patterdale, where he built his own oil-fired kiln in the outbuildings of a traditional stone built Lakeland house. He moved into a seventeenth century farmhouse in nearby Witherslack in 1994 and established a new studio where he creates his pottery today.

He throws with robust stoneware clay and makes a variety of press moulded bottles and dishes. With the use of rope and material, each piece is then inlaid with different coloured slips. His glazes are made largely of local materials including wood ash and granite, all of his work is reduction fired in the sixty-five cubic foot gas-fired kiln, which he designed himself.

Public Collections include:
Abbot Hall Gallery, Kendal, Cumbria; Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery; Banque Paribas, London; Blackwell Arts and Crafts House, Windermere, Cumbria; Royal Bank of Scotland, London

A Very English Tradition

William Plumptre

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