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“Approaching it’s fifteenth year kitchen-pottery continues to be about the production of high quality hand made kitchen and tableware.” |
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About Nick
In 1991 Nick Membery graduated from Middlesex Polytechnic with a degree in ceramics. Following this he spent two years at Manningtree Pottery in Essex, where he trained under Mike Goddard mostly making terracotta planters. Invaluable experience was also gained building potters’ wheels and gas kilns. During this time Nick also started to develop ideas and build the foundations for the kitchen-pottery he is making today.
In 1993 the first of two rented workshops in London was set up making usable stoneware pottery. Busy times followed working in the soon to be ‘trendy’ Hoxton supplying pots to many shops most notably the David Mellor kitchen shops.
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| Brief C.V. |
| 1968 | Born Worcester |
| 1987-91 | Middlesex Polytechnic B.A. Hons Ceramics |
| 1989-90 |
Placement year:- Dordoigne, France, making tin glazed domestic ware.
Manningtree Pottery, making terracotta planters. |
| 1991-93 | Manningtree Pottery, Essex |
| 1993 | Set up first Pottery Hoxton Sq, London |
| 1999 | Set up pottery workshop in Brighton |
| 2003 | Moved to West Wales to begin renovating farm house and outbuildings.
Built a new kiln and set up pottery workshop. |
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Waun Hir Pottery
By 1999 it was time for a change Nick and his partner Sue and their young daughter moved to Brighton. But before too long the realisation that the days of being an urban potter were numbered had set in.
Now married with three children Nick and his family have lived in Wales since 2003. The idyllic surroundings of the Brecon Beacons National Park near the town of Llandeilo are where they have settled.
Approaching it’s fifteenth year kitchen-pottery continues to be about the production of high quality hand made kitchen and tableware. It has been sold in many shops and galleries throughout the UK, is usually shown at several specialist craft shows and exhibitions each year and can be bought directly from Nick at Waun Hir Pottery.
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| Recent Exhibitions |
| 1999 | 40th Anniversary Exhibition, Bluecoat Display Centre.
Chelsea Crafts Fair® London. |
| 2002 | Ceramics In The City, Geffrye Museum, London.
Art In Action, Waterperry Gardens, Oxfordshire.
All Set For Christmas, Contemporary Applied Arts, London. |
| 2003 |
Ceramics In The City, Geffrye Museum, London.
Ceramica Cymru, Llandeilo, Carms.
Oxford Studio Ceramics, Oxford. |
| 2005 | Ceramics In The City, Geffrye Museum, London.
Art In Action, Waterperry Gardens, Oxfordshire.
Ceramica Cymru, Llandeilo, Carms. |
| 2006 | Ceramics In The City, Geffrye Museum, London. |
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Technical Information
Waun Hir pottery produces a comprehensive range of kitchen and tableware, intended for daily use. It is stoneware, reduction fired to 1300°C in two down-draft bespoke, propane kilns. The largest is only 12 cubic feet, it was supposed to be a temporary situation, but there is the advantage that it only takes a week of making to fill it up. A larger gas kiln, probably 40 cubic feet is going to be built during 2007. (Watch the kiln as it progresses on this web-site. I have the bricks and burners and intend building to commence in the spring).
The standard range of pots is all made on the wheel. They are often altered by pushing or cutting and I use plaster moulds to apply decoration and sometimes press-moulded additions. Most handles are extruded or rolled.
The clay used is HT Special manufactured by Valentines. It is versatile clay which doesn’t mind being force dried (useful in West Wales!) It is recommended for making ovenware, firing to a lovely toasted brown in reduction.
The pots are twice fired and the two standard glazes I use mixed from dry raw materials here at the pottery are either blue or white. The biscuit fired pots are banded with paraffin-wax to leave distinctive unglazed rims and beading around the bottom.
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