Master Potters

Having been very inspired by the video of Isaac Button posted on You Have Been Here Sometime - I stumbled upon these equally intriguing videos of Shōji Hamada throwing pots in a 1968 demonstration and a short clip featuring Bernard Leach fom the film Art of the Potter.

Leach was born in Hong Kong, but spent his young adult years in Japan where he came into contact with a group of young Japanese art lovers who called themselves Shirakaba (白樺). Through them he learned about William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement. It was in Japan that Leach began potting under the direction of Shigekichi Urano (Kenzan VI) and befriended a young potter named Shōji Hamada. With Hamada, he set up the Leach Pottery at St. Ives, Cornwall in 1920, including the construction of a traditional Japanese wood burning kiln. The two of them promoted pottery as a combination of Western and Eastern arts and philosophies.

(source: Bernard Leach wiki)

I think I may finally hand over a wad of cash and take a ceramics course myself. I keep putting it off because of the money but maybe it would be worth it just to give it a go...anyway - deep thoughts of clay over here...