Michael Cardew

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Michael Cardew MBE, OBE (born 1901 in Wimbledon, London - died 1983 in Truro) was a significant English studio potter and ceramic stylist.

1 Biography
2 Wenford Bridge Pottery
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Biography

Cardew studied classics at Exeter College, Oxford University. He was taught to throw by William Fishley Holland at Braunton, North Devon, where he spent his childhood holidays.

Cardew was the first student/apprentice at the Leach Pottery, St.Ives, Cornwall in 1923. He shared an interest in slipware with Bernard Leach and was influenced by the pottery of Shoji Hamada.

In 1926 he left to re-found the derelict Winchcombe Pottery in Gloucestershire. With the help of two locals - former chief thrower Elijah Comfort, and fourteen year-old Sydney Tustin - he set about restarting the pottery. Cardew’s ambition was to make pottery in the seventeenth century English slipware tradition, functional and affordable by ordinary people. After some experimentation, production began using the on-site clay and the pots were fired in a bottle kiln. Charlie Tustin joined the team in 1935 followed in 1936 by Ray Finch.

In 1939 Cardew moved to Cornwall and established The Wenford Bridge Pottery, producing earthenware and stoneware. From 1942 to 1948, he worked in Ghana, West Africa, as an instructor, and from 1951 to 1965 he established and ran a pottery/training centre at Abuja, a small place in the Northern Region, whose name now belongs to the Nigerian capital. His trainees were mainly Hausa and Gwari men, but he spotted the pots of Ladi Kwali very early on and she joined the Training Centre in 1954, after which other women came. In turn, Cardew was deeply influenced by the native style.

He also toured America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand making pots, demonstrating, writing and teaching.

On his return to Wenford he wrote a memoir, Pioneer Potter, first published in 1969. (ISBN 978-0004122885)

Cardew's mother Alexandra was Lewis Carroll's favourite photographic model.His son Cornelius was an important avant-garde musician.

At the time of his death, Cardew was due to be knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.

[edit] Wenford Bridge Pottery

Wenford Bridge Pottery Cornwall

Wenford Bridge Pottery St Breward Bodmin Moor, Cornwall was the Cardew's family home and workplace. It was formerly an Inn.

The first kiln on the site was built in 1939 by Michael Cardew with the help of Michael Leach Bernard's son. It was an updraft kiln and was fired only a few times before the onset of W.W.II when blackout restrictions brought work to a temporary halt.^[1]

In 1950 an Australian potter Ivan McMeekin, became a partner and ran the pottery whilst Cardew became a pottery instructor at Achimota on the African Gold Coast. McMeekin built a downdraught kiln and produced stoneware there until 1954. Michael Cardew returned in 1965.^[2]

Cardew taught many potters who were later to achieve success in their own right, including Svend Bayer, Miranda Thomas, Mark Hewitt and Rupert Spira.

The pottery became the workshop of Seth Cardew on the death of his father in 1983. It was sold in 2004 when Seth relocated to Masia Albadas in Spain.^[3] It is no longer a working pottery.