I wanted to fill my own kitchen with wonders

About Me

My name is Will, I’m an international wedding photographer by day, and a potter by night. To be totally honest with you, it was never my intention to moonlight as a potter, let alone sell my handmade pottery to anyone, I simply wanted to fill my own kitchen with some awesome pieces.

For years I had watched my mother work with clay, producing some incredible hand-built ceramics, but I had never had a go myself. We got a super basic potters wheel and were lucky enough to already have a kiln which definitely hadn’t been explored fully, and so we decided to embark on exploring the potters wheel together. Our first chance to try this was actually on a fully home-made contraption built out of a washing machine motor, which wasn’t the best starting point. I dedicated several months of throwing and learning constantly, any spare moment I had was spent on the wheel or researching firing schedules and glaze chemistry.

Parc Pottery Origins

I’m definitely not a production potter, churning out hundreds of identical pieces. My work is slow paced and joyful, produced in small batches by hand, fired twice to over 1200 degrees Celsius before finding similarly slow-paced, joyful homes.

Starting Parc Pottery for me was about the place my love for clay began, at my parent’s home with my mother in a village in Swansea, South Wales, overlooking a green valley of nothing but fields through which meandered a slow and shadowy river nature reserve.

After moving to Ammanford, Carmarthenshire, and building my dream garden studio, Parc Pottery could really progress into bigger and more frequent batches of handmade ceramics. You can read more about the build process of my pottery studio and see some photographs below.

My Style of Handmade Pottery

My pottery is honest and fun, nothing overly complicated. I aim for each batch of handmade, wheel-thrown pottery to be interesting to the touch and the eye, something you look for when opening your cupboard to grab a mug or bowl. I always try to include a bit of variation to each batch, but even if I make several of the same best-selling pieces, or small sets, each piece is entirely unique. This could mean a small undulation of wavy trimming lines which vary piece to piece or perhaps an unpredictable drip of glaze that couldn’t be replicated to another piece even if I tried.

When I decided to start selling my handmade pottery from my studio in South Wales, I wanted my ceramics to be recognisable in terms of quality and character, rather than forcing out monotone extra-minimalist designs, its just not me, and it’s just not my lovely customers either. If you’re like me, you look for those little quirks and signs that hands have formed this once plastic and supple material into something entirely fuctional but fun, and that can happily be passed on to your children, gifted to loved ones, or just kept to make your own breakfast that bit more enjoyable.

FAQs

Are Parc Pottery items food safe?

Yes. Food safety has been a key focus from the start, all glazes are lead-free and non-toxic and techniques used are also compliant with food-safety measures.

Are they dishwasher safe?

Yes. All my pottery is stoneware clay and glaze, fired to stoneware temperatures. They’re solid and designed to actually be used every day, not stored away and babied. I personally wash my own pieces by hand, but they are also tested and just fine in the dishwasher.

Do you do custom orders?

Absolutely, I love taking custom orders! These can either be specific orders, or just let me know what you would like to see for the next batch, pop me your requests here.

How much is postage?

Postage is free in the UK, fast and safe. Items will come individually wrapped including double walled boxes and biodegradable packing peanuts, you can compost them, reuse them or dispose of them normally knowing they will break down naturally and not stay around forever. I always try to be as eco-friendly as possible, recycling and reusing packaging where possible and encouraging everyone else to do the same. I am always open to more suggestions on how to improve.

How are items packaged?

Items will come individually wrapped including double walled boxes and biodegradable packing peanuts, you can actually compost them, reuse them or dispose of them normally knowing they will break down naturally and not stay around forever. I always try to be as eco-friendly as possible, recycling and reusing packaging where possible and encouraging everyone else to do the same. I am always open to more suggestions on how to improve.

Here is a handmade lino print I commissioned the wonderful Black Mountain Print to design and make for Parc Pottery. It represents the nature reserve near the place where my pottery started. It is known for regular sightings of the Dipper, which hunts for its food underwater.

ry studio based in ammanford carmarthenshire south wales

The Studio

Beginning the groundwork

After moving to Glanamman near Ammanford (during the pandemic) I decided to embark on a super ambitious and lengthy project to build my own dream pottery studio in my garden with the help of my dad. This initially involved somehow getting a digger into the back garden, whilst removing fences and turning my side garden into a deep mud pit for the following year. There was an existing 1950’s concrete outbuilding in the way which was the first item on the list to remove, and so on a very frosty morning the digger arrived and started demolishing the outbuilding with a giant hammer drill, waking the neighbours for miles around (sorry!)

This left behind a gigantic pile of earth, and two deep muddy tracks in the wake of the digger, but no more outbuilding. The next part was by far the most difficult, trying to use some of the leftover soil to fill in the destroyed garden, and manually digging, leveling and compressing the ground where the studio was going to be built. The Welsh weather made this super hard, and the build was delayed with the garden looking more like a swamp for several months.

Spring arrives and building starts

Once the weather broke and winter left, as did the mud and the pile of earth. The area took shape with some sleeper walls and steps ready for the area of concrete. I rounded up some family and friends to help pour the concrete foundation, which took 6 of us and many wheelbarrows to complete. This step made it all feel real and was a bit nerve-racking, but once the concrete had hardened and we celebrated with some beers, the framework went up very quickly, easy for me to say with an expert carpenter for a father.

Facebook bargains and timber

Luckily, when sourcing the timber needed for this build, it was just before the price of timber went crazy. All the same, I always try to recycle and reuse things where possible and managed to find some perfect second-hand sliding pvc doors and insulation on Facebook. I drew up some plans before starting the build, and always had in mind an open view of my garden from the studio, and the sliding doors brought this to life.

Layout choices

As well as the importance of the garden view, I also had to consider where I wanted to position my wheel and my kiln. After my Skutt Kiln was delivered (and I bribed the driver to help me carry it to the studio), I settled on the corner it was to live in. My wheel is in the opposite corner, so I have a view of my garden through the doors, and the mountains ahead of my through the window.

Finishing touches

After the messy jobs like cutting and installing the roof insulation (the worst part by far other the sorting the mud), and the rubber roof was installed, the electrician came to wire up the whole studio to the mains supply and install things like the kiln shut off switch, consumer unit and lighting. The studio had power! We painted the floor to make it easy to mop and keep as dust-free as possible, and painted the walls and ceiling white. My dad made me some incredible shelves and knocked up a workbench from reclaimed wood which I love! Patio slabs were layed around the studio area which finished off the garden and the project was complete, now I could roll out of bed, and pop out the garden studio in a matter of minutes, grabbing a cup of tea on the way.