PHILLIP REVELL

Philip Revell makes functional, wheelthrown stoneware fired in a two-chamber, wood-fired, climbing kiln. After a spell working in rural Zimbabwe and later at the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales, Philip established his current workshop in Dunbar near Edinburgh in 1990.

Largely self-taught, Philip discovered clay whilst he was an engineering research student at Warwick University in 1979. The glazes make use of local clays and wood ash as major ingredients, which contrast with the flashing left on the unglazed clay by the flames licking the pots during the firing. Philip has two kilns, a small gas fired kiln that I use for soda glazing and a recently completed, two-chamber, wood-fired, climbing kiln. Both kilns are fired in reduction to about 1300ºC.

Philips' wood-fired, climbing kiln is sited at Pishwanton Wood on the edge of the Lammermuir Hills in East Lothian, near Edinburgh. His 'Pots in the Woods' exhibition is becoming an annual event and this year was officially part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe over the weekend of 19th/20th August. On the Saturday there was a large range of pots from recent firings for sale and on Sunday he opened the kiln and unpacked the latest firing -giving people the chance to purchase pots still warm from the fire.

[ Pishwanton Wood is the base for an educational charity (The Life Science Trust), which is exploring ways of creatively engaging and reconnecting people with nature. Its 60 acres of land are gradually being transformed so as to integrate small scale woodland management with agricultural/horticultural and conservation activities, the aim being to create a model of sustainable land use whilst also providing wide ranging opportunities for environmental education, research and therapy.]