Chris started making pots in 1987 with Toshiko Takaezu while at Princeton University. At the same time, he also started studying Japanese which came flooding back from four years in Tokyo as a child, and within a few months he knew he wanted to go to Japan to become a potter. So, after graduating from Princeton Magna cum Laude in East Asian Studies in 1990, Chris travelled to Japan and found an apprenticeship with Takao Okazaki in Yamagata. He lived and worked with the Okazaki’s for 2 years and was introduced to many Japanese ceramic techniques and styles. It was here that he honed the skills to express his Japanese sensitivity with clay. It was also in Yamagata where he first came across firing with wood which has remained a passion ever since.
Trebyan Forge, near Lanhydrock House in Cornwall, has been Chris’s workshop since early 2000, and over the last decade his work has expanded in many directions. He has spent many hours and firings testing and researching a plethora of glazes, which has allowed him to develop an unusually wide palette for his pots.
