Tim Andrews
Tim Andrews is known internationally for his individual raku/smoke-fired and porcelain work. He has regular large exhibitions both in the UK and around the world – most recently in America, Australia and Japan. He has written two best selling books on Raku ceramics and his pieces have been acquired for many museums and other public and private collections including Arizona University and most recently The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Training originally with David Leach and then at Dartington, Tim has worked from his present studio and gallery in Woodbury, East Devon for the last twenty years. He is a writer and exhibition curator and also teaches and lectures widely in the UK and abroad. He is a Fellow of the Crafts Potters Association of Great Britain and Honourary President of the Westcountry Potters Association.
Tim makes his individual raku work, black and white with linear decoration or burnished muted coloured slips. The pieces are usually thrown, although new work is hand-built. Bisque-firing is in a conventional gas kiln. Many pieces have a ‘resist’ slip and glaze applied, they are then fired in a ‘top hat’ fibre glass kiln before removal when red-hot to a smoking chamber. When cold the resist glaze is chipped off and the pot cleaned up and waxed.
Tim says that his work represents an ongoing dialogue between the technical sophistication of processes, serendipity, and timeless human qualities. After 35 years of making, his pieces have become more minimal in style; yet the simplicity and apparent effortlessness aimed for, stems from a labour-intensive, unforgiving and demanding technique, together with a dramatic and intense firing process.
