Bespoke Pottery and Ceramics
Our Story
Our History
My personal voyage as a potter began in the early 90's when I embarked on a Ceramics and Glass Degree at Brunel Uniiversity. On the completion of this course I returned to Ireland to begin training as a potter's apprentice at Thomastown Kilkenny with the Crafts Council of Ireland.Following this training I took on a position as a production potter with Michael Kennedy in Galway.
In 2001, I left Michael Kennedy's and returned to my home city of Derry to fulfill my dream and start my own pottery business. Designing my own ceramics and running my own studio pottery.With 12 year experience under my belt I had honed the skills needed to successfully open Docpot.
The Production Process
The modern art of pot making starts with the raw material a stoneware clay. This clay must firstly be prepared for throwing by means of a cutting and wedging process that leaves the clay ready for the wheel.
The Potters wheel like a sewing machine is controlled with a foot pedal. The clay once weighed must be centred, opened and thrown which allows the clay to grow and form the beautiful organic shapes that only hand thrown pottery can achieve.
Each piece of pottery is now allowed to dry out naturally until leather hard, at this stage any additions like handle can be added to the piece by hand. This is also the stage when the intricate decorating process occurs. The decorations associated with Docpot are the dots, hearts and flowers. This decoration process is the most time consuming and labour intensive part of the production process, but for me the artist it allows me to embellish my ceramic with beautiful designs and it makes the finished product unique and special as a Docpot.
When I am satisfied each piece is complete the pottery is carefully placed in the Kiln for its first firing called in the trade the Bisque Firing. This takes the clay to 1000 degrees C and ensures all impurities are removed and the clay has been transformed to stone. The pottery is still porous and ready to absorb a glaze.
Second Firing in Kiln
Modern glazes come in powder form and just need to be added to water. The pieces of pottery are now dipped individually in the appropriate glaze and are then returned to the kiln for the second firing. This firing is called the Stoneware Glaze firing and the pieces of pottery are fired to temperatures in excess of 1000 degrees. This fitrifies the clay, and converts the glaze to its glass form making it non porous and ready to be used as tableware. This completes the pot making process and the pieces go on display and are ready for sale as home and giftware.