Popalini & Jezando make collaboratively designed, wheel-thrown pots: wood-fired stoneware and slipped earthenware from their studio pottery at Koa Tree Studios, Welcombe, on the North Devon/Cornwall border.  They are influenced by both the traditional pots of North Devon and the subtle understated forms they admired whilst working in Japan.

Pop Wilkinson and Jez Anderson both grew up on the Hartland Peninsular in rural North Devon surrounded by clay-laden fields and wild seas. Since Pop’s involvement Philip Leach’s pottery youth project over a decade and a half ago, both she and subsequently Jez benefited from his mentoring in the early stages but are largely self taught. Early in 2018 they went Japan to make work in the studios of Setsurou Shibata in Tajimi and Peter Seabridge in Tokoname, with whom they did their first wood-firing. During their time there, they gained new insights into throwing and firing and expanded their aesthetic appreciation and tastes in tea. It was not just the pottery, but also the ancient forms of the cast iron kettles that hang above fireplaces in traditional Japanese homes, which inspired them and informs their teaware. Late in 2019, Pop and Jez had the chance to go back to Japan supported by Arts Council England to further their knowledge of wood-firing and teaware.

Pop and Jez are ever pairing down the materials they use favoring simple non-toxic glaze recipes and local materials where possible. Their stoneware clay is sourced from a small independent clay-pit in Cornwall and some of their earthenware is dug from the land that surrounds them. A portion of their pots are left unglazed to reveal the natural qualities of the clay.

"The angular forms of our thrown teaware are contrasted with soft tactile elements that together celebrate the materiality of clay and pair technical complexity with visual simplicity and function. Wood-firing is becoming an ever-increasing part of our process as is an exploration of ash glazes and wild clays.

Uneven textures, subtle colour variations, fingerprints, glaze irregularities, scars from where the pot has adhered to the wadding are all aesthetic qualities associated with handmade, wood-fired pots and are embraced by us. We feel that these imperfections and idiosyncrasies make the pots interesting and speak of how the pots were made and fired - a kind of backlash against the soulless mass produced.”

Pop and Jez currently wood-fire their pots in both Bridie Maddock’s Fast-Fire Soda kiln pictured below and the Anagama at Kigbeare and are preparing to build a train kiln in Hartland. Each kiln elicits different effects, surfaces and glaze reactions, and each require an aspect of community and collaboration to fire.