Artist's Statement

I make functional, woodfired stoneware, intended to be enjoyed in everyday use. All pots are made on the wheel and are fired in a wood-fired, ‘Anagama’ style kiln. I use various ash and shino glazes and the pots record the passage of the flame with flashing and melted deposits of fly-ash.

As a largely self-taught potter, I find the attempt to master the many facets of this exacting craft to be an on-going challenge. Not only is there the physical challenge of learning to throw and handle clay, there is also the need to appreciate form, to understand the raw materials that can make up a clay body or create a glaze, to experience how these materials interact and are transformed by fire, the challenge of designing, building and firing a kiln and of coping with and learning from the ups and downs, successes and failures.
And then there is the challenge of educating the public to understand and appreciate hand skills and craftsmanship and of creating a market. After nearly thirty years of working with clay, I feel like I have only just begun.

Other information

Apart from my own showroom, pots are currently in stock in:
BuyDesign, Harestanes, nr. Jedburgh, Scottish Borders
Cone 9 Ceramics, North Berwick, East Lothian
Zimmer Stewart Gallery Arundel, West Sussex

For up to date information about courses offered, events and exhibitions please see my website.

I have wide experience of teaching practical skills and regularly run intensive throwing courses. One to one tuition by arrangement.

Background History

Born in 1956, Philip Revell has a doctorate in engineering from Warwick University. It was while at Warwick that he first encountered clay and attended classes with David Jones. After several years spent working on ‘appropriate technology’ projects in newly independent Zimbabwe he set up his first workshop in mid-Wales whilst working at the Centre for Alternative Technology and after attending courses with Phil Rogers and Takeshi Yasuda.

He moved to his present workshop in Dunbar, near Edinburgh in Scotland in 1990. He constructed a two chamber, wood-fired climbing kiln in 2004 but now uses a large ‘Anagama’ style kiln completed in 2011.

Exhibitions and Fairs

2008 Potfest in the Park
2008 Galerie Handwerk, Koblenz, Germany
2007 Potfest in the Park
2007 Zimmer Stewart Gallery, Arundel
2007 Feat of Clay, Strathearn Gallery, Crieff
2005/6 Pots in the Woods, kiln opening events
2004/5 Clay in Bloom, Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, touring exhibition
1999 Peter Potter Gallery, Haddington
1995 Teapotmania, Norfolk Museums Service, touring exhibition