GUILD
«BRITISH
COLUMBIA

A visit to Jason Wason & St. Ives By Keith Rice-Jones

‘The wipers were going as we left Penzance and headed up onto the
moors. The Google map had the arrow in the middle of a blank space
beyond the end of a track, but we had directions to turn just after
the cottage with slate sides. The track was indeed very minor and the
moors increasingly bleak through the mist. We arrived at a couple
of small white-washed buildings beyond a gate and knocking at the
slightly more major one, eventually we were warmly greeted by Joanna
Wason, arm still stained from tenmoku, from the other direction.

After walking through the small kitchen with flag floors, we found
a living room with a raised wood floor, magnificently open with
windows looking across the moors towards St. Just and old tin mine
chimneys. A large table, a pool table and the electric kiln dominated
the room. There were some pots of course, but the eyes were drawn
to a compelling series of small figure sculptures. The figures topped
with small heads had a weighty and monumental quality. They were
Joanna's work, but not, it seemed, what sold. We saw some of her
thrown and faceted work later—it was what she had been glazing—
and some finished pieces still later in the Leach Pottery Gallery.
Both Joanna and Jason Wason worked at the Leach Pottery which
was established in 1920 by Bernard Leach (1887-1979, regarded by
many as the “father of British studio pottery"). Joanna worked as Janet
Leach’s assistant. Joanna showed us her significant collection of Janet’s
pots, virtually the only occupants of another smaller room. Many had
been dismissed with sly sniggers by others at the Leach Pottery when
Janet (1918-1997) had made them.

Over lunch there were more stories and scuttle-but from the Leach
Pottery and much to refute the traditional battle-axe image of Janet
Leach. Joanna has many private diaries and papers that Janet left with
her—certainly enough material to be more then a companion to May
Davis’ book. We also chewed on our mutual connection with Yasuo
Terada in Japan. I was supposed to work with Jason and several other
potters on a mural project in Seto in 2005 but torn knee ligaments
prevented me working on the floor (as they do in Japan.)

Joanna went off to work in her studio, an old caravan, and we
spent some time with Jason in his loft studio space. His pieces are
monumental and some are now being cast in bronze. There was much
for me to relate to and discuss beyond his use of pyramid elements. His
work is large and there
is a controlled and de-
signed feel to the pre-
cision of them and to
the careful balance of
surface, edge and line.
They have a sense of
kinship with forms
from a variety of ancient
cultures and invite ritual
associations. Some have
actually been reliquaries
for specific rituals.

Eventually we headed.
off for St,
stopped first at the re-

Tves and

Jason Wason's studio.

Ashelf of work by Jason Wason.

cently opened and newly reorganised Leach Pottery. The original
workshop is now a museum and new workshops have been built in
a Japanese style. There is a gallery currently featuring work by the
grandson of Shoji Hamada (but I didn’t get my wallet out) and a
shop selling work of a variety of British potters. Further down in the
higgledy-piggle of narrow streets was a ceramics gallery that showed
not only current work for sale but, also some significant collection
pieces. A fine way to end the day.

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Potters Guild of BC Newsletter July/August 2009