the power of some of these incredible objects. One greets old
friends only to find new subtleties, new vistas, new intimacies -
some seem suddenly intricate or the texture of the surfaces
important. Nor was I prepared for the powerful sexuality of the
forms which had previously seemed more rock than human. The
one that overwhelmed me completely was Three Rings in red
Sorya marble, the stone hollowed and carved in strong elipses
through which one saw, from different angles, the cut forms of
the other rings. Yet the overlying simplicity of the shapes was
not lost in the multiplicities. The marble itself was beautiful,
coloured in rich reds, ochres, bronzes with a sensuous surface
which invited the hand.

A department store gallery had an exhibition of the St. Ives group
which was to prove the hors d'oeuvres before the feast. It was

a crowded scene where it was difficult to isolate anything but
Bernard Leach's pots were there, serene and quiet. Janet
Leach's seemed almost defiantly her own - I particularly enjoyed
a small oval bottle of a rich, warm clay with the glaze sliding
down the shoulder.

Covent Garden next, where sliding over orange peel, rotten
peaches and other local colour, we found the Cras Centre — an
ex-warehouse with an interesting display. There was a great
deal of honest crockery, well made, functional, solidly crafts-
manlike but I was more interested in the obvious movement away
from all this toa more sculptural approach. The pebble shapes
of Lewiston, Collyer; Gordon Baldwins' use of brilliant shiny
back glazes on matt black clay; Tony Hepburn's colourful glazes
on tight hard shapes; Ian Auld's austere rectangles; John Chalkes'
exciting use of raku.

I then tackled the underground and found my way (via Habitat,
which must be the world's most exciting shop) to Primavera.
Here I saw a massive pot by Ruth Duckworth and another by
Janet Leach, the clay of both stained and rubbed; Lucy Ries'
delicate, intellectual pots that when I saw more in St. Ives had
an enormous appeal ; and a couple of John Reeves' thrown and
cut containers. So far I had been a lot more excited than I had
10.