Dieter Kunzemann & Chris Harries - Evenlode and Coldstone Potteries

Dieter Kunzemann was born near Leipzig, East Germany in 1928. He trained and worked with his father-in-law, country potter Chris Harries, at Coldstone Pottery from 1953-1967. In 1967 he started Evenlode Pottery in Gloucestershire. He is known for producing domestic and decorative slipware, mostly with wheatear decoration and using green, yellow and black glazes. [Died in 2011].

1967-1968 The Coldstone Pottery, Ascott-under-Wychwood near Woodstock, is where I really learned to make pots in production sequences. The clay was 2 parts St Thomas's and one part local yellow clay which gave the fired pieces a mellow pink body colour rather than the stark terracotta of Stoke red clays. It was all slipware so there was a high attrition rate through collapse of greenware. Coldstone was characterised by crossed-wheatear decoration and what Chris Harries used to call "matchstick" as on this bowl [see blog]. Both difficult to do well. The glazes were lead-bisilicate transparent and Chris kept his recipes in a safe!! Coldstone was an idyllic place and something to which I aspired. It was watching the thrower, Dieter Kunzemann, who preceded my time there which turned me on to wanting to be a potter.

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