Help With Pottery Christmas Presents Please!

Hello,

My Dad is an avid potter and wants to give up his current profession and take on pottery full time. Me and my sisters want to get him lots of pottery equipment e.g. paints, tools etc to tell him to go for it! The only problem is that we know nothing about pottery. Is there any advice any one can give me? Any special paints that are particularly great? Or a good website to get stuff from? Anything would help at all. We want to get him lots of things.

Thank you!

Laura

Hi Laura, and welcome. Me being rather grumpy about presents at Christmas I would say ask him then he will get exactly what he wants! No wasted money..  but then I hate surprises (they often go amiss).

Seriously it is a very personnel thing, by definition he will spend may happy hours shut away with his clay on his own, IMO most potters have to be very happy with their own company. Extremely difficult to suggest what to buy without seeing what he makes, glazes are very specialised. Difficult!  

there are plenty of potters who have given up but still haven't sold their equipment, I would put a wanted advert on facebook, preloved etc or ask the potters in your area if they can point you in the right direction.
Also your local college might help

How good is he? To be thinking of doing it professionally and selling his work, he really needs to be excellent. There are probably only a couple of hundred people in the whole country that make a living out of potting. There is a complete world of difference between the hobby potter, and the self-empoyed professional potter.
There is a great way to bridge that gap. Many professional potters run excellent very high quality potting courses. The Leach pottery, and the Frith's Brookhouse pottery just being a couple of the best. Even if he is very good, a high quality potting course can give him that extra finesse that professional grade pottery needs.
Google potting courses. There are many excellent ones.

It is possible to do it tho. Google Matthew Tyas and Alan Birchall, who were/are both Doctors, and now do potting professionally.

There are some very good pottery suppliers which have stands at the ceramics fairs like Art in Clay, Hatfield, so maybe setting up an account with one of them so he can stock up and choose the best equipment for himself - probably based on advice from his tutors. I don't pot so I cant advise you on which one, but there are a number of Facebook groups for potters where you can ask for advice, or ask potters direct via Facebook eg, Julian Kent has just taken the plunge. And Kevin Akhurst. Some have blogs, eg, Midori Takaki, Mark Smalley, and Matthew Blakely