John Buchanan, Anchor Pottery, Hayle and St Ives, Cornwall

John was a founder member of the Cornwall Crafts association and Guild of Master Craftsmen. He was also a member of the St Ives Society of Artists and the West County Potters Association. In 1961 John went to study under Anthony Richards at the Arch Pottery in St Ives. By 1963, in the heyday of the studio potter, he had become responsible for all production, and, with an assistant (Bunty) was producing a thousand pieces a week. In 1966 he moved to Hayle and founded Anchor Pottery, first producing a range of earthenware, followed by stoneware, which is still in use 50 years on. Eventually, in 1977, he completed the restoration of a neglected mission chapel at Halsetown and opened The St Ives Craft Centre, where he developed his individual Studio pieces in porcelain, and built a gas kiln to explore the effect of different reduction firing techniques. John's pieces have simple bands of colour representing the sea and sand, inspired by fishing boats left high and dry by the falling tide.