As a young boy growing up in London in the 1950s Walter Keeler had a passion for collecting pieces of old pottery from the Thames.
These fragments of history, from Roman to Victorian times, have been a constant source of inspiration for the creative work that has earned him international acclaim.
As one of Britain's leading studio potters Walter's work is exhibited in galleries and museums world-wide.
He gained his reputation for innovative and experimental saltglaze stoneware, but nowadays half of his output is earthenware, influenced by 18th century Staffordshire jugs, teapots, bowls and plates.
He's also made large garden pieces, influenced by industrial archaeology. "I've always liked to try something that will stretch me," he explained. Walter and his wife Madoline have lived in Penallt, near Monmouth, for 30 years. Their picturesque cottage, with its large garden and outbuildings, offered a perfect location both for their work (Madoline is a well-known potter in her own right) and for raising their children - Simon, Jacob and Alice.
One outbuilding contains a motley assortment of items - from a rusty old trumpet to a collection of tin oil pourers - whose shapes provide creative inspiration. There are also boxes of Walter's boyhood 'treasures'. "In the 1950s there were still some sailing barges on the Thames and London Docks was a going concern. I used to collect everything from old clay pipes to bits of crockery from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, even from Roman times. All London's history was revealed in that mud! "I'd take the pieces and compare them with exhibits in museums. Normally there's a barrier between you and these exhibits but my bits of pottery gave me an intimate, tactile knowledge of what was there. I didn't realise the significance of that until I started doing pottery myself. "Once you develop a craft skill you pick up a piece of work from any time and place you can 'feel' how it was made and also why. "As a child I'd been 'informed' by the potters that made the pieces I collected." Walter studied pottery and lithography at Harrow School of Art, where he met Madoline, and later became a teacher there. "Harrow ran a dynamic studio pottery course with students from around the globe. It was responsible for a whole generation of people who went out into the world to make useful, honest pots. "The notion was that you could have a holistic life making them. The talk was of living in the country, making wind generators, growing your own food... "It wasn't a teacher-student relationship. We worked as a team. I knew about pottery but some of my students were older than me and superior in other ways because they'd had different careers or travelled the world. "It was a marvellous melting pot of ideas. The trick I learnt was never to pretend you know it all. There's always something new to learn. "In my early teaching days I was in charge of experimental kilns. We'd make amazing Heath Robinson-style 'lash-ups' on the kiln site. We'd create burners that relied on bits of plumbing and old vacuum cleaners..."
Walter carried on teaching part-time at Harrow after moving to Penallt but later became Professor of Ceramics at the West of England College of Art (which became Bristol Polytechnic and is now the University of the West of England, Bristol). "Having been an art student, there was a strong impulse at the start of my career to make one-off 'art' pieces - but most of the pots I'd liked in earlier life were functional, from what was fundamentally a peasant tradition. "I made both sorts for a while, exhibiting them in different places. But eventually I found the 'art' difficult to justify and decided to concentrate on making useful things, simple, straightforward pots that related to the traditions that interested me. "Initially my influence was Romano British pottery but I developed a liking for the German saltglaze stoneware which was imported here in the 17th century and used in everything from the drinks industry to the building trade."
Stoneware has to be kiln-fired to above 1,200C with flame created either by oil, gas or wood. Salt thrown into the flames vaporises and the sodium seeks out silicates in the clay, forming a glaze on the pot and enhancing any marks on the surface. "It produces a glassy surface a bit like condensation on a window - starting as a mist then turning into droplets. It's very tactile, typically like orange peel. "Firing to such a high temperature makes the clay vitreous and dense. The hotter you go the more subdued the colours you introduce become. Most of my work is in austere colours like grey and blue-grey. "I like the texture of saltglaze and how it's achieved, the way bare pots go in the kiln and come out glazed. It's a mystical thing - turning pots to gold. I relate it to things I love from the past. "I like earthenware for different reasons. Because it's fired to a lower temperature the clay remains soft and porous with a glaze seal. There's a mobility and richness to the glaze. I engage with that because it's not entirely under control. You have to wrestle with it to get it to do what you want, but still maintain its idiosyncrasy. "I try to make pieces which respond to ceramic tradition - teapots, for example, with a glaze and clay body similar to a piece of 18th century tortoiseshell-glazed earthenware - but which are about me and now. "To me a pot is structured like a language. If the foot is too narrow and the shoulder too wide it doesn't make sense."
Walter's current work falls into two categories - domesticware like mugs, jugs and teapots and more adventurous one-off pieces.
He's currently making a cut branch fruit dish and seven matching bowls as an exhibition piece for Table Manners at the Crafts Council Gallery in Islington, called Forbidden Fruit Salad. Turn over for information about an exhibition Walter is taking part in this month in Monmouth.
Annabel Hughes
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