Claire Curneen on Bernard Leach

CC: God it's very, very old, isn't it? Yes. It's very elegant, because I'm not a great Leachian person really, and [I'd] expect it to be much heavier and a bit more cumbersome. But it has a wonderful form in the way it sits and the way the handle just slightly overcomes the saucer. And as well as it being quite elegant and delicate, which seems special and sophisticated, it's incredibly humble as well. And also in the treatment of the glaze. There's some wonderful flashing there.

[video clip starts] The decoration's quite interesting in its freshness. There's something very... it lifts the whole piece. It really gives it that sense of energy, something moving, the way it follows the line of the saucer, you can also follow the line of the thrown form. I really quite like this. I thought I wouldn't, but it's that traditional honey glaze which is quite lovely. I started to use honey glaze a few years ago, [with] one of my figures in the hand just dripping glaze, and it's very seductive. I love the way it actually sits on the slip and turns that white slip into something very warm. [video clip ends]

MP: By the time you were a student, did Leach have any effect on your education?

CC: Leach wasn't very much taught actually to me in college, because I think it was very much that New Ceramics time. We were taught [about him], having to attend lectures, hence I tended to fall asleep I think at that stage because I did find it quite dull. It's only in recent years that I've actually started to... Obviously, he is the Godfather of Ceramics as far as the... But I always found his prints far more interesting than his actual play work. I thought they were a lot more sensitive. But in seeing this, this is a very different kind of thing. And I think being able to handle it has... It's quite lovely really. I think his later work doesn't really move me. I find it a little bit heavy and a bit conservative. When I think of some of his early [work], obviously this being an earlier one seems to be a lot more full of life. I think it's less conscious, less famous. And I don't think you can say anything else about it really.