MEET OUR MAKERS

MICK MORGAN

ceramicist / Gwneuthurwr Cerameg

My first recollection of clay was digging it from the garden, making marbles, painting them when they were dry and swapping them for glass ones.
I only had one pottery lesson throughout my formal education until I decided to take a night class after an inspiring visit to David Frith¹s pottery in Denbigh.
I like the idea of digging something out of the ground, fashioning it into something and then to cap it all you heat it up with fire and it changes into a durable visual statement. If you are lucky it hints at the licking flames and dripping molten substances from whence it came. I love the haphazard; I wish for happy accidents but I am a complete control freak and like to think I manipulate circumstances within which these accidents can happen. After thirty years I am still excited at this possibility.
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Fy atgof cyntaf o glai yw cloddio yn yr ardd i wneud marblis clai. Gan eu peintio ar ôl iddynt sychu ac yna eu cyfnewid am rai gwydr. Dim ond un wers clai y cefais i yn ystod fy addysg ffurfiol. Ond wedi i mi ymweld â chrochendy David Frith penderfynais ddilyn cwrs gyda'r nos.
Rwy’n hoffi'r syniad o gloddio rhywbeth allan o'r ddaear, a’i saernïo i mewn i rywbeth arall, yna ei danio mewn odyn gan ei newid i eitem gweledol gelfyddydol. Gyda lwc, cewch deimlad o'r fflamiau ar y gwaith a awgrym o ddiferu y sylweddau tawdd sydd wedi siapio'r eitem. Rwy’n mwynhau’r syniad o waith mympwyol, hoffwn feddwl fy mod yn trin a thrafod yr amgylchiadau sy'n gadael y pethau damweiniol i ddigwydd yn fy ngwaith. Ar ôl deng mlyneddar hugain mae’r posibilrwydd hwn dal yn fy nghyffroi.