Richard Miller Ceramics

I recently posted about my happy obsession with The Great Pottery Throwdown. Rich Miller is one of the regulars on the show; first as the kiln technician, then later as a judge, holding equanimity while the other judge bursts into tears. I liked the clear style of his critiques so I looked up his work, and found delightful surprises. I have never seen pottery like this before! Below are some photos from Rich’s body of work around 2017-2018, plus some photos of Rich taken by Ben Bosewell.

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Richard Miller’s website says he pulls ideas from the U.K.’s eclectic mix of cultural styles, mixing British colonialism with influences of diverse styles from Britain’s immigrants. In the video below, Rich demonstrates how to make the pottery styles seen above. This is a long video, so if you’re reading this with a day ahead of you, you might save this one for later.

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How to make a candlestick in 3 minutes

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After 2018, Rich’s pottery appears to have stopped. In his online shop there is a single cup for sale, just one cup, and it is out of stock. Mr. Miller appears to be involved in other things – perhaps filming my favorite TV show.

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Froyle Tiles

After ogling Rich Miller’s exquisitely British pottery, I found Froyle Tiles. In the video below, Rich talks about making pots shortly after school, then learning how to make tiles so he can buy a 30 year old custom tile design business. He said going from making one-of-a-kind pieces to production work was a challenging adjustment that took him a year to learn, but the detailed and unique tiles are hand touched beauties – nothing like the cold uniformity of manufactured tiles.

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We will be making our own clay at the school, running it through our Peter Pug Mill. We’ll have our own glazes and kilns to fire. We could design and make our own handmade ceramic tiles. You know, hypothetically.