Charles the Potter

I was lucky enough to be invited to visit Charles and his "factory" in Lekki. There was a group of over 15 ladies that went for the tour and shopping. I had bought a couple of his pieces back in May at the Chevron bizarre and just fell in love with everything he makes. There are a couple of American women who bring him lead-free glaze from the states so all the bowls and plates are non toxic and can hold food and be washed. The best part is this bright blue glaze that is just gorgeous!
He gave us a detailed tour and explained how they made gorgeous glass beads as well as the many types of pottery. He even let a couple of ladies try out the pottery wheel themselves! I was not that brave, haha!

using a large mortar and pestle to crush up old wine bottles for the glass beads

explaining how the molds are made to hold the beads in the fire

putting little twigs in the center of the molds that disintegrate in the fire and create a hole through the beads

painting the beads once they are done

such fine detail on every bead, its incredible!

the paint used for the detail and the molds holding the painted beads to be cooked again



the sifter used to collect just the finest of the broken glass to be used for the beads

hard clay rocks how they are found in the earth



those rocks are soaked in water for a couple of days to form a clay

all different types of clay rocks

they use these boards to constantly stir the clay

they then pour the clay through a set of 2 different sifters to come out with the finest clay and get rid of the leaves and such

the levels of sifters for the clay



the three stages of drying clay as becomes moldable to use

the man uses fishing line to cute the clay that is hardened

he cuts it up several times and kneads the clay to get out any air

this is a hand crank pottery wheel so takes two people to operate

 

hard at work making a pot

this time making a bowl

the two bowls and pots that he made while we watched

adding paint and a design as it spins

adding more design to the bowl

Here he is dipping the dried pottery in the glaze

Charles in his element with all the lovely pottery

a glimpse of the full shelves inside the kiln

showing the thermometer and that they cook at about 2000 degrees F!

showing us the kiln where the pots cook for days

a random bunch of elephants that he also made...

all of my beautiful pottery that I bought