Linda Bloomfield likes to make things that people will use. She creates her own colour glazes and teaches others to make them. For her tableware, she works quickly and batches work together to keep the cost down. She prefers that the tableware is used and not kept as a museum piece on a shelf or in a cupboard (R & A Collaborations: Linda Bloomfield).
The experienced potter likes working with her hands and works in a way that shows the ‘hand of the maker’, for example by introducing dimples into the sides of her pouring jugs. It makes it obvious that the item has been made by hand.
Even though the pots are thrown as a family, with the same shape, the handmade nature of the work means that each is unique and individual too.
Linda likes organic shapes, especially the contrast between a rough outer texture and a coloured smooth inside in the same piece of work. She likes to overlap colour glazes, allowing one colour to drop into the other, making the colours more interesting. This introduces uncertainty and allows for more exciting textures.
The science of colour glazes
Inspiration comes from textile colours and 1950s textiles or mid century modern are a particular inspiration. One colour that stands out in this era is mustard yellow, which she makes from titanium oxide and nickel oxide. To get a matt finish she uses magnesium silicate (ground up soapstone) to achieve a matt tactile surface.
Linda uses rare earth elements to produce colour glazes. They have only been available for the last ten years, so they are relatively new and they are used in the manufacture of many common items like mobile phones, lasers and glass. She uses praseodymium oxide for a lime green, neodymium oxide for pale purple, and erbium oxide for a pale pink colour.
She says ‘it is partly like cooking, and partly like science’. Linda has a background in science and gained a PhD in Engineering Science at Warwick University. She says she no longer publishes research papers. Instead she publishes her recipes for glazes in books: Colour in Glazes, Special Effect Glazes and The Handbook of Glaze Recipes among them.
Sources of colour glazes
Sustainability is at the core of Linda’s work and she has participated in the Let’s Do Net Zero program with Blue Patch.
Blue Patch patron Naturesave Insurance is funding the Making Business Greener Campaign. They are working with Linda to research ESG issues and the carbon footprint of the chemicals that go into her glazes.
The elements that go into many colours for glazes come from non-renewable resources. And they are extracted from distant places like China, South Africa, Russia, Myanmar and Indonesia. Countries where unregulated mines may have links to human rights abuses and modern day slavery.
This work is yet to be completed, but it will form an important part of Linda’s carbon calculation efforts to assess her studio’s carbon footprint. If you would like help to assess your business’s carbon footprint, apply for membership with Blue Patch.
If you would like to find out more about Linda’s work, find out more about her books and her courses, or shop for tableware visit her website www.lindabloomfield.co.uk
