Beryl Hines

Demonstration and Lecture

Sunday May 21st 2006

Beryl Hines is an active and long-time selected member of Anglian Potters who has done more than most in the world of ceramics. Beryl is a natural and patient teacher and has led workshops and firings at our potters' camp. Her work covers a huge range. She seems to have an enthusiasm for the hands-on, pyrotechnic end of pottery. Two of her specialities are Raku and Roman kiln firings.

Beryl's knowledge of historical techniques allied with hands-on experience has made her a regular guest on Time Team. And her pottery has also taken her abroad, to Japan for example. Never content to stand still, Beryl tells me she is turning up the temperature to work in porcelain.

Review

Beryl gave us a fully digital talk, taking us from her beginnings with clay under the tutelage of a Leach Pottery potter through to the present day. The biggest change she has seen in pottery was the invention of polythene, she told us. In the days before its current ubiquity, clay had to be sourced locally or it would dry out.

Beryl is likes to be precise in her ceramics and in everything else. She told us how she had run a workshop over two weeks, sending for clay to be brought, as it was needed. The last bag she needed, was in fact the last in the pile - perfectly judged. So it surprised none of us that Beryl finished her slides exactly when she said she would.

Beryl's precision shows itself in her firings too. She talked about the technique she developed for creating permanent lustre effects on Raku. The secret she told us is to ensure that the glaze containing the lustre has properly matured. A simple principle, but the process to achieve it requires three firings, and an exact control of temperature, atmosphere and timing: three and half minutes of strong reduction at 670C to be precise.

Given this precision I can only assume that the whirlwind of a Time Team dig would pain Beryl slightly. In fact, the seat of the pants excitement seem to be just as much her style. She has now made roman glass, medieval tiles and Tudor glazed bricks for the cameras.

Inevitably, for Time Team, a certain amount of cheating is necessary because results are perhaps more important than absolute authenticity. I suspect that this, coupled again with Beryl's need for precision, has led her to develop her 'above-the-ground' roman kiln. The authenticity of the resulting 'BB2 ware' has quite literally astonished archaeologists she told us.

The lasting impression I have is of someone who has been continually inventive in seeking to perfect the pots she makes. On the way she has developed some very clever techniques and certainly hasn't stopped experimenting and exploring yet.