Fired up for a fresh start

The dramatic double height atrium, the innovative use of space and light and the way every item has had to justify its place in the home indicate artistic ability.

What was a barn and cottage on the verge of collapse has been revived and transformed into the perfect live-work space.

The building was David’s workshop for years but when it threatened to fall down, he and his wife Jan decided to sell their farmhouse home and commit to a conversion.

“We bought the barn and the farmhouse across from it in 1977 after becoming so desperate for a home with studio space, we put an advert in the local paper.

“The owner was a printer and interviewed us to make sure we wanted to use the whole premises, which we did for 30 years. But when the barn started leaning about 18 inches we knew we had to do something with it,” says Jan, a former art teacher.

One 17 architects created the initial plans. A creative builder, Malcolm Lodge, also pitched in with ideas for a glazed wall and extension for a first-floor bedroom.

“Malcolm was brilliant. Though we had to revise the plans and get permission again, which took time. We also had to underpin the building and the gable end walls had to be rebuilt which was also time consuming,” says David.

They spent five years on the project and now the ground floor is a collection of multi-functional, flexible spaces that flow gently into each other.

The double-height hall is used for exhibitions, as a spare sitting room or an extra bedroom. The flared corridor creates interest and leads to bedroom space and a bathroom.

The oak, steel and glass staircase was designed by the couple and builder Malcolm. Jan sourced the lighting, which is usually used in galleries.

The steps lead to a first-floor living space, bedroom, dressing room and en-suite plus a fabulous cook’s kitchen complete with a Mercury stove. The cabinets, from Magnet, are topped with stainless steel from Westin steel fabricators in Huddersfield.

Furniture came from their previous home, including ethnic pieces from their friend Gordon Rees, who ran a gallery in Knaresborough.

“The house was bigger and so we had to get rid of a lot of things but it made us focus on what we really liked,” says Jan.

The sacrifice has been worth it and the minimalist approach allows the views to dominate. On one side there are roof tops and countryside and on the other is the sensational garden.

David is passionate about gardens and water and what was a steep banking is now a series of terraces and water features created with stone from the barn’s internal walls and influenced by Italian Renaissance and French baroque style.

He designed and built it with the help of landscape architect Ben Smith and landscaper David Booth.

“He is a compulsive creator. He’s always had to make,” says Jan. “Even when we lived in a small semi house he had a makeshift workshop in the bedroom and a kiln in the garden. The neighbours must’ve wondered what was going on.”

David’s workshop is now tucked away on the ground floor accessed through a discreet Japanese-style screen. It is here that he hand builds his pots and fires them in a home made kiln fashioned from a steel drum insulated with ceramic fibre and with a porthole to allow him to judge when the pot is ready, a process that is intuitive rather than measured. The 1,100 degree heat is supplied by a propane burner.

He is a leading practitioner in large-scale raku ceramics and his work features in private and public collections across the world.

He has turned the traditional techniques into a vibrant and contemporary art form and was responsible for the introduction of large scale raku in Britain. He also played a key role in the Naked Raku movement – which refers to a pot without glaze. His book Painting with Smoke, reveals how he smokes the clay to create a palette ranging from pale grey to deepest black.

After the hand-built vessel has been through biscuit firing to turn clay into ceramic, David applies a thin clay slip followed by a layer of glaze. Drawing through this temporary skin with a sharp instrument, he is able to direct where the smoke will be absorbed by the pot in the vessel’s final firing.

His skill in creating these patterns has led to him being described as “a ceramic artist of genius” and one of ceramics’ “best living potters”.

The barn is full of his work, which is so powerful that it’s been known to make observers cry. Stare at a vessel and you can feel why. It has a beauty and energy that is rare and certainly can’t be found in mass-produced pottery.

His latest collection of pots and drawings, Weeping Landscapes, is the result of a trip to Milford Sound in New Zealand. His home, garden and the Pennine landscape also provide inspiration.

“We are very lucky to live here and I can’t ever see us moving,” he says. “I sometimes look and pinch myself because I can’t quite believe it’s ours.”

David’s work is available from galleries and his own studio. He also exhibits at the regular Art Markets in Holmfirth. Visit www.davidroberts-ceramics.com for more details.

Following the ways of tea ceremony potters

Raku is named after a family of potters in Japan.

It has its origin in small-scale vessels made in late 16th century Japan for use in the ritual tea ceremony.

It is a technique in which pots are fired rapidly in a charcoal kiln at a relatively low temperature. The pot is then withdrawn glowing hot and rapidly cooled in water or air.

This “freezes” surface effects created in the kiln giving the pieces their characteristic crackle in their glaze.

This differs from conventional firing, where pots are left to cool over a period of days.

American potters invented another way of achieving the raku’s thermal shock and plunged their hot pots into sawdust, which generated smoke. The reaction between the carbon rich atmosphere and glazes created a new array of textures and colours. David Roberts followed the American lead and further developed the techniques. The smoke-fired raku pot is now synonymous with his name.