Phil rogers pottery biography channel

Phil Rogers was born in Newport, Gwent in 1951. He attended Newport and Swansea Colleges of Art and had originally intended to become a painter. While still at college in the early 1970s Rogers and a friend taught themselves to throw. Their only guidance came from Bernard Leach’s A Potter’s Book and their throwing practice came in the form of competitions to see who could produce the biggest pot.

Rogers has written respected books on ash glazes, throwing techniques and salt glazing. He has run workshops and lectured all over the world, most notably in South Korea and the USA and his work is held in more than 50 museums worldwide. In 2011 Rogers won the prestigious Vasefinder International prize for the best vase in the world.

‘I’m writing this on the kitchen table, in mid spring, and on the shelf in front of me supermarket daffs stand in a jug by Phil, wood-fired, long-necked, studded with pellets, and with that distinctive elegant high bend in the handle. Near to it are two round lidded jars, pine ash glazed, in which I keep garlic and ginger. By the kettle is one of his tea pots and on the window sill a line of yunomis and chawans, one of which is reserved exclusively for beating eggs prior to scrambling, and also - bucking the trend - a lovely little perfume box used once a year to hold the ashes of burnt palm crosses, which, mixed with a little oil, I use to mark a cross on the foreheads of my parishioners on Ash Wednesday.’ The Rev. Richard Coles writing about Phil Rogers in Goldmark’s spring 2020 magazine.

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