May 2023
Acclaimed local potter Jill Pryke has just thrown her last pot after decades at the wheel. Francis Grew met her in her studio to hear about her craft and her life as a church member.
Francis Grew: How long have you been potting? How did it start?
Jill Pryke: For 50 years, plus. I was always reasonable at drawing, and at my grammar school in Wimbledon I had a very good art mistress. But with 30 people in the classroom, we couldn’t do much three-dimensional work. So she persuaded the head to let me go one afternoon a week to the art school next door. “There’s room in Ceramics,” they said. I loved it straight away – I loved the plasticity of the clay. And when I started throwing, that felt good too. I never did sculpture or anything else, I never left Ceramics!
FG: Tell us about the pottery you like to make.
JP: I’m a throwing potter, largely because it’s the quickest way of making pots. At art school I experimented with ‘sgraffito’ – cutting designs through a tin glaze – and soon I began adding a coloured glaze over the cutting. I liked it immediately and have been using that technique ever since. Later we did the diploma in design. That was angled towards industry, making drawings and moulds for mass production. Drawing a pot in two dimensions is anathema to me, it doesn’t make sense. Nevertheless, I was good at it. My final exam piece was a coffee pot. It was beautiful, absolutely perfect, except I forgot to make holes in the spout for the coffee to come out!
FG: Where did you live before Bridport?
JP: By my late 20s I was married. Soon I had two sons, three years between them. Lovely lads. We found a place at Hassocks in Sussex, with a lovely view of the Downs. My husband, Michael, was very enthusiastic about my work, bless his heart! We opened a little shop at Ditchling, a little one-up, one-down. I had my kiln in the kitchen. I did most of my throwing there, and people liked to watch. You could even get men into the shop if they saw someone working! We sold exclusively Sussex work: weaving, cards from painters, and some paintings. Eventually I said to Michael, “Why not come and work with me full time?” So he did, and he enjoyed it. Soon we were moving to larger premises. We were in Sussex for 45 years in all.
FG: What brought you to Bridport?
JP: We moved here in late 2006. My husband had always had a soft spot for West Bay. He had been taken there just before the war, when he was eight or nine. He hoped to open a shop but couldn’t find the right place. Then he got pancreatic cancer. When he was very unwell, I said to him, “You know, I could happily give up potting for the moment.” “You must never do that,” he replied, “you mustn’t.” Well, I didn’t. In fact, just a few weeks after he died, I did a show at Wareham, the Dorset Arts and Crafts. The organisers couldn’t have been kinder. But it’s the last show I’ll do. I’m 86 and I reckon now is the time to give up.
FG: Has Bridport inspired your work?
JP: Not consciously. But I’m looking out on beautiful hills, greenery all around. So yes, I’m influenced by that and it comes out in my work. I like decorating surfaces, and the motifs I use are flowers, birds, trees, leaves… anything of that nature.
FG: Were you brought up in a Christian family?
JP: We went to St Luke’s in Wimbledon Park, where my father joined the choir. He’d always been in choirs – from a little boy, and his father too. So it was in the family. I suppose that’s why I’m still croaking away in the Bridport choir! When my children were old enough, they joined a Sunday School group and I was asked to help. God must have been smiling to himself as I envisaged myself doing nice illustrations to show the children. How I’d enjoy that! But if you’re taking a group, you have to know more than you teach. You have to be ready for questions. So God was kept busy teaching me too!
FG: Finally, tell us about your time at Holy Trinity Bothenhampton.
JP: I’m very much at home there. I’ve just done a ‘quiet day’ in support of the Lent course we’ve been doing. That was lovely. And I’m still in the choir. Years ago I joined the Mothers’ Union and found myself leading it. With declining numbers we’ve become a prayer and fellowship group. I wouldn’t say I lead it exactly, but I’m its spokesperson. After giving up pottery, I certainly shan’t be twiddling my thumbs, wondering what to do.
Photo by Francis Grew