Gillian throws each mug on the potter’s wheel using high fire stoneware clay. Then each piece is trimmed and hand finished. Slow careful drying is necessary prior to the first firing. Once fired each one is sanded and sponged before applying a combination of 6 vibrant glazes. Glazed mugs are fired again to a temperature of 1205°c. Materials and studio techniques mean that this product is durable enough to withstand everyday use. The glaze is chip resistant and surfaces are food safe and dishwasher safe (though frequent dishwasher use can eventually dull the glaze surface).
Each Gillybean piece is created by hand. The hand-crafted nature of these products is evidenced by the subtle differences from piece to piece. A small variation in glaze finish or slight differences in form are all part of what it means for a piece to be entirely moulded by hand. I hope you enjoy the unique nature of your Gillybean product and the charm that is associated with the handcrafted process.
Gillybean Pottery
Gillian is a potter, mother and part-time charity worker. She is originally from Galway, but has lived most of her adult life in Belfast.
“I fell in love with pottery when I was a little girl, enthralled with the wheel in my pottery class. I remember not having enough strength in my small hands to center clay on the wheel so I would follow my pottery teacher around relentlessly to ask him to center me a piece of clay. He was always so patient!
Fast forward a few decades and the lure of making things with clay just didn’t subside. I would dip in and out, but life was busy. A hectic career in the charity sector and then 3 children meant years passed by during which I thought ‘pottery will come’.
In 2019 I left my full time job and became a part time classroom assistant. This finally gave me enough time, space and mental energy to take ceramics a little more seriously, so I took some classes at the Ulster University here in Belfast.
Then lockdown put everyone’s life on hold and attending the college was no longer an option. I knew I had to find ways to keep making. So I took the plunge and bought myself a pottery wheel.
It had nowhere to live so I used it in our garden for 3 months before eventually hijacking an outside office that we’d been using for home working.
Lockdown gave me an opportunity to practice every day and work out what to include in some of the collections that you can now see on this site. Pottery as a business as well as a hobby had arrived!
I like to think that the calm satisfaction of the pottery process and my utter love of making passes on to the owner with every piece.”
