Golden Bridge Pottery

Golden Bridge Pottery, or GBP, run by Deborah Smith and Ray Meeker, is a stoneware production pottery making beautiful handcrafted glazed stoneware, since  1971. . Since the early 1980s right up till around 2012, Ray also taught small batches of students all the processes and skills needed to pursue a career in handcrafted clay ware. (This course still continues, but after 2012 Ray doesn’t teach it, personally.)

The 7 month course at GBP, is a total immersion in all aspects of clay work, from the preparing and mixing of the clay body, to glazing and firing the ware. Students are given ample time to practice on beautiful wooden kick wheels. Ray put students through a series of exercises in making particular functional shapes, through which they learnt different skills required to make functional pots on the wheel. The aim of the course is to make students self-critical and give them all the basic skills needed to move forward on their own, to pursue careers in clay.

Kaveri joined this course as Ray’s student in 1996, and continued there till November 1997. In 1999, Ray offered her a job as his assistant for a year, helping in his studio as well as teaching the students when he was away.

GBP, Ray, and Deborah have been, and continue to be a very large influence in Kaveri’s life.