Surfing potter Adam Buick on honouring nature through clay

The wild landscape of the Pembrokeshire coast in Wales is a deep well of inspiration for ceramic artist Adam Buick. It’s here that he forages for the wild clays, minerals and stones that enrich his pots, while the majesty of the scenery sparks ideas for his artworks. His practice centres on the moon jar, a globelike form that originated in Joseon dynasty Korea. Discovering the British Museum’s iconic 18th-century moon jar – previously owned by Bernard Leach, then by Lucie Rie – was pivotal for Buick, who has been creating myriad moon jars ever since. He tells us more about how making and nature converge in his work.

‘If you use local materials, it draws you back to their source. I use iron pyrite from a beach called Whitesands near my studio – it’s one of the wildest coastlines around. I dig the cuboid crystals out of rocks, crush them and then sprinkle them over glazes to create gestural “paths” – this is what I call the decorative marks I make, which hopefully connect viewers to the landscape these works came from. One glaze I use is made from straw ash, a local material. I buy a big bale from the farm next door, then burn it to create a matte white-grey glaze that can blush pink in the kiln. I work in stoneware and porcelain, and all my vessels are wood-fired; I do about 10 firings a year of 14 hours each.

I’ve never stopped loving the moon jar form. The piece at the British Museum that Bernard Leach brought back from Seoul is one of the few originals in existence. Leach and his contemporaries in Japan admired it for its lack of self-consciousness, and the beauty of its slight imperfections. I was also struck by these qualities, as well as its serenity and simplicity. I like the way a moon jar can become a canvas for concepts and surfaces. I make all but my smallest moon jars in halves, throwing two bowls then joining them together.

I like to let nature make its mark on my works. As part of my Earth to Earth project, I left a raw, unfired moon jar made from local clay at the top of Carn Treliwyd. It weathered the elements over 10 days, with a time-lapse camera capturing the clay returning to the earth. For another of my works, Veneration Bells (2013), I made large white bells from porcelain and hung them in sea caves on the coast. I filmed them at different tides, times and sea states, to create a film to be projected alongside the bells. For several years now, I’ve been placing tiny votive jars out in nature – I see these offerings as a quiet homage to the places that inspire me. This idea came from re-reading literature I studied at university; my degree was in archaeology and anthropology.

Making big pots is very physical work. Due to their size, they can only be fired one at a time in the kiln, and they have to be thrown in several stages. But the clay preparation and moving them are the biggest challenges. I have to use an electric forklift to hoist them around. The risk is high, but it’s worth it.

I take a lot of inspiration from the land-sea boundary. I grew up in Pembrokeshire – I’ve been here most of my life – and I feel a deep connection to the places where these elements meet. I don’t try to represent this landscape, but I foster a sense of place through my materials. Many of my pieces have a pale blue nuka glaze inside – it’s an indirect way to reference the sea. Salt can have a significant effect on pots and recently I’ve been experimenting with sea salt, using it to add depth to the surface.

My days are often structured around the surf. I throw almost daily, and fit time in the studio around the weather and the waves. The sea is very difficult to represent, but I want the feeling of the ocean in my work, even if it’s not represented literally. Surfing is a way of both being in nature and being inspired by it. Surfboard-making is still alive as a craft – although they’re increasingly machine-made, many are still made by hand.

In future, I want to spend more time working with a land art approach, in the vein of Andy Goldsworthy and Richard Long. I’m having a major show at Ruthin Craft Centre in 2022-23 that will feature a new film and a land art-like piece, but it’s early stages still.’