Seth Cardew
Autumn, 2000.

Seth Cardew was born in 1934 despite his youthful looks, which might be due to following his father's habit of taking an early morning dip in the river, summer and winter.

After studying art and sculpture at the Chelsea School of Art and the Camberwell School of Art he spent fourteen years in the film industry making clay sets for studios at Borehamwood, Pinewood and Elstree. Sets for the multi-award-winning film Cleopatra are among his credits.

In 1971 he he joined his father, Michael Cardew at Wenford Bridge and started potting in earnest in 1974. On his father's death in 1983, by which time he had established himself as an important potter in his own right, he took over Wenford Bridge. He has made radical changes to the layout of the pottery to improve efficiency - notably the arrangement of the work stages in a horseshoe shape so that the work flows naturally from the point where the raw materials are delivered, through the clay preparation stages, blungeing, watering, cleaning, de-watering, to the workshop, drying racks and finally the kiln.

The final alteration, which remained unmade, was to modify the stoke holes of the large double-chamber downdraught kiln. They were designed to suit his father who was left-handed, and Seth is right-handed.

Seth has undertaken lecture tours throughout the English-speaking world since 1983. His wife, Roberta, helped him at the pottery where courses were arranged for student potters. Wenford Bridge Pottery is now closed and no longer produces pottery.

Seth and Roberta moved to Spain in 2004.