28 February 2025 –
Anyone who has visited the LandWorks shop on the Dartington Estate can’t fail to have noticed the beautifully glazed and coloured range of mugs and bowls for sale by the One Armed Potter.
It seems an impossibility, throwing pots with only one arm. You only have to watch an episode of ‘The Great Pottery Throwdown’ to see how difficult it is to do it with two. In fact, it’s just one of many challenges Gary has faced down in this life. Hearing his story, you begin to understand how, if anyone could throw a beautiful bowl with one hand, it would be Gary.
Originally from Scotland, Gary discovered his love of pottery at LandWorks where he spent 10 months as a Trainee in 2017-2018. He remembers his first day well: “I was quite negative. I couldn’t see any reason to be here. There didn’t seem to be anything I could do with only one arm. Then I found myself in the art room making pinch pots. I asked if I could try the wheel and we took it from there really.”
Before he lost the use of his right arm in a motor bike accident, Gary was an outdoor enthusiast. “I did a lot of sea fishing, rock climbing, kayaking, mountain biking. All that was taken away from me after the accident,” he explained. “Coming to LandWorks, finding something that I could do, that I enjoyed, was quite a moment for me. When you have lost the ability to do what you used to love, to find something else, for me it was huge.”
Determined to carry on with pottery as a hobby when he left LandWorks, Gary got his own wheel and kiln and began throwing pots at home. “People said to me, that’s really nice, you should sell it. And it snowballed from there. The more I did, the better I got, the more I enjoyed it. It’s because it’s mine – something I can do for myself, despite only having the use of one arm. It was a bit of life saver really.”
Today, Gary not only sells his pottery through the LandWorks shop; but his work is also available in galleries in St Ives, Taunton, Falmouth and London. “My mainstay is functional ware – plates, jugs, mugs and so on,” he said. “However, I have recently been trying to explore the more artistic side of things, such as my new textured pots. For these, I throw a basic shape, brush on sodium silicate and then dry it off with a hairdryer. It creates a crusty film which cracks and divots when I push the clay out to shape the bowl or vase. It creates a wonderful texture.”
Gary credits LandWorks with giving him the opportunity to try pottery, and the time and space to practice his technique: “Throwing a good pot is all about centring the clay. They said, ‘this is the theory, this is what you are trying to do.’ I had to then try and figure out how I do it one handed. It was just practice and perseverance.”
One of the biggest problems Gary has as a one-handed potter is achieving height. Looking on YouTube for videos that might help him he found nothing about how to throw clay one handed. So, he started his own YouTube Channel which now has some 300 subscribers. “I get a lot of feedback from people who have had a stroke or are a bit older or have an injury of their own. I get really inspiring feedback which is lovely. I’m all for that.”
“The interesting thing about throwing one-handed”, he added, “and if you watch my videos you will see what I mean, is that you can see how the clay moves. As you pull up the sides of your pot you can see a wee lump travelling, almost like a wave, which isn’t obvious if you’ve got both hands on the wheel. I recently taught two lasses to throw (both two handed) and they found it very helpful to see the mechanics of exactly what was happening with the clay.”
Gary said he went through a phase of regretting choosing the ‘One Armed Potter’ as his name. “At the time it sounded catchy, but I went from treating it as a bit of a novelty to feeling a bit of an imposter. When I started to take throwing more seriously, I wanted my pottery to be viewed on its own merit, not because I am a guy who has a disability. It took a while for me to get my head around that. Now I have come full circle I don’t mind what people think. I know I’m as good as any other two-handed potter.”
Gary’s love of pottery has carried him through some dark times, including the tragic loss of his son two years ago. “I’ve became a father figure to my six-year-old grandson, who likes coming down to the pottery shed to hang out. He made his interpretation of a cup, teapot and sugar bowl and I glazed them. They look as artistic as anything you would see anywhere and I have them on pride of display at my house.”
He finds pottery a form of physical therapy too. “I’m in pain a lot of the time with the nerve in my shoulder blade but once I’m in the zone – on the wheel and focused on what I am doing – I don’t feel it.”
Gary returns regularly to LandWorks to deliver new stock and catch up with the team. “They are good people. I like what they do. And every time I come here I find myself decompressing. I drive through the gates and pheewww. That’s what I get. It’s somewhere you can talk, or not, and it doesn’t matter.”
Reflecting on the past few years, and how far he has come, Gary said, “It’s the little things. We have loads of bird feeders in the garden. In the summer sometimes I chuckle. I’m stood with the pottery shed doors open, just looking at the garden, looking at the birds, and thinking about my son, or whatever, and I think to myself do you know what, it’s alright.”
