Roger Michell

Roger Michell (1947 – 2018) was a British studio potter, artist, illustrator, poet and writer. Although foremost a potter, his deep insight, curiosity and his singular skills enabled him to work across a range of disciplines. He was a prolific reader, often reading several books a week. His mind was constantly working on future projects, he had a vivid and complex imagination which was evident in his work. He was most known for designing Walking Ware, a tea set on legs with over-sized Mary Jane shoes. During the nineteen seventies and eighties, thousands of these tea sets were sold, either hand made from Lustre Pottery studio or manufactured by Carltonware in Stoke-on-Trent. Life Early career Michell was born in Guildford, Surrey, the youngest son of Edna Wilkinson née Scott, a school teacher, and Howard Norman Tobias Michell, referred to as Norman, a modernist architect and garden designer. His first pottery experience was with the bank note engraver, Joseph Lawrence Keen, known as Lawrence, taught him how to throw and make pots. He attended Harrow High School until he was 15 when he was apprenticed to David Eeles in Dorset. He stayed with them as part of the family. Here Michell developed his throwing skills and observed first hand the building of a brick kiln. He was accepted into a foundation course at the Central School of Art and Design in 1963 at the age of 16. He studied his degree under Gilbert Harding-Greene but left the degree a year early in 1965, to set up his own pottery in London making tableware. Anthony Caro was Michell's landlord in St John's Wood and his massive studio was behind the pottery, so when Michell's business folded in 1966, Caro offered him a job. He spent the next year painting Caro's sculptures which were 3D representations of paintings or music. A year later he went to the Serpentine Gallery as a gallery assistant.