Charles Bound

Charles was born in New York City in 1939. After graduating from Union University in 1962 with a degree in English Literature, Charles spent the next three years teaching at secondary level. From 1965 to 1971 he worked for a publishing company, dividing his time between the USA and Africa. By 1972 he was juggling a variety of commitments: teaching, travelling, writing and theatre work, mostly in Kenya.

Charles did not come to study ceramics until 1983, setting up a studio while working as a college technician and teaching. In 1994 he was gifted the use of space on a farm where he could build his own wood fired kiln, which he has been working with since.

He and his wife Joy currently live and work in Wales.

Charles’ work is unconsciously influenced by significant periods of time spent in USA, Africa, and UK. Loose and elemental, his work reflects the rugged landscape of Wales, particularly of the farm environment.

“I have gotten the taste for working with the clay as it presents itself and working into it rather than being primarily concerned with surface. As things come out of the kiln with fused sand from the floor attached, distorted, occasionally with bits spalled off, I have also begun to cultivate the wreckage that occurs in a wood kiln, while at the same time trying to create a stillness in each piece from the complexity of the working and firing, often re-firing, occasionally grit blasting, and assembling or re-firing shards from a waste heap.” – Charles Bound.