Mirek Smisek chatted to John about his time at Crown Lynn

John went to Mirek's 60 years - 60 pots Exhibition last Saturday at Rotorua and asked him about his time at Crown Lynn.
He said that when he joined them in 1951 he was an apprentice to Ernie Shufflebotham.
He had to weigh out the amount of clay for the pots that Ernie was making.
Ernie made all of the Bohemia ware pots and Mirek decorated them as he was a decorater as well then.
When Tom Clarke saw them decorated he liked the look of them and as Mirek was from Czechoslovakia he told Mirek to call them Bohemia Ware and to put that on the base.
This upset Ernie as he wanted to call then something else.
Plus when Ernie went for his lunch break each day Mirek would use his wheel (this upset Ernie as well but Mirek said that he did not care) to make things for himself and he was making child bowls and decorating them for his children.
Tom saw them and was impressed and so that was how the children's bowls started.
Mirek also said that when Ernie made the larger pots, when they came out of the kiln they were rough, so he had a lathe that was adapted and put the pots on that and smoothed them off. [I guess this was after they were bisque fired?]
Mirek said that this was really alien to him as a potter.
He said that he also taught a lot of women how to decorate a lot of the pottery while he was there.
He could have stayed on, as when he gave his notice Tom asked him to stay and told him that he could do what he wanted to if he did, but he wanted to do his own thing.
Many thanks John for sharing such interesting insights.

I wonder what his children's bowls looked like. I have one Mirek made. It's a baby bowl, decorated with a truck and made for his children....he told me there were others....one with a monkey, a clown.....

So it's possible my one was made up here in Auckland?

I remember that bowl Tim.....
you are usually very lucky when it comes to pots....
my guess is that it very well could be as it looked old.