Cornish-born, John Buchanan is very much influenced by his native environment, with its rugged granite outcrops covered with lichens that have inspired his glazes.  Having completed his apprenticeship at Arch Pottery with Anthony RICHARDS (1961-66), he went on to found his own Anchor Pottery at Hayle, in which he produced a range of tin-glazed earthenware.  Moving to St Ives in 1971, he began to concentrate on producing stoneware with slip and ash glazes.  In 1977 he bought a derelict mission church which he restored and converted into a Craft Centre, which has allowed him to research and evolve his own work in porcelain, as well as operate a School of Pottery.