Ted Pitman was told at school that he was no good at art. So he was streamed into technical subjects and he spent almost 30 years as a telephone engineer. On leaving his telephone job he tried his hand at pottery and found that he was pretty good at making small sculptures by hand. A customer for one of these asked him to model some toadstools in porcelain. This he did, and it led to more orders for the same.

This decided him to learn more about the fungi he was modelling to ensure accuracy. Books and forays developed his interest in fungi enormously, and soon he was asked to model all the fungi to be found on a large country estate in Hampshire. This commission really set him ‘on the road' and his work began to sell to collectors around the world.

The models Ted Pitman produced are accurate in their form and colour and are normally life size. As these photos show, put the models in a natural setting and they look like the real thing!

Coprinus comatus

Agaricus xanthodermus

Oudemansiella mucida

Phallus impudicus

Boletus edulis

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No moulding or casting was used during the modelling so each sculpture was a 'one-off' portrait of a mushroom collected from the field. The models had at least two kiln firings, so that the porcelain is vitrified and the colours are fired into the body.

Ted Pitman, the porcelain sculptor, retired from that activity in about 1995 and a few years later became Ted Pitman the coracle maker:

and he proved to be a man who paddles his own coracle (see BBC News report, Coracle-maker paddles for charity)!

Now, please meander around the Gallery and admire the talent of this very special artist.