Contemporary Ceramics gallery and shop exhibits the greatest collectable names in British ceramics along with the most up and coming artists of today. Our distinguished makers are all carefully selected members of the Craft Potters Association.
All of our makers are members of the Craft Potters Association and each of them have a story to tell.
Marina was born in Toulon in the South of France and spent part of her childhood in the rich coastal plains of Gabon, before moving to Alsace near the Vosges mountains and then to England. Her immersion in different landscapes and cultures fostered a sense of curiosity towards the transience of existence, which continues to inform her creative practice. She studied sculpture at Falmouth School of Art and later did a two-year
City and Guilds in ceramics in Nottingham.
Sasha Wardell has been working in bone china since 1982. Her formal training in ceramics included both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees and industrial training secondments to L’Ecole Nationale des Arts Decoratifs, Limoges, France, and the Royal Doulton design studio, Stoke on Trent, UK.
An industrial approach to the traditional bone china manufacturing process has strongly influenced the way in which Sasha presently works, reflecting her fascination for methods and materials which present a challenge. It is for this reason that bone china, with all its idiosyncrasies, has remained her favourite material.
Simon spent his childhood fishing, drawing, and painting (usually creatures with sharp teeth). His first experience with clay was at the age of nine, throwing on the wheel under the guiding hands of Tessa Oates at Chipstead Craft Studios, later sculpting and modelling. He entered the world of graphic design and illustration, working in London design studios for a decade and then from his home in Kent.
Toni’s work and ethos is centred around the idea of ceramics and its strong association with craft – as a material and its context within the fine art spectrum. He is interested in the history and connotations of porcelain and terracotta. The materials as symbols of trade, status, function, hierarchy; all are factors which correlate with the constant debate regarding crafts and its position within today’s society.
Her work captures her imaginary life and real life, which overlap. She used to pretend to live as a ‘normal’ person in society but wildness took over the thin veneer and it consumed her. Once she started making sculpture, all those layers of pretention fell away. She was finally one whole person.
Linda studied sculpture at Cheltenham College of Art where James Campbell, her inspirational teacher, encouraged her to experiment and form her ideas in clay. Then came an opportunity through potter William Newland to work with the sculptor Beth Blik, who encouraged her to gain an Art Teachers Certificate at The Institute of Education, London University. Whilst teaching in Winchester, she set up her studio making domestic ware, selling in galleries in London and throughout Britain.
