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.
Jemma’s work explores the way that girls are generally constrained from birth to conform to an appearance and code of behaviour, to present a perfect face and maintain the expectations of others. The use of porcelain or stoneware with layered disrupted surfaces, describe the vulnerability beneath.
Jennifer works from her studio on the edge of Dartmoor in South Devon - a quiet space to develop her practice. She makes vessels inspired by ancient potters who remained closely attuned to their natural environment.
Vessels are hand-built from black, red, or white stoneware clays, using pinch and coil methods to preserve every mark and impression in the soft material. Using only a few simple tools, the process is slow and rhythmic. Surfaces are coated with thin layers of slips and glazes. The pattern left by the pinching process is accentuated as the glaze pools into the hollows. The colours are subtle, with occasional flashes of vibrant colour, all to be found within nature’s palette. Pieces may be fired several times, until a particular quality of colour and texture is achieved.
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.
Jane is a self-taught ceramicist and began coiling and smoke firing over 30 years ago. She worked for many years as a lecturer in art specialising in ceramics and finds inspiration in neolithic landscapes and artefact. Living on the Somerset/ Wiltshire border provides rich source material.
The meditative simplicity of coiling is a fundamental part of her practice. Jane is fascinated by the universality of clay and how it lies at the heart of the human experience. She travelled widely in Africa researching the spiritual use of clay and visiting remote pottery communities, running workshops in the Namibia and Kalahari deserts with funding from the British Council.
Having practiced as a ceramic artist since 2001, Lowri predominantly creates decorative bone china tableware from her studio in Cardiff.
Lowri's early work was very much about documenting a way of life that was disappearing. She deliberately uses industrial processes to create her work, but on a very small scale. It is the same process that was used to make most of the ceramics that adorned her Nain’s home (grandmother).
Yo Thom is a Japanese potter based in North Dorset. Her journey as a potter began when working for Lisa Hammond MBE in 1998 whilst studying ceramics in Kent. She trained as a functional thrower at Maze Hill Pottery, Greenwich, then set up her own studio in 2004. Yo relocated her pottery to North Dorset in 2009.
