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.
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.
Tricia graduated from Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen in 1985 and after a post graduate year, she worked for a production pottery in the Highlands for three years. While there, she became a principal hand-decorator of pots and developed some surface designs for the range, but also received a grounding knowledge of the ceramics industry and practices.
Moyra Stewart has worked in clay for more than forty years after graduating from Edinburgh College of Art in 1979. Her work has been exhibited across the UK, in Canada and Japan, and in 2015 she was awarded Craft & Design Maker of the Year prize.
John has been making stoneware pottery in the North Lancashire village of Yealand Redmayne for forty years. The firing process requires a temperature of 1320c, and a smoky/reducing atmosphere in the kiln, which results in rich glaze colours and exciting unpredictable effects on the pots. Most of the pots are classically simple functional shapes, thrown on the wheel, but John occasionally alters the freshly thrown pots to produce one of the signature forms for which he is well known.
Patia studied at Harrow College of Further Education 1986 – 1988 and subsequently spent a further two years at Cardiff School of Art and Design from 1998 – 1990. During her time at Harrow and Cardiff she was tutored by Mick Casson, which after her graduation led to an invitation by Mick and Sheila Casson to join the team at Wobage in 1990. This is where Patia continues to work today in her own workshop making slip decorated earthenware and high-fired ash and feldspathic glazed porcelain. Patia was made a Fellow of the CPA in 2015, and has exhibited in the UK, Japan and Europe.
Chris trained in stage design at the National Institute of Dramatic Art, Sydney, and after settling in the UK, built a successful career in the theatre, designing, writing and directing. In 1983, he moved to Devon and it was here that he fell in love with clay. His first studio was one that he and his partner built in their back-garden and he began to produce thrown tableware on a homemade Leach wheel.
