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.
John comes from a family of engineers going back several generations, so it was natural for him to follow suit. However, he made an unenthusiastic engineer, and after several years teaching he went back to college and gained a place on the 3D course at Manchester College of Art where he was introduced to clay for the first time.
Gaby trained in Ceramics at Goldsmiths College and established her studio in 1982 with the help of a Crafts Council Setting-up Grant. She has exhibited widely in the UK, Europe and America, and China, and her work is represented worldwide in private and public collections.
With her figures Sally creates personalities that share a sense of warmth and calm. Drawing from early memories of family gatherings spilling across summer lawns; the quiet intimacy of a confidence shared between sisters; expressions of visual anecdotes carefully collected and stored to later emerge as a figure. The everyday moments of human interaction being elevated from the ordinary into something special.
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.
Inspired by a Chinese bottle gifted to her as a child, each piece Carolyn makes assumes its own identity with the application of transferred decoration. Collected imagery and text tell stories from lives past and present centring around the human condition and covering themes both significant and trivial.
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.
