Championing the very best independent ceramic makers for over 60 years

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.

 

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Meet Our Makers

All of our makers are members of the Craft Potters Association and each of them have a story to tell.

Jon Williams

As a child, Jon loved drawing and messing about with mud. He and his brother and friends spent many joyful years roaming and exploring on the waste ground of empty housing plots.  The exposed seams of soft yellow clay they discovered was perfect for making ‘weapons’ - squashed balls of clay on the ends of sticks. Although childhood has long passed, the activity has informed and inspired his approach to ceramic practice and his educational/community engagement work. 

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Richard Heeley

Richard grew up in Stoke-on-Trent, a city with a long history of ceramics. Richard graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University in 1996 with a BA(Hons) in Ceramics and Design, focussing on reduction firing and oriental ceramics. He set up his first pottery in south London, specialising in blue and white porcelain.

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Claire Ireland

Collecting and arranging manmade and natural forms provides Claire with great enjoyment and creative impulse for her making.  Crucial to her creative process is her discipline of drawing and keeping a continuous sketchbook of ideas and studies. Sculptural forms have emerged through extensive research and exploration of alternative hand-building techniques. Smoky and painterly surfaces envelop her ceramic forms and are integral to the whole.

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Paul Wearing

Paul Wearing's hand-built sculptural vessels reflect diverse urban and rural landscapes. Creating tension between the orderly, symmetrical handmade form and natural glaze phenomena, his work aims to highlight our materiality and fragility.

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Chris Speyer

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. 

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Sophie Cook

Sophie Cook creates delicate porcelain vessels that marry the elements of colour and form. Graduating in 1997 from Camberwell School of Arts, her work can now be found in collections across the world and in 2002 she was awarded the Adrian Sassoon Award of the Kiln at Chelsea Crafts Fair.

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