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.
Carina trained as an industrial designer in Germany and specialised in furniture design. One day she found herself at a ceramic studio near her house. She had a sudden realisation that there was no difference between making a teapot or a chair because it's all about aesthetics: form, function, balance, and proportion.
Carina had no formal ceramic education and through apprenticeship, short courses, and residencies she has learned and worked with different clays in different parts of the world. She explores the potential and qualities of each clay body, a continuous conversation unfolding between the maker and the material.
Porcelain, with its fine texture, purity and whiteness, allows Peter to explore relationships between form and surface in a way that is more rewarding than with any other clay. Wheel-thrown vessel forms offer infinite opportunities for subtle variations, but his particular concern, while attempting to achieve harmony and balance in the work, is to express his feelings for the natural world through the positive radiation of light and colour.
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.
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.
Ian’s work is a contemporary interpretation of country pottery. His salt glazed domestic ware focuses on line, surface and balance. He likes to emphasise tactility and evidence of the maker’s hand, highlighting the subtle marks and fingerprints from handling and attachments. This, combined with clean lines make his work approachable and usable, while giving the work extra durability that comes from the firing process.
