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.
Taja came over to UK from his native country Japan to study oil painting and settled in Devon over 40 years ago. He was inspired by so many potters in the south west, so he started making pots using his friend’s pottery workshop. He is largely self-taught. He found that slab and coil built pottery suits him the most. He started experimenting with porcelain clay about 20 years ago after being inspired by enormous blue porcelain wall tiles at a new Japanese airport especially the water-like quality of the blue glaze.
Irena Sibrijns has been a potter for over thirty years. Inspired by an avid interest in 20th century English decorative arts tradition Irena creates exquisite, and entirely unique, ornamental and functional pieces with equal enthusiasm.
Annabel was born in Germany and spent several years of her childhood in Egypt before coming to England in 1956. She discovered clay at Farnham Art School on Saturday morning classes in the early 1960s. After leaving school in 1967, she attended Winchester Art School, where she was introduced to conceptual art and concrete poetry, and then Croydon College of Art. She went on to gain a BA(Hons) in Sociology and a PhD in Lesbian History at Essex University, then introduced and taught Lesbian Studies at Birkbeck College for two years. In her early 40s, she returned to her first love of clay, as one of the initial students on the City Lit Ceramics Diploma course in 1989.
Paul studied studio ceramics under renowned ceramic sculptor, Mo Jupp at Harrow School of Art, graduating in 1977. Following a short period teaching in London, he relocated to Cornwall, where he established his pottery in 1979. He moved to his present home at Helland Bridge, where he works in a studio converted from an old chapel, in 1989.
Alasdair Neil's ideas focus on the strange beauty found in the decaying architecture of industrial wastelands. He has built up a large collection of clay and plaster moulds that he has made from the surfaces of found fragments of discarded waste. It is these textures, patterns, shapes and colours that form the thread that runs throughout his entire range of unique hand built forms
Wendy discovered clay on an art foundation course. She went on to study at the University of Central Lancashire in 1998, gaining a BA in 3D Design (Ceramics). Since her graduation, she has continued to teach ceramics and run workshops for schools, colleges and community groups. She has participated in symposiums and workshops in Britain, Europe and America.
