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.
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.
Dan Kelly trained at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts where Colin Pearson was an initial influence, encouraging him to develop his throwing technique. His stoneware pots are defined by the way he manipulates them - cutting and reshaping by hand.
Jeremy Nichols creates saltglazed ceramics that combine functionality with visual impact. Graduating with a first in Workshop Ceramics from the University of Westminster (Harrow) in 1997, the following year he set up his workshop in a converted farm building in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, where he has been making ever since.
“I aim to blur the dividing lines between art and craft. I use clay or porcelain as my canvas, creating illustrated plates for installations or vessels as sculptural displays. The themes include zoom meetings, refugees, masks, musicians, people at rest, funny faces, at the café, at the beach, at the Met, and conversations across time.” – Gail Altschuler.
Many years ago, Harriet was inspired by an article by Dick Lehmann about carbon trap glazes. She has been exploring this intriguing glaze ever since. She believes that all the potters who work with carbon trap seek different qualities and achieve quite distinctive effects even though they may use the same recipe and fire to the same temperature in the same kind of kiln. The glaze is unusually responsive to the atmosphere in the kiln and even to the weather as it dries before firing.
Tessa trained in Ceramics at Goldsmiths College, London 1981-84. On leaving college she developed a method of sawdust firing for surfaces that were high fired and internally glazed making it possible for them to hold water. Her vessel ranges are both hand-built and slip-cast, sculptural in form but always functional.
