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.
Sarah has been a potter for 45 years and also makes work in oak, lead and cast iron. She trained in painting at Chelsea School of Art between 1960-64 after which, she spent five years working as a nurse. This period was followed by studying at Harrow where she graduated in 1973 with a Diploma in Studio Pottery. Sarah undertook apprenticeships with David Leach and Zelda Mowat.
Elly graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2004. Since then, she has exhibited in numerous galleries and craft fairs. She produces work from her garden studio in Hertford.
Elly’s work is hand-built using slabs of clay with multiple slips, textural marks and impressions applied during the making process. Glaze is also applied and sometimes rubbed back, then the pieces are high fired.
Ali Tomlin creates wheel thrown porcelain. Focusing on the smooth, white surface the quality of porcelain for making clean, elegant shapes creates a canvas for her careful decoration, adding colours and marks she creates her well known range of contemporary ceramics.
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.
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.
For this new exhibition, Jane will be showing a group of hemispherical double walled bowls mixed with different organic and man-made materials collected randomly, each a metaphor for memory and words. Using combinations of press moulding, coiling and slabbing processes before burnishing the surface, her pieces are then low fired and then refined with sandpaper followed by a higher temperature firing.
