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.
Sasha Wardell has been working in bone china since 1982. Her formal training in ceramics included both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees and industrial training secondments to L’Ecole Nationale des Arts Decoratifs, Limoges, France, and the Royal Doulton design studio, Stoke on Trent, UK.
An industrial approach to the traditional bone china manufacturing process has strongly influenced the way in which Sasha presently works, reflecting her fascination for methods and materials which present a challenge. It is for this reason that bone china, with all its idiosyncrasies, has remained her favourite material.
Lise was born in Norway in 1974 and grew up surrounded by nature and the urban environment of Oslo. She trained as a bespoke women’s tailor before embarking on an Art and Design Foundation Course at Bournville, UCE, followed by a BA (Hons) in Fashion and Textile Design at Ravensbourne College, UK.
Her interest in ceramics as an alternative creative outlet started with short courses at Putney School of Art in 2012, where she continued her learning for several years before joining communal studios in London. After nearly 20 years working in fashion, Lise switched to ceramics full-time in 2019 and co-founded a London studio and gallery in 2020.
John has been making stoneware pottery in the North Lancashire village of Yealand Redmayne for forty years. The firing process requires a temperature of 1320c, and a smoky/reducing atmosphere in the kiln, which results in rich glaze colours and exciting unpredictable effects on the pots. Most of the pots are classically simple functional shapes, thrown on the wheel, but John occasionally alters the freshly thrown pots to produce one of the signature forms for which he is well known.
Alistair studied ceramics at Bath Academy of Art and set up his first pottery studio in Gloucestershire in 1978, producing thrown reduction fired stoneware for a range of companies. While continuing with his own making he later took on the running of the studio ceramics department at The Royal Forest of Dean College and instigating a series of potters conferences.
All Francis' work is thrown using stoneware clays and is reduction fired, increasingly turning to salt glaze for his desired surface. Functional pots are his main concern, pots made for use in daily life, often giving a nod towards other historical objects, not necessarily made of clay, featuring utilitarian components now ultimately defunct but repurposed as decoration. He uses a muted palette of glazes and seeks a balance between looseness and definition in his forms.
Adam Frew creates functional porcelain pieces and large one-off pots. His pieces are clean, traditional, forms thrown on the potters wheel that subtly show the makers hand and create a sense of life from the craftmanship of his work.
