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.
Margaret was introduced to clay at Bolton College of Art and studied at Stoke-on-Trent School of Art under ex-Bernard Leach apprentice Derek Emms. It was here that she met her husband-to-be, David Frith. They established their first workshop in the mid sixties and have been based in their 18th Century woollen mill workshop in Denbigh, North Wales since 1976, where they continue after fifty years to teach and create their own work.
Originally from Kent, Mitch studied Ceramic Design at Falmouth School of Art during the early 1990s. She creates hand-built sculptural ceramics inspired by the natural forms from her coastal finds, both at home in North Devon and on her travels. Her stoneware vessels hark back to the dry, worn spirals of old conch shells collected on Caribbean beaches.
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.
Moira is based in a small village on the edge of the Blackwater Estuary Coast. After a career in Marketing Communications, Moira studied 3D art specialising in ceramics at Colchester Adult College gaining a City and Guilds Diploma.
Moira’s vessels are contemplative and tactile, and strongly influenced by sense of place - the soft Essex saltings landscape, the quality of East Coast light, and the fleeting and ever-changing nature of life between the tidelines.
In 2014, Jack and his late wife and fellow ceramicist built a 3D ceramic printer, there being no such printers available at the time. Together they began making 3D printed ceramics. Within six years, Jack re-thought his design ideas, formulated a workable clay mix, and developed his skill. His designs combine hand-drawn elements with mathematical curves and semi-random 'noise'. He is interested in nature's growth processes which often build up layer by layer like a 3D print. Random variations were introduced by using algorithms that were developed for animated films to give the appearance of flames, hair or vegetation.
Clare Conrad's work is an exploration of colour and texture, inspired by the effects of light and ageing on architecture, artefacts and landscape. Her technique of layering vitreous slip onto wheel-thrown vessels, vases and bowls creates a rugged texture.
