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.
Chris was born in 1959. His introduction to clay began at adult education classes in Islington. He went on to study Sculpture at St. Martins School of Art, London and graduated in 1982. Chris has moved around the country over the last decades. He helped set up the Chocolate Factory studios in Hackney, London in 1995. In 2006, he moved to Argyll, Scotland to set up another pottery. By 2009, Chris relocated to Cumbria setting up a new pottery in a converted farm building.
Gaynor Ostinelli and Paul Priest, or Ostinelli & Priest, are well known for their animal sculptures which draw on both domestic and wildlife. Exhibited around the world, their work is represented in numerous galleries, public and private collections in the UK and overseas. The animals they sculpt varies as their subjects, and the demand for the work, expands.
Chris trained in stage design at the National Institute of Dramatic Art, Sydney, and after settling in the UK, built a successful career in the theatre, designing, writing and directing. In 1983, he moved to Devon and it was here that he fell in love with clay. His first studio was one that he and his partner built in their back-garden and he began to produce thrown tableware on a homemade Leach wheel.
Fiona’s focus is mainly on hand built ceramic vessels, with multiple layered surfaces. They combine traditional and contemporary processes. Pieces are first usually coiled or slab built, then painted and printed with coloured slips.
All bowls Sara Moorhouse makes are thrown on a wheel using white stoneware clay or porcelain. The banded bowls are then turned and bisque fired before being returned to the wheel and hand painted with underglaze colour. The Colourblock series are turned and then the lines drawn on using a laser level, which are then taped and hand painted. The white porcelain bowls are handed carved either on or off the wheel, depending on the arrangement.
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.
