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.
Nicola’s pottery is the culmination of 35 years making ceramics since studying Painting at Central School of Art and training at Aldermaston Pottery with Alan Caiger-Smith. She continues to work in tin-glaze, having perfected six main colours from vibrant coral and yellow through vivid greens and blues to soft purples. Her brushwork designs are inspired by the natural world, predominantly leaves, flowers, fruits and birds also sea creatures that all dance over the pearl white surface.
Jane trained at Camberwell College of Art and at the Royal College of Art and has won several awards for her work including the Wedgwood Scholarship for surface design.
Working across a range of making methods; throwing, jolleying, casting and hand-building, pieces are designed to stand alone or as part of a set. Colour plays a central role in Jane’s work and she is greatly inspired by patterns found in nature and landscape, notably in France the Caribbean and the Isle of Wight.
John comes from a family of engineers going back several generations, so it was natural for him to follow suit. However, he made an unenthusiastic engineer, and after several years teaching he went back to college and gained a place on the 3D course at Manchester College of Art where he was introduced to clay for the first time.
1949 – 2024
Karen began making pots in the early 70s. She completed a degree in chemistry at University College London, then worked as a computer programmer before she discovered ceramics and quickly realised that ceramics was her real vocation. As a largely self-taught ceramicist, Karen worked briefly for a production potter in Yorkshire, then moved back to London and in 1977, set up her first pottery in Hackney, East London.
Stephen’s first pots were made at Soham Grammar School in the late 1960s-early 70s where his art teacher and early mentor, Peter Askem helped and encouraged his to move onto the Foundation Course in Art and Design at Cambridge College of Arts and Technology.
He then progressed onto the BA Hons course in 3D Design (Ceramics) at West Surrey College of Art and Design, Farnham. The tutors and visiting lecturers at Farnham included Sebastian Blackie and Mo Jupp. Stephen found the ‘Farnham experience’ to be life changing.
