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.
Despite specialising in making one-off slab-built pots during her college years, Ulla established herself as a ceramic jewellery maker for many years. She has however, returned to making individual sculptural pieces. The pots that she now makes are a playful take on classic container forms, particularly the bottle. The shapes have an animated, even anthropomorphic air about them and work well in pairs or in groups.
Born and brought up in Norwich, Richard has been making pots since the early 1970s. After studying for two years at Great Yarmouth College of Art, he worked from 1974 to 1980 at Le Dieu Pottery in Norwich before spending 3 years in Australia and New Zealand, and a further five in Germany.
He is inspired by Hungarian and Romanian slipware from the 1800s and by English country pottery. Recently his work has explored colour and abstract patterns in strong forms that capture the ebb and flow of the sea and the landscape of South West Dorset.
Alastair has a lifetime of experience as an artist/maker, teacher, mentor, and plantsman.
He was taught by Emmanuel Cooper, Walter Keeler, Dan Arbeid, Richard Slee, Mo Jupp, Robert Kesseler, Gillian Lowndes, and Gordon Baldwin, etc. Gillian and Gordon in particular were pivotal in transfoming his thinking and ambition.
Ian’s work is a contemporary interpretation of country pottery. His salt glazed domestic ware focuses on line, surface and balance. He likes to emphasise tactility and evidence of the maker’s hand, highlighting the subtle marks and fingerprints from handling and attachments. This, combined with clean lines make his work approachable and usable, while giving the work extra durability that comes from the firing process.
Since 2000 Owen Thorpe has been producing ‘families’ of pots using recurring themes and he has been making bowls and plates with inscriptions. All his work is made using a soft stoneware, high fired with occasional further enamel firings.
Katie studied ceramics as part of her degree in Cheltenham and went on to teach in secondary education specialising in ceramics. Drawn to working with clay from a young age and inspired by the landscape and seascape around where she lives, Katie is particularly influenced by the manmade and natural marks in the environment. She enjoys the nature of the material and the meditative quality of hand building, as well as the malleable quality of clay which retains a sense of the maker’s hand.
