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.
Vanessa's work is influenced by natural patterns, colours and forms found in and beside the sea. Over time Vanessa has developed her own technique of using slip as a resist and for texture to pattern her sawdust fired pots.
Jane was born to a family of artists, creatives and potters. Growing up in the Suffolk countryside, her upbringing was unconventional. With little formal education, Jane left school early and entered a life of art, in keeping with family tradition.
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.
Suzanne began working with clay while accompanying her husband during their years living in the Middle East in the 1960s and 70s. She came to make clay her home ground and something she could take with her wherever she lived.
She discovered Oribe ware – Japanese tea ceramics associated with the Kaiseki meal and tea ceremony – whose glazes and playful geometric decoration greatly influenced her aesthetic. She ultimately decided to import English porcelain clay so she would have continuity wherever she worked and for the same reasons travelled with a small electric kiln.
Claire creates decorative smoke-fired pots. She chooses to use porcelain due to its strong resistance to wild temperature changes during the smoke-firing process. Her pots are not functional nor suitable for holding water due to the porous quality of the unglazed burnished clay which is necessary for smoke-firing.
The passage of time and change observed in urban and rural landscapes has always been central to the themes Dennis explores in his work. The process of archaeology and its concern with time and layers has also greatly influenced the way in which he expresses his ideas. Architectural fragments, marks on the landscape, multi-layered and over painted surfaces, have all influenced the way he works in clay.
