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.
Claudia trained as a painter but transferred to pots because she found the turning surface sympathetic to an unfolding visual narrative. Stories are her raw material - both her own and other people's, also fictional stories, songs, and poetry. The human, cultural, and historic associations of pottery connect particularly well to the work she does interpreting women’s histories and contemporary lives. The nature of pots is that they can break, and so can be mended. This she finds to be a compelling metaphor for both trauma and survival - the mending has an optimistic quality.
Sabine completed an apprenticeship as a thrower in 1998 with Hans Joachim Grünert in Waldenburg (Sachsen) in East Germany, followed by a three-year training as a production thrower where she was introduced to wood firing. She became enthralled by the high demands of wood-firing. In 2000, she came to England to gain more experience and met fellow potter, Nic Collins who became her partner. In 2001, she moved to Devon.
Jonathan graduated from Farnham Art School in 1974 and worked for Joe Finch at Appin Pottery in Scotland. He began making once fired domestic ware in a pale stoneware body, guided and inspired by Bernard Leach’s ‘A Potters Book’. He went on to work in porcelain and to decorate with a brush.
In 1999, Jonathan moved to East Sussex where he built a smaller kiln in a more spacious workshop. He began to experiment seriously with reduction fired lustre which had fascinated him ever since he attended a course given by the late Marjorie Clinton two years previously.
Sarah has been a potter for 45 years and also makes work in oak, lead and cast iron. She trained in painting at Chelsea School of Art between 1960-64 after which, she spent five years working as a nurse. This period was followed by studying at Harrow where she graduated in 1973 with a Diploma in Studio Pottery. Sarah undertook apprenticeships with David Leach and Zelda Mowat.
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.
Martin Pearce creates abstract sculptural pieces inspired by natural forms. His work often portrays a state of flux, with the quality of moving water or cloud forms, while other pieces appear as if they could be in quiet contemplation.
