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.
Annabel was born in Germany and spent several years of her childhood in Egypt before coming to England in 1956. She discovered clay at Farnham Art School on Saturday morning classes in the early 1960s. After leaving school in 1967, she attended Winchester Art School, where she was introduced to conceptual art and concrete poetry, and then Croydon College of Art. She went on to gain a BA(Hons) in Sociology and a PhD in Lesbian History at Essex University, then introduced and taught Lesbian Studies at Birkbeck College for two years. In her early 40s, she returned to her first love of clay, as one of the initial students on the City Lit Ceramics Diploma course in 1989.
Lea Phillips makes a wide range high fired stoneware pottery, mostly functional plus some larger one-off pieces. All the ceramics are wheel-thrown, fired in an electric kiln and decorated with free abstract designs using vibrant colourful glazes made to her own recipes. A firm believer that oxidised firing is no barrier to interesting surfaces Lea enjoys glaze development and the challenge of combining form, colour, and pattern.
Clive Bowen was born in Cardiff in 1943. Initially studying painting and etching at Cardiff College of Art from 1960 to 1964, Clive went on to train as an apprentice with Michael Leach at the Yelland Pottery in North Devon from 1965 until 1969. He worked alongside Michael Cardew at Wenford Bridge before setting up his own pottery in 1971 when he bought a small agricultural property at Shebbear, near Holsworthy in North Devon and set up a workshop in the former farm outhouses.
Jill Fanshawe Kato’s enduring fascination with the natural world stems from her upbringing in the Devonshire countryside and her subsequent travels. Besides many shows in the UK, Jill has had 46 exhibitions of her ceramics in Japan including 11 solo shows at Keio Department Store Gallery, Shinjuku, Tokyo.
John Higgins has a degree in 3D Design / Ceramics from the College of Art Wolverhampton, and a Post Graduate Certificate in Art Education, from Sussex University. Throughout his career in education, he has continued to make his own ceramics. He has exhibited widely both in the UK and internationally.
Jeremy trained in Falmouth, Cornwall and then in Cardiff before being invited to join Wobage Workshop in rural Herefordshire in 1995. From here, he makes wheel-thrown, wood-fired salt-glazed stoneware and porcelain. He and his wife Petra, also a potter and printmaker, live on the edge of the Forest of Dean. They were invited to join the Wobage studios as part-time apprentices to Mick and Sheila Casson, a role they maintained until Mick’s death in 2003.