Championing the very best independent ceramic makers for over 60 years

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.

 

Shopping for someone special and not sure what to choose?

Send them a gift card

Meet Our Makers

All of our makers are members of the Craft Potters Association and each of them have a story to tell.

Jenny Southam

Jenny Southam studied Fine Art in Bristol where she developed her practice in Sculpture, gravitating towards bronze. After several years working as a sculptor and bronze-casting assistant in Gloucestershire she moved to Devon, where she embraced clay as her medium of choice. For thirty years her family, home, garden and studio has formed an integrated whole.

Discover More
Annabel Faraday

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.

Discover More
John Jelfs

John Jelfs' work has been widely exhibited in leading galleries including the Victoria & Albert Museum, Alpha House in Sherborne, Beaux Arts, Bath, Rufford Ceramics Centre in Nottingham and is also included in many collections in the UK and abroad.

Discover More
Lesley McShea

Lesley was born in Lancashire, England and is based in Stoke Newington in London.

She discovered ceramics at an early age, in Australia, where the textures and colours of the landscapes and terrain greatly influenced her. She studied firstly in Australia where she gained a Diploma (Distinction) in Ceramics at Caulfield Institute of Technology in 1982.

Discover More
Angela Mellor

Angela has been working in bone china since 1991 using traditional slip casting techniques: designing her own models, making plaster moulds, and finally slipcasting translucent pieces. Conventional forms, vessels, bowls and plates retain both their functional identity but also serve as a natural canvas for decoration. Her work develops in series mostly inspired by nature; depending on the decoration each series has its own identity.

Discover More
Kirsty Macrae

Kirsty graduated from the Fine Art: Painting and Printmaking course at Glasgow School of Art in 2009. She subsequently attended life sculpture classes which led her to working with clay.  
Inspired by day-to-day experiences, local landscape and wildlife, Kirsty’s ceramics are an exploration of gesture, form, colour, and place.

Discover More