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.
Taja came over to UK from his native country Japan to study oil painting and settled in Devon over 40 years ago. He was inspired by so many potters in the south west, so he started making pots using his friend’s pottery workshop. He is largely self-taught. He found that slab and coil built pottery suits him the most. He started experimenting with porcelain clay about 20 years ago after being inspired by enormous blue porcelain wall tiles at a new Japanese airport especially the water-like quality of the blue glaze.
Jane completed a foundation course at Chelsea School of Art, before obtaining a Fine Art degree at Winchester School of Art. She works in paper porcelain, a sensitive medium. The malleable, translucent yet robust qualities of the combination of clay and paper enables her to construct and hand build. Rolling the clay eggshell thin, tearing and pushing it to its limits to the final firing, Jane is entirely absorbed by the process of making.
In his youth Peter collected (mainly damaged) Chinese Kangxi and 18th Century European porcelain, regularly visiting Portobello and Bermondsey Market at 6am. His making came later, but is influenced by the pieces he bought, studied, and has loved over the years. These pots have of course been themselves influenced by earlier ceramic, silver, and pewter forms.
Chris trained in stage design at the National Institute of Dramatic Art, Sydney, and after settling in the UK, built a successful career in the theatre, designing, writing and directing. In 1983, he moved to Devon and it was here that he fell in love with clay. His first studio was one that he and his partner built in their back-garden and he began to produce thrown tableware on a homemade Leach wheel.
Jane trained at Camberwell College of Art and at the Royal College of Art and has won several awards for her work including the Wedgwood Scholarship for surface design.
Working across a range of making methods; throwing, jolleying, casting and hand-building, pieces are designed to stand alone or as part of a set. Colour plays a central role in Jane’s work and she is greatly inspired by patterns found in nature and landscape, notably in France the Caribbean and the Isle of Wight.
Julian first made a coil pot at school in 1968 and was immediately hooked - and very well supported by teacher David Buchanan to pursue his passion in exploring what could be made by hand-building with clay. Other than what he was empowered to discover at school, he had no formal training.
