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.
Ian was born in Birmingham - a city famous in its past for guns, cars, motorbikes and jewellery: a city of makers. He studied ceramics at the Central School of Art, London. His teachers included Gordon Baldwin and Dan Arbeid who encouraged skills and making of all types, from hand-building to industrial techniques as possible means of artistic expression. Ian’s own teaching and exhibiting in the UK, Europe and the Far East has provided opportunities to produce work as a response to different places and cultures.
Nicola’s pottery is the culmination of 35 years making ceramics since studying Painting at Central School of Art and training at Aldermaston Pottery with Alan Caiger-Smith. She continues to work in tin-glaze, having perfected six main colours from vibrant coral and yellow through vivid greens and blues to soft purples. Her brushwork designs are inspired by the natural world, predominantly leaves, flowers, fruits and birds also sea creatures that all dance over the pearl white surface.
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.
Richard Phethean is a long established professional potter whose work has been exhibited and collected widely across the UK and Europe. He is a Fellow of, and recently retired as Chair of the Craft Potters Association, a member of the Cornwall Crafts Association and of the Penwith Society of Artists.
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.
As a child, Jon loved drawing and messing about with mud. He and his brother and friends spent many joyful years roaming and exploring on the waste ground of empty housing plots. The exposed seams of soft yellow clay they discovered was perfect for making ‘weapons’ - squashed balls of clay on the ends of sticks. Although childhood has long passed, the activity has informed and inspired his approach to ceramic practice and his educational/community engagement work.
