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.

 

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Meet Our Makers

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

Craig Mitchell

After studying glass and ceramics at the University of Sunderland, Craig completed an MA in ceramics at the Royal College of Art. He was drawn to clay for the immediacy of its modelling properties, enabling him to realise his ideas with dynamism. His work is inspired by the elegance of a bygone era, particularly the work of cartoonists and illustrators from the 50s and 60s such as Miroslav Sasek and Ronald Searle, whose economic use of line define characters and tell stories.

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Peter Smith

Peter Smith was once a research chemist before turning his hand to ceramics and starting a pottery in Cornwall. He aims to combine the feel of traditional earthenware with contemporary ideas. The basic form is often thrown on the wheel in a heavily grogged brown clay.

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Diane Griffin

Born and raised in London, Diane graduated with a BA (Hons) in ceramics in 1988. It was during her foundation course in the 1980s that she fell in love with clay. It lit her up, and her lifelong passion began. Initially she was drawn to how immediate, tactile and responsive it was, but it was during her degree at Farnham that she discovered how truly versatile clay is as a creative medium for artistic expression.

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Margaret Frith

Margaret was introduced to clay at Bolton College of Art and studied at Stoke-on-Trent School of Art under ex-Bernard Leach apprentice Derek Emms. It was here that she met her husband-to-be, David Frith. They established their first workshop in the mid sixties and have been based in their 18th Century woollen mill workshop in Denbigh, North Wales since 1976, where they continue after fifty years to teach and create their own work.  

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Chris Speyer

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. 

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Prue Cooper

Prue is a member of the Art Workers’ Guild, where she was Master in 2014. Her work sells widely, in the UK, USA and Japan, and she has been given numerous solo shows. Prue makes press-moulded earthenware dishes, decorated with quotations and images illustrating the ways of the world – witty, friendly or subversive.

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