New Members of the Craft Potters Association 2025

Kay Aplin creates ceramic installations that respond to place. Themes recur through observing detail and pattern within nature and architecture. Kay is inspired by the spectacular and strives to achieve a sense of exuberance through colour, texture and scale.

Mark Dally initially trained in textile design and now applies his love of surface pattern to ceramics. Inspired by 17^th Century Staffordshire slipware as well as mid-century Stoke-on-Trent mass production designs, Mark makes black and white wares using both traditional craft and modern industrial techniques.

Toni De Jesus is fascinated with duality and juxtaposition. His porcelain and terracotta vessels occupy the space between function and non-function, tradition and breaking with tradition, craftsmanship-based art and idea-based art.

Sharon Griffin’s use of playful marks dancing around the features of each of her figures suggests that her ceramic sculptures are living beings rather than still ornaments. Using the clay as an artistic medium Sharon’s work explores wider humanitarian issues including psychology, connectivity and healing.

Gaby Guz has developed her own method of saggar firing which allows her to have more control over the surface decoration.  Gaby borrows patterns from mathematics, nature and art as starting points for her designs. Her chosen method of firing produces a sophisticated palette of earthy sienna, ochre and umber.

Jack Hardie has worked with clay since his early 20s and over the decades has absorbed an understanding of ceramic tradition. Drawing upon the full breadth of his experience Jack now produces original and challenging ceramics with the aid of his home-built 3D printer and specially formulated clays.

Juliet Macleod makes wheel-thrown porcelain that imparts an evocative exploration of the Scottish coast. Using a distillation of drawings and photographs made over many years, she creates contemplative pieces which hope to engage the viewer and spark their own memories.

Derek Matthews’ ceramic figures originate from narratives that are either imagined, half remembered, carefully researched or commissioned. His love of whimsy, folk art, religious and tribal art as well as his background as an illustrator all influence the creation of his constructed earthenware figures.

Ulla Mead makes pots that are a playful take on classic container forms, particularly bottles. Many of these shapes have an animated, almost human air about them and many appear to be communicating with each other when placed together in groups.

Rachel Peters makes hand-built vessels and sculptures through methodical and meditative coiling. Influenced by the simplicity and craftsmanship of Danish design Rachel enjoys the harmony of natural soft forms, biomorphic rounded shapes, and calm colour.

SaeRi Seo’s poignant porcelain works often portray partially deconstructed traditional Korean ceramic motifs, with painstakingly hand-crafted flowers incorporated into the ‘wounds’. Her work reflects her own personal journey from oppression in childhood to self-expression as an artist.

Carol Sinclair makes one-off sculptural vessels and installations inspired by people and places, and in response to specific themes or topics. Sustainability is an important aspect of her work and she often incorporates motifs from the natural world into her pieces to stimulate conversations about the environment.

Tarragon Smith admires the propensity of pottery and its traditions to be moved from one place or culture to another, carrying with it commodities, aesthetics, and ideas. He uses decorative motifs such as waves and water as a means of expressing his interest in migrating people. Water has come to remind him of his own emigration from Canada to the UK.

Emily Stubbs explores the relationship between colour, form and line. Her vessels are made, deconstructed and rebuilt, collaging the clay slabs back together to create fragmented forms. Textures, patterns and shapes taken from wallpapers and clothing evoke feelings of nostalgia, while bold colour, strong line and intuitive mark-making tell snippets of a story.

Malory Tate makes one of a kind sculptural vessels inspired by ceramics of the 17th and 18th Century. Reflective of the artistic movements of these time periods, Malory’s work is a contemporary interpretation of objects that focus on extravagance and specificity. More often than not, Malory pieces are designed to hold flowers. Either to create a unique display in a grand arrangement or a piece to highlight a single bloom.

Angela Verdon makes enclosed abstract sculptural forms from cast bone china and porcelain, investigating organic contours, contrasting hard edges and the consequent tension between the two.

Sarah Villeneau creates abstract sculptural ceramics that defy definition, yet evoke ideas of the body, the land or sea. Highly tactile and often interactive, they may evoke a visceral response which is rewarded by careful viewing.