In this conversation, Deiniol Williams discusses his practice in the context of New Members of the Craft Potters Association at Contemporary Ceramics. He reflects on his working methods, sources of inspiration, and the ideas that underpin his work. The exhibition runs from the 2nd – 25th April 2026.
Interview by Dee Honeybun
The Exhibition
Contemporary Ceramics: How has your work grown or changed for this exhibition?
Deiniol Williams: I’ve been concentrating a bit more on my vessel forms recently as I wanted to explore how the form balances, both in a physical way but also aesthetically. I can easily end up trying to explore too many ideas at the same time, so for the exhibition I decided to try and hone in on just the vessel form.
Place as Material
Contemporary Ceramics: You collect stones and materials from West Wales and West Yorkshire — your ancestral birthplace and your current home — and physically embed them into the clay itself. That feels like a deeply personal act, almost as though place becomes literally embodied in the work. How do you think about that relationship between geography, identity and material, and does it matter to you that the viewer may have no way of knowing where those inclusions came from?
Deiniol Williams: Growing up on a farm, we worked as close to the land as you can possibly get and it had a bigger impact on me than I realised at the time. It was the environment that I was deeply connected to that ultimately led me to begin incorporating the elements that were around me into my work. Looking back, I can see how the combination of the ritual and circular nature of the farming year are in a way mirrored in my work.
It doesn’t worry me too much that the viewer may not appreciate the many reasons why I use the inclusions and where the inclusions originate from. I have had many conversations with people who are initially curious about the work purely from an aesthetic point of view, but then later gain a deeper understanding after discussing the varied reasons behind what I make. I like the fact my work can start a dialogue and stimulate the viewer to study a piece in more depth and then maybe begin to notice the layers within the work.
I make the work primarily for myself, and the viewer second. This is not to say that the viewer is unimportant, far from it, but this may be why sometimes certain aspects of my work aren’t immediately interpreted. I like the fact that my work can initially draw people in purely out of curiosity.
Control and Surrender
Contemporary Ceramics: Your process seems to involve a very particular negotiation with unpredictability — the clay wants to tear and collapse, the inclusions distort and melt, the kiln atmosphere is turbulent, and yet forms emerge from all of that disruption. How do you know how much control to exert and when to step back — and has your threshold for trusting the material shifted over the years?
Deiniol Williams: It has taken years of practice, small successes, failures, and exploring the clays limits to find the right balance between the control and the disruption.
I feel more attuned to the material now, and trust my instincts a lot more. When I’m working, there is a subtle dialogue between me and the clay as I try to apply my ideas with the somewhat unstable material. However, I don’t want to end up in a position where I find it too easy or comfortable – I need to have the unpredictability and tension within the work and so I am now looking into exploring new ideas on how to achieve this.
Celebrating the Fault
Contemporary Ceramics: In most ceramic traditions, a crack or a tear would signal failure and the work would be discarded. You not only preserve these moments but actively seek them out. How have you navigated that position within the broader ceramics world — and can you recall a specific piece where what might have been considered a catastrophic fault became the most vital thing about the work?
Deiniol Williams: I knew there were potters and artists who were and are doing comparable work such as Peter Voulkos , Ewen Henderson, and Anita Regel for example.
Looking at their work gave me the confidence to keep exploring and developing my ideas. I don’t recall a particular piece that changed my view about what I was doing, it was more of a gradual process. There is one unusual piece of ceramic that has had an influence on me – an ancient kiln-prop (which I believe was originally from Korea) which I first saw at the V&A while I was studying for my degree. The kiln prop was a discarded item as it had broken, however it had years upon years of accumulated glaze and detritus built up over it and I found it to be quite a fascinating sculpture in its own right. It was never intended to be anything but a kiln-prop, but it had an effect on me and I think it planted a seed in my mind – the accidental and the unplanned.
For quite a few of my formative years, I struggled with the concept of where my work fitted into the wider ceramics world. Was I a craft potter, or an artist, or maybe both? The first few years of my practice I was producing mostly tableware, a well as a small amount of these experimental works with stones. Those earlier pieces were small, and I was unable to push the clay far due to inexperience. The cracks and tears began to develop within my work as I gained experience and began testing the boundaries of the material – increasing the size and quantity of the stone inclusions. I found I didn’t sell many of those earlier pieces and I had a good idea as to why, but my curiosity in following this route further outweighed the financial situation (which if I’m honest was very difficult on some occasions). After many years I stopped making tableware and focused my energies on developing the experimental aspect of my practice.
Because the work is unusual and goes against the many traditional ways of working it can sometimes confuse people. Now, my mind is more settled – I try to take the viewer out of the frame and make work that is true to myself. I have to be comfortable in the work I make, and hopefully then the viewer will begin to understand what it is I am trying to do.
Wood Firing as Final Collaboration
Contemporary Ceramics: You describe the wood firing as an intense final act that transforms both clay and glaze within a turbulent kiln atmosphere. Given that so much of your practice is already concerned with chaos and unpredictability, what does the wood firing add that cannot be achieved any other way — and how do you feel in the period between loading the kiln and opening it?
Deiniol Williams: How I pack the kiln and the way we fire has a direct impact on the finish of the work – the unpredictability within the kiln atmosphere.
I deliberately place a certain amount of work in areas within the kiln which means that they are almost at the point of being unstable – placing them on edges of shelves, firing them at different angles to the way they may be presented when finished. It doesn’t always work and there have been some major collapses in the past, but even these can present some interesting new ideas once I have got over the disappointment.
I have been firing wood-kilns on and off for almost 20 years now and even though I enjoy the firing process it can be somewhat stressful at times. So much can ride on decisions made during the firing. Also, the atmosphere and time of year can have an impact on how the kiln performs – cold and damp, or warm and dry, well seasoned wood or damp wood, or whether myself and my firing partner are in good spirits. All these variables will have a subtle impact on the work. This is why I see the wood-firing as part of the active making process.
