Carl Gray

The functional wheel-thrown pots that Carl creates are modest but highly considered and precisely made, sometimes altered when wet, often with spontaneous, energetic surface marks. Everything is conceived in the knowledge that his work will be wood-fired. Form is simple as complex surfaces can develop, flame and ash painting the work. He uses his own blend of low iron clays/slips which respond to the atmospheric conditions in the kiln. Sustainability is important and Carl uses found materials to make glazes and waste wood as fuel.

Pots are made in his Mansfield studio and Newark College where Carl teaches ceramics. His kiln site is at Hill Holt Wood, nestled between Newark and Lincoln, where he has a cross draft kiln inspired by John Theis’ Manabigamma kiln. Carl also helps to fire the anagama kiln at Loughborough University where he studied for an MA in Ceramics.

Carl has had a love of clay for as long as he can remember and enjoys letting this unique material speak for itself in the things that he makes. The tensions that arise from contrasts interest him and often appear in his work, be they contrasts of the angular and round, smooth and rough, controlled or spontaneous.

“I hope that each piece of my work intrigues the beholder enough for them to want to read its story.”