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.
Before Tony established his own studio in 1988, he studied ceramics and then worked in the ceramic industry in Stoke on Trent (including as a designer for Coalport China, part of Wedgwood). His background in the industry gave him a broad appreciation of ceramics and techniques. He is interested in the art ware produced by Royal Doulton in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but also fascinated by the work of French potters such as Clement Massier.
Collecting and arranging manmade and natural forms provides Claire with great enjoyment and creative impulse for her making. Crucial to her creative process is her discipline of drawing and keeping a continuous sketchbook of ideas and studies. Sculptural forms have emerged through extensive research and exploration of alternative hand-building techniques. Smoky and painterly surfaces envelop her ceramic forms and are integral to the 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.
Emma’s ceramics practice is built on notions of what is known as Emotionally Durable design. She uses the making language of ceramics and a design sensibility to make work which is contemporary and relevant over time.
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.
When Bev was at art school in the late sixties, her final thesis focused on the relationship between natural forms and clay. However, it was only since 1978 when she moved to Wales, that she developed her work to relate directly to where she lives.
