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.

 

Shopping for someone special and not sure what to choose?

Send them a gift card

Meet Our Makers

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

Harriet Coleridge

Many years ago, Harriet was inspired by an article by Dick Lehmann about carbon trap glazes. She has been exploring this intriguing glaze ever since. She believes that all the potters who work with carbon trap seek different qualities and achieve quite distinctive effects even though they may use the same recipe and fire to the same temperature in the same kind of kiln. The glaze is unusually responsive to the atmosphere in the kiln and even to the weather as it dries before firing.

Discover More
Lesley McShea

Lesley was born in Lancashire, England and is based in Stoke Newington in London.

She discovered ceramics at an early age, in Australia, where the textures and colours of the landscapes and terrain greatly influenced her. She studied firstly in Australia where she gained a Diploma (Distinction) in Ceramics at Caulfield Institute of Technology in 1982.

Discover More
Adele Howitt

Adele is a designer and maker of ceramics whose practice spans architectural ceramics and public realm art for both interior and exterior spaces. Her work engages with cultural identity, creative participation, and placemaking, contributing to large-scale projects that celebrate shared heritage. In 2009, she established her studio, returning to the making and exhibition of contemporary ceramics alongside her public practice.

Discover More
Judy McKenzie

After a long and varied career in design and printing, Judy followed her passion for ceramics. At the age of sixty, she enrolled in a 3D Craft and Design BA at a local college, graduating with First Class Honours, and went on to complete an MA at the Royal College of Art, specialising in Nerikomi and Kintsugi. While at the RCA, she was invited to exhibit in China and was commissioned by ROSL to create a presentation plaque for a prize-winning musician.

Discover More
Chris Barnes

Chris was born in 1959. His introduction to clay began at adult education classes in Islington. He went on to study Sculpture at St. Martins School of Art, London and graduated in 1982. Chris has moved around the country over the last decades. He helped set up the Chocolate Factory studios in Hackney, London in 1995. In 2006, he moved to Argyll, Scotland to set up another pottery. By 2009, Chris relocated to Cumbria setting up a new pottery in a converted farm building.

Discover More
Sarah Walton

Sarah has been a potter for 45 years and also makes work in oak, lead and cast iron. She trained in painting at Chelsea School of Art between 1960-64 after which, she spent five years working as a nurse. This period was followed by studying at Harrow where she graduated in 1973 with a Diploma in Studio Pottery. Sarah undertook apprenticeships with David Leach and Zelda Mowat.

Discover More