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.
Russell has always been a maker. He studied art through college before enrolling - almost on a whim - on a Foundation Degree in Ceramics. Alongside his creative path, he has had a varied working life: he is a qualified carpenter and has worked as a firefighter, stonemason, picture framer, florist and pizza chef, with a number of smaller jobs in between. For the past ten years he has worked as a full-time potter, leaving the retained fire service around four years ago.
Lea Phillips makes a wide range high fired stoneware pottery, mostly functional plus some larger one-off pieces. All the ceramics are wheel-thrown, fired in an electric kiln and decorated with free abstract designs using vibrant colourful glazes made to her own recipes. A firm believer that oxidised firing is no barrier to interesting surfaces Lea enjoys glaze development and the challenge of combining form, colour, and pattern.
With a BA (Hons) degree in Fine Art, an MA in Communication Design, and following a career in design and academia, Amanda-Sue first came to ceramics by enrolling on a course at Morley College, London in 2012. With further short courses and by joining a communal ceramics studio Amanda-Sue continued to develop her practice, making the step change to becoming a full-time ceramics-artist in 2018. In 2020, Amanda-Sue co-founded Grove Vale Ceramics, a gallery and studio in East Dulwich, London.
Graham’s interest in ceramics began at York School of Art in the 1960s and continued at Cardiff College of Art, graduating from there in 1971. He later worked at both colleges as a ceramics technician and having retired in 2009, Graham established a workshop in Gloucestershire.
Carina trained as an industrial designer in Germany and specialised in furniture design. One day she found herself at a ceramic studio near her house. She had a sudden realisation that there was no difference between making a teapot or a chair because it's all about aesthetics: form, function, balance, and proportion.
Carina had no formal ceramic education and through apprenticeship, short courses, and residencies she has learned and worked with different clays in different parts of the world. She explores the potential and qualities of each clay body, a continuous conversation unfolding between the maker and the material.
In 2014, Jack and his late wife and fellow ceramicist built a 3D ceramic printer, there being no such printers available at the time. Together they began making 3D printed ceramics. Within six years, Jack re-thought his design ideas, formulated a workable clay mix, and developed his skill. His designs combine hand-drawn elements with mathematical curves and semi-random 'noise'. He is interested in nature's growth processes which often build up layer by layer like a 3D print. Random variations were introduced by using algorithms that were developed for animated films to give the appearance of flames, hair or vegetation.
