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.
John discovered ceramics while still at school in his native New Zealand. He was also inspired by watching a neighbour throwing a pot on the wheel and that cemented the desire to learn more. After attending night classes to learn the basic, he built a kiln and shed in the back garden to continue making and experimenting.
Suzanne began working with clay while accompanying her husband during their years living in the Middle East in the 1960s and 70s. She came to make clay her home ground and something she could take with her wherever she lived.
She discovered Oribe ware – Japanese tea ceramics associated with the Kaiseki meal and tea ceremony – whose glazes and playful geometric decoration greatly influenced her aesthetic. She ultimately decided to import English porcelain clay so she would have continuity wherever she worked and for the same reasons travelled with a small electric kiln.
Phil throws and hand-builds in various stoneware clays, making bowls, vases and sculptural forms. However, his main output is concentrated on small-scale porcelain and white stoneware bowls and bottles. They are exclusively hand thrown.
Jeremy trained in Falmouth, Cornwall and then in Cardiff before being invited to join Wobage Workshop in rural Herefordshire in 1995. From here, he makes wheel-thrown, wood-fired salt-glazed stoneware and porcelain. He and his wife Petra, also a potter and printmaker, live on the edge of the Forest of Dean. They were invited to join the Wobage studios as part-time apprentices to Mick and Sheila Casson, a role they maintained until Mick’s death in 2003.
In his youth Peter collected (mainly damaged) Chinese Kangxi and 18th Century European porcelain, regularly visiting Portobello and Bermondsey Market at 6am. His making came later, but is influenced by the pieces he bought, studied, and has loved over the years. These pots have of course been themselves influenced by earlier ceramic, silver, and pewter forms.
After studying Three-Dimensional Design at Manchester Metropolitan University, James completed The Pottery Skills Course near Kilkenny, Ireland, where an intensive focus on technique, combined with the time and space to develop his practice, helped shape his distinctive approach to ceramics.