Kim Colebrook

Kim came to ceramics late in life, after a career in the tourism and heritage sector. She discovered her passion for ceramics whilst studying Contemporary Design Crafts at Hereford College of Arts, after which she completed an MA in Ceramics at Cardiff Metropolitan University. 

Her work is inspired by the history, geology and people of South Wales, where she has lived and worked throughout her career. Some of her ceramics work is a direct response to historical events, whilst other pieces explore wider, more general themes and narratives. The geological structure of the South Wales Coalfield is a current theme, acting as a metaphor for the way that communities bury and distort the past, creating memories that fit their contemporary needs. 

Kim works with porcelain, creating nerikomi blocks of “geological” clay (with black porcelain and iron-based oxides – to mirror the layers of the coalfield). She hand-builds or carves into vessels and other forms; sometimes rolling the clay as thinly as possible, which results in some of the inlays being hidden within the thin walls, and other times working with solid blocks, uncovering the buried layers as the clay dries.  

“Some of my ceramics work is a direct response to historical events, whilst other pieces explore wider, more general themes and narratives.”