Rachel has worked with porcelain since graduating from Manchester Metropolitan University in 2005.
Rachel makes installations of miniature wheel-thrown porcelain vessels. These collections of vessels are grouped in a specific way to give meaning to a particular collection, representing family, relationships, and emotional ties. The forms are simple and unadorned apart from their stamp. The stamp is a unique impressed gestural mark used to give a feeling of life, a fingerprint, an individual identity.
The making process is kept simple. The porcelain is left alone, or stained grey or black. Work is sometimes glazed with a simple matt or shiny glaze, or sometimes left unglazed and high-fired to become vitrified. All processes are kept to a minimum, as the spirit and feeling of the work is captured whilst the vessel is in motion on the wheel. The bases are simple hand rolled slabs of porcelain, showing incidental markings. Small fingerprints remain visible, celebrating the handmade and delicate, moveable qualities of porcelain.
“The making process is kept simple; throwing, stamping and turning the porcelain, feeling at one with the clay.”
