Sara Moorhouse

Sara Moorhouse grew up amidst the Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire landscape. She has always been fascinated by the vast farming spaces that are divided into shapes through colour, texture, line and form. The way the spectator’s eye is led around the landscape is echoed in the way the eye moves around Sara’s forms.

Sara studied in Cardiff and has lived there since 2003. Sara’s interest in colour and line and how its use can create optical illusion developed into a PhD (2006-10) where she investigated this in relation to the conical bowl form. This involved looking at how some bowls seem deeper, shallower, wider or narrower, how multiple lines shimmer, and where wide bands meet sharp edges appear. More recently, Sara has started working with porcelain. The higher firing temperature means that the colours react differently, often producing a shine, much like the effects she was exploring with in the St Ives collection. She has also started carving shapes into the porcelain bowls to create pure white semi-translucent pieces.

All bowls Sara makes are thrown on a wheel using white stoneware clay or porcelain. The banded bowls are then turned and bisque fired before being returned to the wheel and hand painted with underglaze colour. The Colourblock series are turned and then the lines drawn on using a laser level, which are then taped and hand painted. The white porcelain bowls are handed carved either on or off the wheel, depending on the arrangement.