Sasha Wardell

Sasha Wardell has been working in bone china since 1982. Her formal training in ceramics included both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees and industrial training secondments to L’Ecole Nationale des Arts Decoratifs, Limoges, France, and the Royal Doulton design studio, Stoke on Trent, UK.

An industrial approach to the traditional bone china manufacturing process has strongly influenced the way in which Sasha presently works, reflecting her fascination for methods and materials which present a challenge. It is for this reason that bone china, with all its idiosyncrasies, has remained her favourite material.

Bone china is a very ‘single-minded’ clay which forces clarity and precision, whilst demanding perseverance from the maker. Possessing qualities of intense whiteness, translucency and strength, makes it a very seductive material to work with.

Architectural detail and sections of structure combined with her evolving interest in illusions, provide the starting point for her pieces – and the inherent qualities of the clay do the rest. Antonia finds that the whiteness of bone china clay offers a pure blank canvas for the applications of colour, and its translucency enhances any varying degrees of luminosity.

By adding a carefully selected colour palette to the striking white bone china, coupled with unique decorating techniques evolved through painstaking trial and error, Wardell has developed ranges of distinctive signature work that is sought after by personal collectors, museums and galleries worldwide.