With a passion for craftsmanship and a sensitivity to the precious metals that she works with, Kerry Seaton aims to create pieces that can be worn in, rather than worn out, giving her work a timeless quality. Using traditional jewellers techniques Seaton's work is balanced, evoking a sense of stillness.
Having undertaken The Goldsmiths’ Company apprenticeship for five years, Kerry completed an MA in Goldsmithing, Silversmithing, Metalwork and Jewellery at the Royal College of Art.
Kerry now works between workshops in both London and Sussex.
Yuta Segawa is a highly acclaimed ceramic artist, born in 1988, Shizuoka, Japan
Lives and works in London
Yuta Segawa studied Industrial, Interior and Craft Design at Musashino Art University in Tokyo, before completing an internship at The Pottery Work Shop in Jingdezhen, China, and an MA at Camberwell College of Arts in London.
He specialises in producing miniature pots, which are hand-thrown and hand-finished, using more than a thousand specially developed glazes which encompass the entire colour spectrum. Positioning them in large groups, to magical effect, or as individual pieces that sit in the palm of the hand, his work plays with the imagination. He works with various clays such as porcelain, terracotta and stoneware, experimenting with texture, and has had solo exhibitions in London, The Netherlands, Dubai, Tokyo and China.
Maria De Haan is an English Ceramicist. We are more than privileged to be showcasing Maria's new collection of smoked pots. Maria explains," the idea you use fire to decorate a pot is absolutely fascinating to me, each pot has its own unique journey in the fire and I love the whole process from start to finish.
Her smoked pots are all hand thrown on the wheel using a mixture of white bodied clays with her most recent collection in a stunning porcelain mix. The pieces are all smoke fired in the countryside using natural ingredients. This is an organic method which utilises the elements of fire, smoke and natural materials.
The vessels are first low fired in an electric kiln so they are strong enough to withstand the smoke firing but still porous. They are then layered in a primitive outdoor metal container. The kiln is packed with sawdust and wood shavings for fuel, in addition, various combustibles are added such as salt, leaves, seaweed, fruit, vegetables. Each pot is stacked one by one with different materials surrounding them.
Once the kiln is packed a fire is built on top and the fire ignited, the vessels are left to the serendipity of the flames and smoke. The pots then smoulder in the kiln overnight until the fuel is completely reduced to ashes, whatever has been burning around the pot is absorbed into the clay producing beautiful markings. Whilst we can influence the atmosphere of the kiln, no vessel’s fire marks can ever be reproduced making each piece unique.
Anna Silverton’s vases and bowls are wheel thrown in porcelain and each one is unique. She finds the process of wheel-throwing inherently repetitive and it allows her to focus on gradual renewal and reinvention. “I search for shapes I find beautiful, making incremental modifications and teasing out new combinations of intriguing form. My pots have changed very gradually over time; similar themes reoccur alongside new discoveries as I search for the perfect shape and surface,” she explains.
“I love working with porcelain and delight in the delicious throwing texture of it. I stretch its physical properties and tensile strength, with all the joys (and frustrations) that it can bring. I punctuate and hone the profile of each piece by turning, making incised bands. The surfaces are highlighted by different textured glazes which reflect or absorb the light and also add pleasurable tactile qualities.”
After completing her Foundation course at Cheltenham, Anna moved to London to train at Camberwell School of Art and subsequently gained her MA at the Royal College of Art. She has always had a studio in London and currently works from her house in Sydenham in the South East. She also works part-time at Morley College in London as Program Manager of the HND Ceramics course. “I find it brings balance to my studio practice as a ceramicist, which is by nature solitary and contemplative.”
Tanya McCallin comes to working with ceramics from a long and successful career in theatre set design. Her pieces are simple, elemental and essentially abstract. Working from her London based studio, she uses porcelain, stoneware and earthenware bodies to make her forms, which are hand thrown and sometimes hand-finished. Some of her creations are open bowl forms, others are tall, thrown and assembled cylinders. Each piece has a strong and quiet permanence and can be both functional, as well as sculptural and have narrative.
The weight, the smell, the damp cold and the ancient, elemental nature of clay inspires her work. She is also influenced by a range of clay objects from a variety of periods and cultures, from Neolithic pots, through to Song Dynasty Chinese, Japanese and Korean art. She's interested in the edges of pots, their form, structure and surface, but also how they function as a group; in their relationship to each other and the architectural spaces they inhabit.
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Sophie Cook graduated from Camberwell School of Arts in the late nineties with just the original bottle shape in a range of matt turquoises. Since then, a full spectrum of colours and finishes have been developed as well as the emergence of the teardrop and pod shapes.
Her work can now be found in some of the most beautiful residencies worldwide. It is featured in permanent museum collections including the Geffrye Museum and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and was included in the touring exhibition 'European Design Since 1985: Shaping the New Century'.
Sophie's studio is by the sea in Suffolk, where she lives with her partner and three young boys.
]]>London based artist Josie Warshaw has been making ceramic work in her studio at Kingsgate Workshops Trust in Kilburn, since 1983. Her work covers a range of subject matter and interests, recording phases and moments in the course of her daily life.
Her clay work and art teaching conveys her enthusiasm and commitment to creative process to both adults and children. Commissioned to write, “The Complete Practical Potter” and “ A Beginners Ceramic Handbook” she continues to pass on her knowledge both, privately at her studio in Kilburn and publicly at the City Lit in Covent Garden, London.
Her architectural, artist led ceramic installation pieces can be seen at educational and community settings accross London.
]]>Peter makes wheel-thrown porcelain and stoneware at his studio in Devon.
While at art college in Belfast, encountering ceramics steered him towards pottery. Time spent working with Nic Collins, Rob Barron, and a summer spent at Winchcombe Pottery, furthered his interest in functional ceramics, and particularly wood fired pots, both ancient and contemporary.
Having completed the DCCoI Ceramic Skills and and Design course in Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny, Peter has settled in rural Devon, where he works alongside Svend Bayer at Kigbeare Studios.
All his pots fired in a wood-fuelled tunnel kiln, with firings usually lasting 5 days. His aim is simple; to make beautiful pots that are a joy to use.
Enriqueta Cepeda builds her pieces by hand in her Stockholm Studio. Inspired by Japanese pottery and the Japanese aesthetic, she also draws inspiration from the distinct characteristics of Etruscan art and Greek and Egyptian antiquities.
Hand building is 'a slow way to work that suits me'. The expression is enhanced by smoothing the surface with a stone before firing and polishing with organic beeswax after firing, creating a harmonious item that is fine to hold. She uses only lead-free glazes. All pieces hold water.
Some pieces are smoked; an old primitive technique that gives exciting results. The objects are fired at 1,000 degrees and then burnt in an open fire. The flames of the fire create patterns and give life to the surface. She does not use any glazes or oxides in the smoke fires.
Paul does not use coils or slabs but builds each piece slowly by hand using a mixture of clays including Devon ball clay (a creamy buff colour), Staffordshire fire clay (used for building bricks) and earthenware clay. It’s time consuming but a technique he prefers as it allows the form to evolve naturally. Organic material such as sand, wood ash, cement board and firebrick are added in varying amounts and then fired at a high temperature multiple times - a complex process that has remarkable results. The combustible materials melt into the clay and cause glaze spots or runs, or burn away to leave an array of unique abstract markings and subtle erosions.
Paul's palette of dreamy chalks, warm sandstone, weathered slate and rich charcoal grounds us and connects us to the earth. He is influenced by his interest in ancient culture, oriental art, geology and the natural world.
Paul has been working with clay for over forty years and over that time has experimented with a variety of materials and techniques, some of which have never been tried before. This has resulted in equal measures of delight and frustration as some attempts work and others fail. It’s not an easy task especially as each of his pieces face, what he calls an “unknown future”, as various “breakdowns” (unpredictable cracks and fissures) occur as they are fired multiple times in the kiln. However, this is all part of Paul Philp’s unique creative process. It’s very important to him that each of his pieces develop into something that have their own individual character and identity. He wants them to have a life beyond him and soon after he starts to create them, they should continue on a journey of their own. We are attracted to this idea and hope that as owners and inheritors of his pieces that they will continue their journey in our own homes and beyond.
With the help of the Princes Trust, Tim Plunkett made wood turning his profession in 1995 and just a few years later became the youngest person to have been accepted to the 'Register of Professional Turners' held by the Worshipful Company of Turners. Motivated by a desire to produce practical pieces that are both simple and beautiful, Tim creates each piece to show the unique character of the wood they are made from. With a BSc in environmental science and an involvement in direct action opposing the destruction of ancient forests and cultures, Tim Plunkett creates all of his work from sustainable resources, which he sources locally to his home in Norfolk.
Alexander Devol has been making things his whole life but the materials he finds himself most at home with seem to always be wooden or woven. The creator of Wood + Woven, Alex works from studio in North West England where he handcrafts a wonderful selection of wooden pieces.
After a career as a menswear designer, Alex turned his attention away from mass production and toward the hand made. With a focus on a simple and honest approach to design and the aim of creating pieces where both aesthetics and utility are ingrained, Alex’s work brings new life and pleasure to the everyday.
All pieces are hand made using traditional turning and carving techniques and all materials are locally grown, recycled or sourced from sustainable sources.
Devol – “Machine made things are children of the brain, while hand made things are children of the heart.”
Barry Stedman is a British artist who works with ceramics, painting, sketching and drawing. Inspired by natural phenomena, places and emotions, Barry Stedman develops ideas for his ceramic work through drawing, painting and previous firings. Barry’s vessels serve as canvas for his expressive abstract imagery. Bold in form, the vessels are given a painterly quality, the building up of marks and washes creates a uniquely painterly surface.
Working with red earthenware clay, oxides and underglazes, each vessel is put through multiple firings. After either hand throwing or hand building each form, Barry uses thin washes, wipes back and build up areas of colour before firing again. He finishes each piece by glazing chosen areas, adding further depth, tone and texture to the form.
Since 2009, Stedman has been a part time assistant at the studio of renowned ceramicist Edmund de Waal, after graduating with First class Honours degree in ceramics at Westminster. Both Barry’s ceramics and paintings have been exhibited in galleries in the UK and abroad, including Ceramic Art London 2017.
He currently creates from his home and workshop in Bedfordshire.
Munich based, South Korean ceramicist Kiho Kang constructs strictly geometric vessels and tableware by coiling and pinching, slowly building up each piece. Kiho says this method forced him to work more deliberately, giving each piece a special quality.
Pursuing purity, Kiho designs with the aim of form only representing function. Free of unnecessary adornments each piece allows its user to experience the texture of the clay.
All white, the playful work has an unglazed matte exterior combined with a transparent glazed interior, this only adds to the pure and structural elements of the work: the simplicity and texture in each piece displaying the time and craftsmanship that has gone into its making.
Created with the user in mind, Kiho’s work is both fully functional and aesthetic, each piece impactful as part of a group or on its own.
Born in Jin-Hae, South Korea, Kiho completed a BA in ceramic art from Kookmin University in Seoul in 2009 followed by a Masters in artistic ceramic and glass at Koblenz University of Applied Sciences in Mainz, Germany. Kiho went on to win the World Ceramic Exposition Foundation Award 2008, the Cheongju International Craft Biennale 2009,the Justus Brinckmann Gesellschaft 2013, Richard Bampi Prize 2013, Albert Hauseisen Prize 2013, Modern Ceramic Arts Award of Korea 2009, among others.
Milan designs from Album di Famiglia are subtle, tasteful and sophisticated. Soft tactile material, perfectly cut with minimal shapes, easy muted colour palette. Exclusively produced in small workshops in Italy.
A new collection of ceramic tea bowls hand made by artist Jane Bustin. Each tea bowl is unique in form. Jane plays with the material and process, creating movement within her pieces. A rawness and truthfulness are shown in this work. The tea bowls can be used as a stand alone art piece or a functional bowl.
Jane Bustin is a painter but has always had a strong interest in ceramics. She has recently been drawn to working with clay alongside her art and has a particularly strong interest in Japanese tea bowls. The material in particular, fascinates Jane, the endless possibilities and subtleties of slips and oxides on different clay bodies. The variations and precarious nature of firing, acts as an antidote to the relative control of applying paint to a surface. It is the power of the materials over the maker that is so engrossing and inevitably for an artist so addictive.
Craig Underhill makes work in response to landscapes and places visited and travelled through. His recurring interest is natural landscapes that have human interventions that tell a story about our relationship with the natural world. He is particularly influenced by the inconsequential visual effects that are created in landscapes by the repetitive and methodical actions of humankind. The coastline continues to be a strong visual stimulus but the mundane, overlooked and apparently ordinary landscape can also serve as a rich source of inspiration. Underhill's definition of landscape is not necessarily a large scale open vissta, it can also be seen on a small scale and more intimate level. He makes his paintings in conjunction with his ceramics and find that working in one medium helps to inform the other.
Jae Jun Lee first exhibited in London at the Saatchi Gallery ‘Collect’ exhibition in 2013 and has been invited back to ‘Collect’ every year since. Widely exhibited since 2013 in Seoul, Taipei, Munich, and London including ‘Ceramic Art London’ at Central Saint Martins.
Jae Jun Lee is a very hard-working and thoughtful artist, seeking ways to portray his message in simple, everyday form. His love for making and creating comes through in his work. His work has evolved over the past 6 years through many iterations to this year’s elegant, simple 'M type' for which he chose porcelain with Zirconium silicate and excluded all other colors used in previous years. Both sides are white, but since porcelain with zircon is much whiter than white porcelain, the separation between the two whites still exists. Without the glaze, the distinction shows even more effectively; “I liked this calm division of colors. For this reason I chose to polish parts of my work without the glazing stage and the other with it”.
Quality is very important to Jae Jun; he spends more time polishing than turning, trimming, and firing combined. He uses 60 to 3000 grade diamond polishing paper to achieve different results. “Polishing is such a tiresome process that my whole body aches after the work is done. However, once I am done with this process and look at my finished works, I truly understand what the most important aspects of creation are to me.”
Jae Jun Lee: “I hope my work can enrich not only myself but also the beholder’s lives, and bring comfort to them."
London based ceramic artist, Abigail Schama, came to pottery from painting. Abigail Schama’s hand thrown, stoneware bowls tell stories through surface. Any bowl is basic and universal in its meaning. The process of building up and then turning the form creates their skin and character. Abigail relies on the processes of slipping and chattering; words which describe human contact. These pieces are about imprinting the imperfect, unexpected and unrepeatable marks of a human hand on the most primal and unchanging material.
Abigail’s pieces are wheel thrown in different combinations of dark and light stoneware.
Abigail plays with a palette of dolomite and transparent glazes. Each piece undergoes a further firing to be lightly gilded with (24 carat) gold lustre, which highlight the shape of each form and create an intriguing contrast with the more humble tones and textures of her work.
Gary designs and makes hand turned wooden bowls and plates. The work is made in his studio in Cornwall using locally sourced sustainable timber: oak, beech, cherry and ash Following traditional techniques the work focuses on elemental forms with natural surface finishes and a contemporary identity.
MA Graduate of RCA, Gary assisted Anthony Gormley in the making of Angel of the North. Gary is a visiting lecturer at University College Falmouth and continues to develop his digital work from his studio.
Past shows include Origin at Somerset House, Collect- Saatchi Gallery.
Japanese artist Shinobu Hashimoto was born in Tokyo in 1969, and set up Tenstone studio and gallery in Hokkaido, Japan. Simple, yet perfect forms, steeped in Japanese tradition. The contemporary form doesn’t detract from the unique textured crackle glaze with its subtle glint. This finish is what makes Shinobu’s pieces extraordinary.
Lisa set up her own pottery in 1980 specialising in soda fired ceramics. The development of Lisa’s recent work is a reflection of time spent in Japan, making, firing and exhibiting, which resulted in successful shows in Japan and all over the UK. She spent 9 months in Sydney, Australia and has held teaching posts at Goldsmith’s College and Camberwell College of Art. She has been elected a member of the Craft Potter’s Association and had her work shown in the National Gallery, London and The Tate, Liverpool.
Brickett Davda produces a range of beautifully simple handmade tableware inspired by a very English palette. The colours reflect the grey skies and the sea of the British coast and countryside, pigments that are calm and serene.
The shapes are conceived and designed from pure, functional objects, cherished and worn by use. The most important aspect of Brickett Davda’s work is that every piece inspires and enhances cooking and eating, with friends and family.
Inspired by the everyday, Sue Pryke aims to create her own collection of objects that sit comfortably in the home. Sue Pryke is a British homeware designer, who started her journey into ceramics at a small pottery in Lincolnshire. After graduation Sue’s first job was at Wedgwood as a shape designer, guided by the design team she was taught to understand the breadth of ceramic form. Sue found the challenge of the precision absorbing and the repetitive nature satisfying.
Emma Lacey’s colour palette is soft and soothing to the eye. These tactile mugs are hand thrown using a mixture of stoneware clays. The subtle dented form and perfect handle make for a truly pleasing and conformable hold.
Emma Lacey graduated from Central St Martins College of Art and Design in Ceramics, and is now a lecturer on the course. Her ‘everyday ware’ collection is hand crafted from her London based studio, using traditional throwing techniques.
A delicate range of handmade ceramic bowls which subtly explores the distorting qualities of thin clay thereby imbuing each piece with a uniquely ‘imperfect’ and tactile quality. Vanessa’s collection is made from white earthenware and has been slipcast.
Kate Schuricht is an established British ceramic artist working in raku and stoneware. Kate studied Three Dimensional Design at the University of Brighton, specialising in ceramics and visual research.
After graduating in 1996, Kate was selected for an international ceramic residency in Japan, where she worked alongside established Japanese, Korean and American artists. Today Kate has her studio at home in rural Kent.
In 1998, Kate was awarded the highly prized Crafts Council Setting Up Grant. Now a Professional Member of the Crafts Potters Association, she has completed commissions for a number of private and public collections, including British Airways, the British Embassy in St Petersburg, Craftspace and Cowley Manor. Her work is collected worldwide.
Ray Key is one of the foremost wood turners in the UK. He is appreciated for the perfect simplicity of form that offsets the quality and interest of the timbers he selects. Hand turned sycamore cutting boards, simple and contemporary in form and exposing the natural rhythm of the grain. Highly covetable, these boards are superb for cutting and serving cheese and bread.
The Barcelona Atelier creates the softest Merino wool throws hand woven on the loom. These natural coloured throws are beautifully hand crafted, with a contemporary blanket stitched coloured edge. Teixidor throws can be used as a throw or a blanket.
100% ECOLOGICAL MERINO WOOL