Jan - March 2024 Emerging Potters magazine

Potters

Introduction The online pottery magazine

Welcome to the April to June edition of the magazine.

At long last it feels like things are getting back to normal after Covid. There seems to be ceramic shows up and down the country, with some of the big shows resurfacing again in London and the regions.

In this edition I have included some of the work from the ‘Collect’ show organised by the Craft’s Council. In late April the Ceramic Art London show opens in it’s new home at the Olympia Exhibition Centre, London. Starting on Friday 19th to Sunday 21st of April. New Designers show is 26-29 June and 3-6 July at the Business Design Centre, London.

Publication of the next magazine is going to be dependent on me being called-up for Jury Service in the High Court come late April. I will do my best to publish the July to September edition as soon as possible.

In this edition I am glad to showcase the work of Heather Elvidge, who is also on the cover. It is interesting to see the crossover between ceramics and illustration. A special thanks also goes to Simon Spier from the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Thank you for your continued interest.

Paul Bailey, Editor

The magazine is an independent journal. The publishers do not accept any liability for errors or omissions. The views expressed in the features are not necessarily those of the editor. Reproduction in part or whole must be with the consent of the editor. All rights reserved 2024.

Front cover: Heather Elvidge

Peter Black

Meiping Style Vase

Craft Potters Association

New Members

Craft Potters Association (CPA)

New Members Show

Contemporary Ceramics is a gallery and shop located opposite the British Museum in central London. Selling the very best in British studio ceramics. They display the work of over 80 ceramic artists at any one time. The makers shown here were ‘Selected Members’ of the Craft Potters Association.

In 2020, they responded swiftly to the Covid lockdown and subsequent enforced closure by launching their own online shop. This has proved to be a popular and an easy way to offer ceramics to the customer in the comfort of their own homes. You can discover the work of over 200 makers right here Contemporary Ceramics Gallery and Shop

Founded in 1958 the parent organisation, the Craft Potters Association, was a way for potters from across Britain to come together, sharing knowledge, ideas and supporting each other in their growing businesses.

Originally named ‘The Craftsmen Potters Association’ it was widely acknowledged that the term ‘Craftsmen’ was not used exclusively to represent men, rather a term to imply the distinguished, highly skilled, nature of the membership. However, to better reflect the membership it was renamed the Craft Potters Association in 1981. The organisation also publishes the ceramic magazine Ceramic Review

New Members Show

Peter Black (Right)

In his youth Peter collected (mainly damaged) Chinese Kangxi and 18th Century European porcelain, regularly visiting Portobello and Bermondsey Market at 6am. His making came later, but is influenced by the pieces he bought, studied, and has loved over the years. These pots have of course been themselves influenced by earlier ceramic, silver, and pewter forms.

Born in Latin America, Peter moved the London in his mid-teens and now lives in Kent, working from his garden studio in Sissinghurst.

Ant & Di Edmonds (left)

Ant has been making pots for over 50 years, the first 25 spent producing terracotta garden pots and then, side by side with his wife Di making maiolica ware. Together in late 2019, they decided on a fundamental shift away from wheel thrown, functional domestic orientated ware. In the early months of 2020, just before lockdown, they began to produce large handcoiled vessels, decorated with black geometric designs and without the use of glaze.

Sue Mundy (Below)

The slow repetitive hand-building techniques she uses to create her pieces offer a considered way to develop the work as each piece calmly grows. Deliberate junctions are made by breaking and re-joining the form where collars or shoulders then evolve.

Surface markings are infused into the work during the making, with slips and oxides being applied throughout the drying stage. Built with a white stoneware clay body, the work may be glazed or left bare.

E mma Lacey (Above)

The functional tableware is ergonomic and tactile both in terms of physical and aesthetic texture. It is this tactility which drives every new design from the contrasting glossy and satinmatt glaze surfaces seen in the Rainbow range to the manipulated thrown forms of the Everyday range

Emma works from her studio in North London and is also a senior lecturer in Ceramic Design at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London.

Katie Braida

Katie makes earthenware sculptural vessels and forms using a variety of hand building techniques. Working with soft clay coils and slabs, allowing the material to move and suggest direction, the forms grow and invite exploration of the surface. She creates textured surfaces based on rhythms and patterns within the environment. Colour is applied with combination of oxides, underglaze, and slip.

Anthony Dix (Left)

Anthony has been making pots for over forty years following a BA at Cardiff University, where he had the opportunity to build a salt kiln and learned to throw. These two things have been central to his making ever since. He returned to Cardiff to complete an MA twenty years ago and focused on rekindling his love of vapour glazing. He switched to soda firing when it was no longer possible to salt glaze at Cardiff.

The workshop is small scale and his soda kiln is an old electric kiln reclined and fired with propane gas. It allows for the intensity of the orange peel surface he desires in his work.

(Right)

Barbara Gittings (Right)

Her smoke fired, nerikomi porcelain vessels are quiet, contemplative and sensual, and she wants anyone looking at the work to want to touch it and be drawn in.

Nature achieves multi-layered effects via the laying down of strata, weathering and erosion. She is fascinated by the geometry in nature, especially as growth and random chaotic forces skew and distort the initial perfect symmetry. She is constantly exploring these balances between symmetry and asymmetry, perfection and imperfection in her work and is drawn to irregular repetition, primitive markmaking and soft, earthy colours

Diane Griffin (Left)

Diane’s work is inspired by our human experience in relation to our emotions and the constructs we have evolved to manage them. Religions and cultures across the world have used the elements of the natural world in ceremonies and rituals for millennia, and it is this connection that Diane explores through her poetic sculptures.

Organic earthy forms combine with ones more ordered and refined. Repeated layers of delicate porcelain sheets merge with and emerge from textured and cracking surfaces blending into one united piece. Techniques of hand-building, throwing, and carving are all used to create a variety of surfaces that together create pieces that are rich in texture and contrasts.

Robyn Hardyman

Robyn takes inspiration from a lifelong appreciation of ceramics, especially the classic forms created over the centuries in China and Japan. She trained at Oxford City College for three years before setting up her studio practice in Oxford in 2014.

She creates pieces whose paredback forms evoke a sense of balance and harmony, whether in a bowl wide open to the skies or a moon jar in its spherical containment. Surface decoration is minimal – an incised line around a narrow foot, or a slip decoration to add a dynamic to the stillness of a moon jar.

Kerry Hastings

Sculptures are built by hand using the pinch and coil technique, stretching and pushing the clay out and guiding it in again until the forms begin to develop their own dynamic and a certain trajectory is suggested. She builds until the form has an emotional quality, a resonance, is relatable and the more complicated the geometries become, the more energetic and dynamic the piece. Through the deliberate use of forms that resonate with generosity, sensuality, fullness and humility, Kerry encourages the viewer to forge deeply personal relationships.

Lise Herud Braten (Right)

She was born in Norway in 1974 and grew up surrounded by nature and the urban environment of Oslo. She trained as a bespoke women’s tailor before embarking on an Art and Design Foundation Course at Bournville, UCE, followed by a BA (Hons) in Fashion and Textile Design at Ravensbourne College, UK. Her interest in ceramics as an alternative creative outlet started with short courses at Putney School of Art in 2012, where she continued her learning for several years before joining communal studios in London. A fter nearly 20 years working in fashion, Lise switched to ceramics full-time in 2019 and cofounded a London studio and gallery in 2020.

Simon Olley (Left)

He is fascinated by the relationship that develops between man and man’s best friend. His work combines illustration and sgraffito to depict and celebrate the exciting (sometimes imaginary) life of his Labrador Retriever (the least demanding of supermodels) in permanent, everlasting ceramic form – so much easier to keep clean than the real thing! Around half his output is commissions created for customers worldwide, often based on owners’ favourite four-legged friends.

The pose of the dogs are matched to the piece, illustrated and carved by hand.

Laura Plant (Right)

Inspired by 18th century British ceramics, this vase is wheelthrown in black porcelain. The piece is turned and refined to create a strong silhouette. Extruded sculptural handles are added, enhancing the elegance of the form.

Jane Sheppard (Left)

This smoke-fired vessel is coilbuilt and finished with copper leaf. Jane’s work is inspired by time spent in Africa absorbing the spiritual qualities of clay use there.

Elly Wall (Right)

This stoneware bottle form is hand-built in black stoneware clay. Coloured slip is applied to the perforated form which is then glazed. Elly’s work is inspired by disused industrial buildings and the memory or echo of the now silent repetitive mechanical processes.

Yusun Won (Left)

She is drawn by the vessel form. She found a way to explore vessel forms while observing a bottle from the Joseon Dynasty which was constructed by joining two different forms.

Looking at the attached part of the bottle, she imagined opening the enclosed part and seeing what was hidden inside. She started her practice exploring such Joseon ceramics as the moon jar with which she is familiar. Yusun divides a vessel into an outer and inner form and designs inner shapes. She hand-builds her work with white porcelain. Stacking clay and pressing the surface of the work, she feels and shapes with her hands.

February 2024.

to the left is the

of the building, which is opposite the British Museum in London. Entrance is free and the work on display is for sale. Always worth a visit when in London.

Top: Part of the gallery space for the New Members show in

The image

front

Collect 2024

Collect is the major international craft show produced by the Craft’s Council. It is primary a showcase for international galleries and new makers. Collect is also celebrating 20 years of pioneering excellence.

It brings together a curated presentation of 40 international galleries representing over 400 exceptional artists for a showcase of the finest contemporary craft, taking place at London’s Somerset House from the first to the third of March 2024.

For its 20th edition, Collect welcomed new galleries alongside a dynamic and diverse roster of established galleries.

Joanna Bird Contemporary Collections (England), as special mention for Joanna who has participated in Collect for every edition over the past 20 years, presented new works by London based Insta-hot ceramicist Florian Gadsby.

Founded in 2018, Common Sense Gallery (Austria) was the first Austrian gallery to exhibit at Collect, presenting the works by two artists including New York-born Spencer Chalk-Levy who uses tapestry and sculpture to explore themes of mortality and ideas of society, alongside new ceramics by Lebanese artist Tamara Barrage.

Craft Alliance Atlantic Association (Canada) curated an exhibition entitled “Here & Now”, celebrating the powerful indigenous history of craft making in Canada including carved masks by Gordon Sparks, ceramics by Nancy Oakley and sterling silver woven baskets by Shane Perley-Dutcher.

Objects Beautiful (England) is a new gallery to Collect. Set to launch a physical gallery space in London this year specialising in jewellery and will bring an exhibition of wearable art across a range of materials.

Again new to Collect, SHAM gallery (England) emerged as a nomadic gallery project that evolved from the foundation of CB-Agency –an innovative artists agency, committed to amplifying voices on the periphery of the art world. The gallery had a solo presentation by Elena Hoskyns -Abrahall, a trans non-binary artist born in Edinburgh, living and working in London, whose work explores themes relating to gender, identity and queerness which often manifests in sculpture and performance.

Above`: Objekti Gallery Below: 1882 Ltd

Design Craft Council Ireland (DCCI) presented a collection honouring Irish makers, who have participated in Collect over the past 20 years.

Founded in 1999, Vessel Gallery aimed to be a major London destination for all those who appreciate contemporary artglass sculpture and decorative lighting. Highlights so far: Steven Edwards – First time exhibitor to Collect, represented internationally and in Chatsworth collection. Olivia Walker – creating a triptych for Collect which is her biggest wall installation to date. Enemark &Thompson – New series . James Devereux – New glass sculptures of shipwrecks from one of Vessel's best glass makers and professional diver. Claire Malet – new sculptures in repurposed metal tin cans with 24ct gilded interiors.

Alveston Fine Arts (England) curated ‘A Voice’ in a multiartist presentation including Julia Hall's hand embroidered paintings of marginalised and refugee women telling their stories of fleeing their countries to come to the UK; ceramic artist Anne Athena who expresses her unmasked, ‘true voice’ as a female artist with Autism Spectrum Disorder, and ceramic artist Simon Dredge, whose current body of work is inspired by the use of Polari in the 1950’s.

Above: Maud & Mabel Gallery

Above: Design & Crafts Council Ireland

Far Left: Cube Gallery –Gary Betts

Left: Galerie Revel

New to Collect, The Stratford Gallery (England) spotlighted the ceramic works from first generation midcareer female artists from Japan and Korea who have not always been given the recognition in the past including Sayaka Shingu, whose fragile ceramics embody the dark, sombre and fleeting nature of flowers, but also, human life.

Below: Katharine Morling

Long & Rye

Candida Stevens Gallery

Founded in 2021, Galerie REVEL (France) showcased visual artists historically marginalised within Western art discourse and will brought a group presentation of eight emerging artists including textile artist Talia Ramkilawan. and culture, and Colombian-born artist Juan Arango Palacios who portrays memories, fantasies, and archetypes.

50 Golborne (England) curated 'Heritage and Transmission' - a showcase of new works by artists of African heritage including a series of ceramics made in collaboration by a fatherdaughter artist duo composed by Chris Bramble (father) and Freya Bramble-Carter (daughter).

jaggedart (England) focused on textiles and weaving with organic materials and words, including the works by Iranian born multidisciplinary artist Batool Showghi, whose work is concerned with her cultural heritage, memory, identity and loss as a means to examine the physical limits that women can experience with regard to cultural and religious boundaries.

Intoart (England) challenged the underrepresentation of people with learning disabilities through integrated programme of art education, professional development and innovative public programming. For Collect, the gallery presented new works by three artists including Dawn Wilson, whose drawings depict figures from communities in Jamaica, Mali and Democratic Republic of the Congo. Further pushing the boundaries in the exploration of materials on display at Collect, other key highlights, include:

Founded in 2019 and specialising in silversmithing, BR Gallery (China) created a dialogue between East and West to bring together the works by 11 Chinese artists and four British artists including Yingze Chen, who creates intricate pieces combining porcelain and silver, and David Clarke, who is often cited as one of Britain’s most highly innovative silversmiths.

Bullseye Projects (USA) debuted the collaborative work by Joshua Kerley and new artist Guy Marshall-Brown combining Kerley’s innovative Pate de Verre works with MarshallBrown’s expertise in 3D printing and rapid prototyping.

The curation of Lloyd Choi Gallery (South Korea/England) explored the contemplative aesthetic of Korean craftsmanship through the work of established and emerging crafts practitioners, including beautiful new wood sculptures by Mok-su.

FIVE (England) presented ‘Colour’ exploring the metal colouring processes like patination, plating, inlay, alloying, oxidisation and weathering to create larger, dramatic pieces and finer work.

Left: Maison Parisienne

Recognised as one of the most distinctive and dynamic sculptural ceramicists in the UK, Halima Cassell MBE, and her representing gallery, Joanna Bird Contemporary Collections, have been announced as the deserving winners of the 2024 Brookfield Properties Craft Award. It’s the fifth anniversary of the leading contemporary craft award for UK-based arti sts, created in partnership with the Crafts Council. The winner was selected from the artists taking part in the 20th edition of Collect.

Cassell won the award, worth the equivalent of £65,000, in recognition of her significant contribution to the national story of contemporary craft. Part of her winning body of work was especially created for her presentation with Joanna Bird Contemporary Collections at Collect – a gallery which has participated in every edition of the fair and has built an international reputation in ceramics over three decades, often acquired by museums and collectors worldwide.

Pik’d Gallery Le banon

Katie Spragg Ruup & Form

Jo Walker – Craft Scotland

Book Review

The interest in making ceramics continues to be unabated. Driven by a number of factors in the UK such exposure on TV and the growth of ‘open access’ studios in most of the cities around the country.

Although there has been a reduction in the traditional outlet for new makers, such as adult evening classes and schools running pottery classes, these has been easily overtaken by many working potters taking on the role of teaching to a new generation of makers.

To reinforce this interest there as been an investment by book publishers to support this new market. One being Quarto who have developed a series of books for those wanting to know the basics as well as how to develop a personal style of ceramics.

Six of their books are featured here.

Each of the books are well illustrated and cover the subjects well. I would advise new makers to see them as a series to be viewed as your work progresses.

Quarto.com

The Beginner’s Guide to Decorating Pottery by

Emily Reinhardt

ISBN: 978-0-7603-8139-7 £18.99 Quarto.com

So, you’ve tried your hand at throwing and hand building. After many hours you can actually make the object you first sketched in that notepad. What next? Well it is the process of designing the shape of an object together with the surface design.

This book offers you the process and the different material available. There will always be an element of experimentation and chance.

Some of the theory is complex and a good selection of reference books is a must, as well as studying the work of other makers to see how they approached the work.

Surface design is not just about colour, but includes texture and mark-making. The book shows many examples and is always handy to have close-by when designing the piece.

Book Review

Other books in the series …

The Beginner’s Guide to Wheel

Throwing by Julia Claire Weber.

ISBN: 978-163159-935-4

£18.99

Quarto.com

Throwing is the most distinctive of the pottery processes and the most daunting when starting. This book starts at the beginning and covers tha basics which you need to know. Such as types of clay, tools used, studio safety, wedging and so on. Even how to get the pot off the wheel.

The chapters include; throwing basic forms; understanding clay; surface decoration, glazing and firing. The book shows the process step by step and then examples from other makers. It’s always good to remind yourself of these even if experienced.

If you can master throwing, you can master ceramics at all the levels.

The Beginner’s Guide to Hand

Building by Sunshine Cobb

ISBN: 978-07603-7476-4

£18.99

Quarto.com

Hand building has to be the most common entry points into pottery. The book goes through the types of clay, tools and so on. What is most important it shows you that pottery can be done at home on the kitchen table, and describes the different patterns needed to construct a piece. Making by hand has no age barriers and talent and skills come with practice, and not something you are born with necessarily .

At the back of the book there is a gallery of work by a range of makers which is truly inspirational.

Book Review

Creative Pottery –Innovative Techniques & Experimental Designs

by Deb Schwartzkopf

ISBN: 978-1-63159-825-8 £22.00 Quarto.com

As the title suggests this book looks at some of the more wacky designs applied to domestic pottery and is great fun. What it does do is shown how to make these designs step-by-step which will lead to some very interesting developments. Even the humble goblet has a re-vamp. This is the sort of reference every studio should have.

Other books in the series …

Amazing Glaze –Recipes and Combinations by

Gabriel Kline

ISBN: 978-1-58923-980-7 £22.00 Quarto.com

A follow-on to the previous book it is superb. It is full of sample glazes with their kiln settings. The photographs are outstanding. The book looks at mid-range glazes, high-fire glazes and low-fire. Interestingly it includes Raku and reduction firings. As with the other books each chapter has samples of work by other makers. This is the sort of book you want in every studio.

Amazing Glaze –Techniques, Recipes, Finishing and Firing by

Gabriel Kline

ISBN: 978-0-7603-6103-0 £22.00 Quarto.com

This book will start you down the road to pottery magic and what makes it so different. From describing what glaze is, how to apply it, special methods, the firing, and starting your own recipes file. Constant experimentation and looking back over previous work is at the centre of the work by accomplished makers.

Profile of Heather Elvidge

Heather Elvidge

Like many people she discovered her love of clay later than would have liked, but has always been the creative type!

After attending art school, firstly doing a BTEC in General Art and Design at Reigate School of Art she then went on to do a degree in Packaging Design at the Surrey Institute of Art & Design in Farnham.

This was followed by working in the toy and gift industry for many years. A varied caree r, that even took her to live in Hong Kong before I meeting her now, husband and eventually settled back in England in the beautiful countryside of East Yorkshire.

During this period she worked for several companies producing a range of packaging for the high street gift and toy markets. Many of the designs went into Hamleys, Selfridges, Debenhams etc. After a couple of years, when in her mid twenties, Heather was asked if she’d consider working for the Hong Kong arm of the company, to be nearer to the Chinese factories where the toys were being produced. Jumping at the opportunity she moved to a flat with two girls on Hong Kong Island and caught a ferry across the bay to Kowloon every day for her commute.

She commented, “I loved it; it was exciting and exotic and lots of fun! It was whilst I was living in Hong Kong that I met my husband Jonathan. He was out there on a buying trip for The Gadget Shop, which he owned at the time. After a very long distance relationship, and lots of flying back and forth, I eventually moved back to England in 2005, telling my mum the good news that I was coming home, with the slight curve-ball that I was moving to Yorkshire!”

Around the same time with Jonathan, plus a small unpaid team went on to set up another chain of gadget shops called RED5. She designed all the branding, logos, packaging and store graphics and together they built up the business until it was sold in 2015. It was after the sale of RED5 that she decided to get back to being more creative. One of the things she wanted to try was learn to throw a pot! From the moment her fingers touched the clay she was hooked and a year later owned her first kiln and a wheel. Spending every waking moment making, reading and learning as much as possible about ceramics. A few short years later and ceramics is now her full time business and passion (alongside being a mum!). She commented, “I feel extremely lucky and happy to be able to spend so much of my time doing something that I love so much. The entire process, from sticky lump of mud to beautiful piece of finished ceramic is thrilling, challenging and utterly addictive!”

Today, her studio is the family garage at home. It used to be her husband’s workshop and very well organised storage area until her ceramics obsession took over! Starting in a corner it soon spread as the business grew. She admits she can be messy and chaotic but tries very hard not to be! Usually she has several projects on the go at any one time, in various stages of carving, drying or glazing!

A long way from Hong Kong she lives in the beautiful rural village of North Newbald on the outskirts of Beverley in East Yorkshire. There she is are surrounded by rolling wolds and big skies, it is wild and untamed and she loves it.

Below: Hand sgraffito carved, 33cm Leaping Hare platter ‘Leaping Through Starlight’

Until last year she had only shown her work at various Christmas markets and some galleries. Then she decided to apply for Potfest and I was delighted to be selected for Potfest Suffolk in August. There is a Potters competition at each of the Potfests and last year’s theme was ‘Nursery Rhymes’. What happened next left her completely speechless (to say the least) as she was chosen as he winner of the Potters Prize and the Dutch Potters Award at Potfest Suffolk. It was for her entry of a carved Owl and the Pussycat Vase!

An early influence was growing up in Kent, with the bedroom window looking out across the garden and the sheep filled fields beyond. She commented, “I’m definitely a country girl at heart and my mum taught me the names of all the wildflowers and trees. Our garden was full of wildlife, but until I moved to Yorkshire, with its wide open wolds and wooded corners, I had never actually seen a hare! Now, I regularly see them, darting across the scrub, they’re so fast and soon disappear when startled! I find them fascinating, so shy and mysterious and yet they are linked with so many myths, legends and folklore. I once heard them described as having an ‘unmatched alluring otherness’ and I think that sums them up perfectly”

Most of the work is decorated using black and white sgraffito. The dishes and plates are thrown on the wheel and the tiles are slab built, both using a white porcelain stoneware clay . When they are leather hard they are trimmed and painted with a black liquid clay slip. Once this layer has dried a little, she carve s into the surface using the method called sgraffito, to reveal the white clay beneath.

Illustrations are done freehand, and often she don’t have a plan beyond the hare or fox and the landscape and foliage. It just evolves as she starts carving, It’s part of the fun for her and each one comes out differently! These are then left to dry slowly before bisque firing, glazing with a transparent glaze and re-firing to stoneware temperature. This process means that 90% of her work is committed before a single firing. She can lose a piece at the final stage if a crack appears or the glaze blisters. Thankfully this doesn’t happen too often these days.

Her three dimensional Raku hares are slipcast in two pieces and joined after casting. Then she burnishes each one with layers of terra sigilata (fine particled clay slip) and decorates with paper stencils or oxides before Raku firing in the garden. She has spent many hours with each hare and by the time they are finished each one is, therefore, very special and unique. Below: Our East Yorkshire village, surrounded by the rolling wolds.

The tiles hang like pictures! She carves a little hanging slot onto the reverse so that they can hang from a nail. There are a few dotted around in her home (the imperfect ones of course!!) and she likes the way the light plays on the carved relief surface.

The process of making and designing is different for everyone. For Heather it starts with walking the dog in the morning, up the lane, alongside fields and into the woods. She tries to notice the ever changing life around her. New shoots in spring, the way one dominant plant bows out and gives way to another as the seasons progress, and finally the architectural seed heads that stand as stoic memories, resilient to the first snap of cold. There is always something new to notice. She tries to bring some of these observations into her illustrations, some only make it on to one or two pieces and others become firm favourites. Her hare, and more recently some foxes and birds bring their narrative to the setting. She likes to think people wonder where they are going, or what adventure they are embarking upon. Even to giving pieces names like ‘crescent moon escapade’ or ‘home before sunset’!

She grew up with Ladybird Books, ‘what to discover’ in various seasons with the glorious illustrations of CF Tunnicliffe and certainly would like to think they may have influenced her. Recently she became aware of Kit Williams’ Mascarade book where clues, mystery and intrigue, (not to mention hares!) are hidden within his intricate illustrations. She loves the idea that there is more to notice within a scene. Are there hidden meanings or elements within her designs? She wouldn’t be drawn on that.

Next in the studio she is working on a new jug design to match the tree handled vase and another relief mug design with a fox motif this time. These designs are hand carved into the surface of a plaster model which she then uses to create a slip casting mould.

Above left: Individually sgraffito carved wall plaques. Above: Mischie f In The Moonlight’ Leaping Hare Tree Vase

Heather has her first show of the year at the end of March - ‘Toasted’ at Derby Museum and has been selected to do three Potfests this year! - Potfest by The Lake in June, Potfest in the Park in July, and back to Potfest Suffolk in August. She is thrilled to be taking part in these shows, alongside so many incredible ceramic artists.

Heather Elvidge

British Ceramic Artist

+44 (0) 7788716357

heather@heatherelvidgeceramics.com

Instagram: #heather.elvidge.ceramics

Facebook: www.facebook.com/heather.e lvidge.ceramics

Left: Garden garage studio with her chicken

Above: ’From the land where

Top left: Porcelain Leaping Hare candle votive Left centre: ’Safety in Numbers’ hand carved small blackbird dish.

companions!

the bong tree grows’ carved Owl & Pussycat tree vase. Potfest Suffolk’s Potters Prize 2023

Pottery and Archaeologists

The link between archaeology and pottery has been used for many years in the dating of pottery shards from broken pots and the identification of the style of pot and the type of clay used to make an item.

A more recent trend has been the making of facsimile objects to reconstruct how items were used in a domestic setting. So for a very special exhibition of a prehistoric tree which was later turned into a working table some 50ft long a range of domestic ware was needed to give it context.

So when Rochester Cathedral agreed to host a display of one of the largest tables in the country which was growing in the pre-historic period, and before the Pyramids were built then they turned to Kent’s Aylesford Pottery for help. Master potter Alan Parris is no stranger to making bespoke things in clay so he agreed to take-on the challenge

Given the vast time frame of the wood he decided that domestic items from the Roman period would be of interest to the public. What followed was a considerable amount of research at the British Museum as he knew there would be a lot of experts looking at the finished work.

The result was a series of object which brought the table back to life.

The pottery samples shown follow the Roman designs which can be found in the British Museum in London.

Pottery was first produced on an industrial scale in this country from the aftermath of the Roman invasion of AD 43. They also introduced the production of clay tile for use in their buildings. Pottery is often the most common type of artefact found on archaeological excavations, dating from the Neolithic period and is one of the main ways archaeologists can establish the date of a site. It’s study extends beyond dating, to include the technological, social, economic and cultural

Victoria & Albert Museum London

Popular Ceramics Show

Henry Willett’s Collection of Popular Pottery

Until 29th September 2024

V&A South Kensington, Ceramics Galleries, Room 146 Supported by the Headley Trust

The museums and public galleries throughout the country house important collections of ceramics. They are a valuable source of research for present day makers as often they put items into their social context. Often they have been collected over the years by keen supporters of ceramics, who then donate their collections.

The Royal College of Art has for many years used the V&A for student research. Today, there is an important show by the collecter Henry Willett on loan from the Brighton Gallery

Dr Simon Spier, Curator, Ceramics & Glass, at The V&A looks at the collection.

The collector Henry Willett (1823-1905)

amassed an important collection of nearly 2000 pieces of British pottery, most of which are now preserved in Brighton Museum and Art Gallery. Beginning from Willett’s desire to promote the human interest of historic British pottery, this display borrows – not for the first time – around 150 ceramic objects ranging from the 17th to the 19th century and re-presents them for a contemporary audience, hopefully highlighting new themes and perspectives that hold relevance for society today.

Flask in the form of a bear holding Napoleon Bonaparte about 1812. Staffordshire, England.

Above all Willett wished to entertain, and the many Staffordshire figures, earthenware busts and plaques, illustrated plates, jugs, mugs and teapots he bought and gifted to the city of Brighton, are assembled to showcase the fun and exciting stories that enticed the masses in the 18th and 19th century.

At some point Willett became preoccupied with collecting ceramics, and more specifically, the type of domestic ceramics that were not widely collected or preserved but captured an important part of British cultural history. In his own words, Willett felt the history of Britain could be ‘traced on its homely pottery’, and his collection shows his strong interest in representations of popular culture and sociopolitical events. By ascribing categories to his collection such as crime; drama; pastimes and amusements and military heroes he sought to bring out the ‘greater human interest which each object presents’.

Willett had also categorised his collection in what he termed as a ‘confessedly arbitrary’ way, and this is still the rationale that underpins the collection as it is on display in Brighton.

Taking Willett’s view that the classification of the objects is essentially an arbitrary decision, the display at the V&A was a chance to think again about how some of the objects and stories might be recategorized, in light of what constitutes popular history or culture in contemporary society, and which narratives are present which might hold different values to when they were initially told to a 19th century public.

Figure group depicting the Tichborne Claimant, by Randolph Caldecott, about 1874, England. Copyright Brighton & Hove Museums.

As such, the display has created new ‘categories’ for Willett’s collection, comprising: ‘Celebrity’, ‘Revolution & Rebellion’, ‘The Scandalous’, and ‘Technology & Entertainment’. However, the display begins with a case that is essentially an introduction the Willett Collection, and subscribes to his aim to tell the history and convey the character of a nation through its ‘homely’ pottery – the types of domestic ceramics found on the ‘mantelpieces of many cottage homes’, and those depicting the day-to-day life of ordinary people. The case is purposefully quite full to convey a sense of the profusion which has often characterised Willett’s collection, and the spirit in which it is displayed today.

Celebrity

Many of the objects in Henry Willett’s collection feature well-known public figures, the celebrities of their day. Here they come together to reflect the enduring interest of the British public in the lives and feats of sporting stars, renowned performers, and national heroes.

Arguably Willett saw pugilists as the ultimate heroes– the fact that many of them began with very little and became huge celebrities ties in very nicely with his views of self-education and self-improvement.

Willett’s larger collection included multiple representations in differing media of the famous boxer Thomas Molineaux, here represented on a pearlware jug. Molineaux possibly originally began his life enslaved and was freed, whereupon he moved to Britain in 1809 and became a successful boxer and twice fought Tom Cribb, the Champion of England, and twice lost.

These themes of the underdog, perseverance and rise to fame of Molineux had appeal to large swathes of the population, and it is probable this is the reason Willett pursued such a subject on multiple occasions.

The Scandalous

In an early version of his catalogue Willett wrote: ‘the popular emotions of fear, hatred, defiance, &c., excited by Napoleon seem to have been very common.’ He even separated out a part of his collection to illustrate ‘The Napoleonic Scare’, demonstrating how far Napoleon had permeated the national British consciousness. Another commentator on Willett’s collection wrote ‘it is difficult for us who only know war as a name and not as a fact, to conceive the anxiety and alarm which shook this country from one end to the other when the threat of a Napoleonic invasion was known.’

In this case we contrast a Staffordshire earthenware bust that depicts Napoleon looking stately in his lavish First Consul uniform with a visual representation of Napoleon’s reputation a few years later, with the same bust being safely nestled inside the interior of a creamware chamberpot. Being of English manufacture, the bust perhaps dates from around 1802, when the United Kingdom made peace with France through the Treaty of Amiens. More often than not a national enemy, at this time Napoleon represented this way may have been an acceptable subject for the British market. However, we can see how short this window of opportunity for Staffordshire potters was to last, when Napoleon begins to appear as a target –quite literally – for ridicule only a few years later.

Willett as a ceramics collector

The final section was designed to showcase how Willett collected ceramics in a connoisseurial and taxonomic way, probably before and certainly alongside amassing his collection of popular pottery. He used ceramics as a way to understand various histories – be it his own personal history, popular history, the history of ceramic production.

Model of George Wombwell’s menagerie, about 1830, Staffordshire, England. Copyright Brighton & Hove Museums.

A tin-glazed earthenware vessel in the form of a cat is one of the treasures of the display, and Willett’s entire collection. Made in London in the late 17th century, these were highly prized objects even in the 19th century. Willett owned no less than three of them. The Brighton jug, dated 1672, survived Willett’s constant refining of his collection, and found its home in the category ‘Conviviality and Teetotalism’, no doubt due to its form as a novelty vessel. Here it sat alongside other important pieces of English delftware.

Willett parted ways with another of his cats prior to 1884, when it was picked up from a dealer by the voracious collector Lady Charlotte Schreiber, who, though describing it as ‘hideous’, thought it deserved a spot in her growing collection of British ceramics. A few days after purchasing Schreiber noted in her journal ‘My cat belonged, as I suspected, to Mr Willett – I can only suppose he parts with it because he has two older and better specimens.’ The jug was eventually to find its way into the V&A via Lady Schreiber’s bequest to the South Kensington Museum in 1884, and Willett’s reject sits proudly in our British Galleries, for which we are eternally grateful to him for.

Plate depicting ‘Mirth and Anguish’, about 1780, Staffordshire, England. Copyright Brighton & Hove Museums.

Willett’s third cat, dated 1674 and sporting wonderful blue and orange sponged stripes, formed part of his gift of documentary British pottery to the British Museum in 1887, along with a number of other dated pieces of English Delftware that weren’t subsumed into the popular pottery collection.

It is hoped that this display gives space to the many rich and complex stories that Willett sought to preserve through Britain’s ceramic output, though choosing the objects and themes proved to be a challenging task. It is also hoped the display highlights the multi -faceted character of Willett’s collecting and his desire to always make it publicly accessible, relevant and entertaining.

The exhibition runs until Sunday 29 September 2024. V&A South Kensington, Cromwell Road, London SW7 2RL.

England

Copyright Brighton & Hove Museums

Jug in the form of a cat, 1672, London,

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