EMERGING
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Issue 18 April - June 2020
Potters
Emerging Potters - 18
April - June 2020
Introduction The online pottery magazine Welcome to this edition of the magazine. As we live in very unusual times, it has been reflected in the ceramics world. The cancellation of Ceramic Art London has been a disappointment to all those involved and leaves a gap in the international ceramics programme this year. Although we have been fortunate to be able to feature one of the makers Verity Howard who was due to be at Ceramic Art London. Just before the outbreak we were fortunate to have the Crafts Council ‘Collect’ 2020 show and the work in progress show from the Royal College of Art. Also affected has been the opening of the new Craft Council Gallery in London, although it is hoped we will be able to showcase their first exhibition later in the year. An introduction to the gallery is in this issue. The influence of TV has projected ceramics into the homes of the UK nation and I am delighted to feature in this edition one of the finalists Claire Murdock from Northern Ireland. What ever the final outcome is of the emergency, things will be different and this magazine will have the same policy of supporting new makers and showcasing the ceramic shows wherever possible. Cover: Claire Murdock from the 2020 TV programme ‘The Great Pottery Throw Down’.
Paul Bailey, editor
Photo: © 2020 Mark Bourdillon/Love Productions 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.
Contributions to the gallery of work from makers and students are welcome and will be included wherever possible on a first come basis. Send to the email address – paulbailey123@googlemail.com. The editor’s decision is final. © Paul Bailey 2020 Emerging Potters is produced in association with Aylesford Pottery UK.
April- June 2020
Advisory Panel Alan Parris and Billy Byles are master potters and joint partners of the Aylesford Pottery in Kent.. John Leach, eldest grandson of renowned potter Bernard Leach and son of David Leach, continues the family tradition at Muchelney Pottery in the heart of the Somerset Levels.
Contents
Helen Walsh, Curator of Ceramics CoCA, York Museums Trust.
Work in Progress RCA Kaitlan Murphy Claire Murdock Verity Howard Sarah Monk Jane Sarre Collect 2020 Jessica Duffy Manuel Calvo Craft Council Gallery Book Review
3–5 6–8 9 – 13 14 – 17 18 – 20 21 22 – 24 25 – 28 29 – 30 31 – 32 33 – 34
Gallery Show – Gatherers
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Wendy Kershaw, international ceramic maker based in Scotland. Emily Wiles, ceramic maker based in Leicester. Sandi Cowles, A student attending pottery classes at Penzance School of Art. Ella Watkins is now a contributing features writer for the magazine.
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April - June 2020
Emerging Potters – 18
Work in Progress
RCA The Royal College of Art in London has an international reputation for excellence and is purely a two year postgraduate facility. It attracts students from all over the world to it’s courses and the Ceramics and Glass course is no exception. In the first year students are asked to choose an item from the Victoria & Albert Museum to analyse it’s form, social context, technical details and then re-interpret it in the students own vision and research. The final result is a show called ‘Work in Progress’ which is self explanatory. Shown here are a few examples from the show.
Annette Lindenberg She chose an object entitled ‘Figure in Mongol Dress’ dating between 1260 – 1300. Having interviewed women of various ages and races who wear the hijab, she wanted to create a piece that shows the complexity and beauty of what that might feel like. Each of her plates marks different circumstances, from being around a family and friends to being out in public.
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Emerging Potters – 18 Work in Progress
April - June 2020
Jingyi Wu (below) Taking a Wedwood perfume bottle, she decided to use decoration to describe characters and storytelling telling love through scenes. Starting with Oscar Wilde’s “the Nightingale and the Rose”, the moment when the nightingale is dying in the early morning.
Monica Tong (above) She chose an early Tang Dynasty porcelain stemcup 618-77AD. Her work aims to capture the intricacy of the material form linked to intertwined emotions.
Elizabeth Jackson (above) was inspire from a agateware teapot from the 1750’s to 1765. She created a curiosity inspired by food imports. The process is imitating precious stone in ceramic.
Antonio Fois (above) chose a Neolithic ewrer from the V&A. His response to the piece was to underline the sanctity of water in terms of source of life and its complexity in contemporary societies.
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Emerging Potters – 18 Work in Progress
Daria Coleridge (above) called “Marking of Time” as her response to the Monumental Doccia Clockcase. The orange glass bell is a spontaneous reaction to attracting attention both in appearance and function as the original clockcase did.
April - June 2020
Fang Wang (above) selected a 500BC Ancient Greek Amphora from the V&A Museum. The expressive dynamism of the illustrated legs captured his attention and led to the production of multiple small scale and big scale legs that challenge and changes contemporary values in the work.
Leonora Lockhart (left) was drawn to Dungeness in Kent and it’s neglected presence in the landscape. Playing with scale she aims to create a piece that sums up a feeling of human-made paraphernalia.
Emerging Potters – 18 Kaitlan Murphy
April - June 2020
Kaitlan Murphy
The Canadian potter from British Columbia, Kaitlan Murphy first appeared in the magazine in July 2018 and here we follow her in the next steps of her work. She commented “Twenty years into a career as a potter, I am excited to step away from production by finding new ways to explore the warm sense of home. Home like the Danish word “hygge” or the Scottish word “coorie” is an essence I have always tried to create when making food dishes. My ceramic inspiration has been old English pots as well as Scandinavian dinner ware, but the seed of my esthetic sense is the home of my best friend mother’s farm. A mountain side house of log and timber was the home of five children and a subsistence farmer mother. She worked the land alone or with her begrudging children, growing garlic, potatoes and market vegetables. Keeping the cook stove and wood stove alight, she taught me how to make chapatis, play scrabble and dream big. This was a busy home with older handsome brothers in a punk rock band and wild 60s art on the walls. Animal hides on the wood floor, patchwork quilts on the couch, handmade wood fired pottery dishes, stain glass windows and lanterns. From the bus stop in the winter, up the mountain road, through the orchard and down the shoveled path was their home, where you would be greeted by the warmest glow of candlelight and lanterns. Throughout my life thick or thin that farm door has always been open to me.
Emerging Potters – 18 Kaitlan Murphy
April - June 2020
http://www.jumpingcreekpottery.com/ instagram: @jumpingcreekpottery
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Emerging Potters – 18 Kaitlan Murphy
April - June 2020
So how as a potter, do I re-create that feeling? How as a craftswoman, do I create the warmth that one feels with firelight, wood heat, a bowl of soup and a warm buttery chunk of bread? For many years I have wanted to make ceramic lights. The lights had to be timeless in design, space saving and cozy. I wanted them to fold into their surroundings like a big warm hug. A hug that makes you exhale. The process chosen to create these lights has been coil built and thrown. Coil throwing is slow going but the end results are clean and rewarding. The largest problem I have had so far in this journey is losing the centre, not from throwing but from the cantilever effect throwing has from the top on the bottom of the pot. As I make more of these tall slender vessels, these glitches will be figured out. As the 1.5 meters of snow slowly leaves my yard, I will turn my pottery focus back to production ware for summer tourism, but until then, creating more warmth sounds fine to me”.
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Claire Murdock The public perception of ceramics has changed over the past ten years, mainly through the exposure of TV. Starting with Grayson Perry winning the Turner Prize and then with the TV ‘Great Pottery Throw Down’ competition. But how do you get chosen to take part and what was the experience like for the contestants? Here we speak to Claire Murdock from the 2020 Channel 4 edition of the programme.
Claire has always loved art and became interested in ceramics at GCSE level at grammar school. There she coiled and handbuilt a very large teapot with a cat on the lid and tail around the side. After Alevels she went to a technical college in Ballymena, Northern Ireland to do a Foundation Diploma in Art and Design. Following this she applied to the University of Ulster Art College in Belfast and began a three year degree course in Contemporary and Applied Art, specializing in ceramics.
Photographs: © 2020 Mark Bourdillon/Love Productions
Emerging Potters – 18 Claire Murdock
April - June 2020
After university she found the Crafts Council of Northern Ireland, and Craft Northern Ireland both offered support through different funding bodies, awards opportunities, exhibition opportunities and they really help to raise awareness of crafts and support makers in Northern Ireland. Their support and development is essential.
But I thought it seemed a bit too advanced for anyone I was teaching as they had little to no experience. I teach mostly complete beginners to ceramics.
Then one day she received the telephone call that changed everything. She explains, “I was phoned by the Great Pottery Throw Down TV team and asked if any of my current students or anyone I knew in Northern Ireland could be encouraged to apply for the show. So that started me looking at the application form, and to see the criteria of exactly what they expected. The application said they were seeking a home potter.
Then after talking with some family and friends they all said the same thing - you go for it. My fiancé Paul was really supportive and encouraging saying, ‘You’ve got nothing to lose by applying - just go for it!’ So, although the thought of being on TV terrified me, I weighed up my options and realised Paul was right - there was no harm in filling in the application form.
I did encourage a few friends and other potters I know that were much more outgoing than me to go for it, but none seemed keen on being on TV.
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Emerging Potters – 18
Claire Murdock
April- June 2020
Photo: Simon Mills
I have been on a bodybuilding stage in a bikini before competing for a Toned Figure British title a couple of times in front of large audiences, so I figured it couldn’t be much more putting yourself out there than that.
Following that I was selected. I was delighted and really proud of myself to have been the first ever maker selected from Northern Ireland in all three series of the show. It was a mixture of excitement and part of me terrified at the same time at diving into the new realm of the TV filming world”. Looking back at her time on the programme, she commented, “It was a lot of early starts and long days filming. But very much worth it to be a part of the process, and a part of the team involved in a show that showcases pottery and brings it to our screens. 11
Photo: Roland Paschhoff courtesy of RDS
So I applied. It could not have been further from my expectations to get the call inviting me to attend the interview process.
Emerging Potters - 18 Claire Murdock
“It was very full on and fast paced. I flew home while the pots were drying and being fired. This made preparations for the main makes difficult, as I was also working in Ulster Ceramics Pottery Supplies warehouse during the days I was at home. Quite often I found myself preparing the briefs while sketching on the plane, sitting in airports, on the train to Stoke, and in my hotel room when I had arrived. I even made plaster sprig moulds in my hotel room bathroom one night after midnight after arriving from the airport late, which I then dried with a hairdryer as I needed it the next day for the challenge. Looking back now I laugh at a lot about it and wonder how I ever managed some of the challenges. I'm very proud of myself for how far I got in the show, and so are my family and friends. To do something so far outside of my comfort zone let alone achieve what I did in nine weeks of a TV series. Making it as far as a Semi-Finalist of the Great Pottery Throw Down, is something I'm really pleased about. The other 11 potters, plus Keith, Sue, Mel, and the whole production team are what made it such an amazing memorable experience I will truly never forget”. During her time she managed the hat trick three ‘potter of the week’ wins. They were: Episode 1 - breakfast set, Episode 4 - slip cast vases Episode 8 - pit fired ginger jars.
April – June 2020
Emerging Potters 18 Claire Murdock
April – June 2020
Her plan now is to carry on doing what she loves – making pottery. This is around her day job at the Ulster Ceramics Pottery Supplies. The hope is that one day to be successful enough to give up her day job, and be a full time maker able to make a full time living from her making and teaching classes. She will keep working towards that goal until she gets there. In the next year she hopes to make it to at least one large trade fair in the UK and to try and get her name out there more as an established maker in her own right. Previously she has never done anything bigger than small local and hometown craft fairs, so to step outside this and push herself to that next level is what she is really aiming for. In the future she also hopes to expand her webshop and learn how to become more proficient with social media posting and blogging, as these are areas she needs to improve that really seem to matter nowadays in our Internet dominated world. https://www.clairemurdockceramics.com/
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Emerging Potters – 18 Verity Howard
April - June 2020
Verity Howard With the cancellation of Ceramic Art London we thought it would be appropriate to look at one of the young makers who would have been there.
All photos courtesy of Dan Barker Studios
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Emerging Potters – 18 Verity Howard
A ceramic artist who responds to subjects surrounding people, history and places, Verity Howard creates slab built works where she captures feelings, moods, atmospheres and a sense of place. The forms she creates are contemplative, using clay as a medium for drawing and monoprinting. It is important to her that the form and surface of the work is integral to the subject she is responding to. That surface and form work together to create a harmonious composition. For the past four years her practice has been based around the work of Alfred Watkins, a naturalist in Hereford in the early 1900’s. The title ‘Sacrificial Stone’ came from one of Watkins’s maps drawn when researching into his theory on Ley Lines. Intrigued by the atmospheric and mysterious place names, she finds marked on his maps, for example: Devil’s Bridge, Flight’s Farm and Sacrificial Stone.
Previous page Title: Shroud: Sacrificial Stone Series. Medium: Black Stoneware Clay, Coloured Slips and Underglaze. Dimensions: H40cm x W34cm. Opposite image Title: Net: Sacrificial Stone Series. Medium: Black Stoneware Clay, Coloured Slips and Underglaze. Dimensions: H32cm x W15cm. 15
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Emerging Potters – 18 Verity Howard
Sacrificial Stone Series Here she has been using the words ‘Sacrificial Stone’ as a starting point, to conjure up a mental image and a feeling of something that may never have been seen before. Through the medium of clay she has been translating these images and feelings into reality by creating physical ceramic works. To Verity the words that evoke the feeling regarding ‘Sacrificial Stone’ are: surreal, stone like, obscured and encaged. By applying texture and monoprinting using grey slips Verity has created a stone like surface quality to her slab built forms. Furthermore by layering up monoprints that reference grids and meshes onto the surface of the work she has created a feeling of these forms being obscured and encaged.
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When starting this body of work she immediately related the title ‘Sacrificial Stone’ to images she had seen taken by Alfred Watkins of ‘The Queen Stone’ in Herefordshire. Watkins believed ‘The Queen Stone’ to have been used as a sacrificial cage. He demonstrated this theory by placing sticks and branches in the vertical grooves of ‘The Queen Stone’ to illustrate how people could be encaged on top of the stone. She was interested by how the title ‘Sacrificial Stone’ had immediately brought back memories of these sinister and mysterious photos. Title: Flint and Mesh3: Sacrificial Stone Series. Medium: White Stoneware Clay, Grey Slips and Underglaze. Medium: Black Stoneware Clay, Coloured Slips and Underglaze. Dimensions (Left to Right): H29cm x W17cm
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Verity Howard
Shroud: Sacrificial Stone Series. Medium: Black Stoneware Clay, Coloured Slips and Underglaze. Dimensions: H40cm x W34cm.
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Emerging Potters – 18 Sarah Monk
Sarah Monk
April - June 2020
Working in Herefordshire from a listed building which is over 200 years old and held together with blacksmith’s nails, wattle & daub, wooden beams and thick stone walls, sounds idyllic and so it is. The studio was made contemporary by painting the interiors bright white and vibrant blues. Welcome to Eastnor Pottery the work place of Sarah Monk. Once a domestic dwelling, the quaint little bungalow comprising of two bedrooms (now office and kiln room), a living room (now reception room & studio space), the outside loo (now the clay store), boiler shed (shop & extra studio space). The Eastnor Castle Estate Company kindly knocked a door through into an adjacent farm building to create the largest studio space which is the main studio. The full name of the business is Eastnor Pottery & The Flying Potter. Sarah and Jon co-own the business as well as co-teach the classes. They employ two staff: an administrator and a workshop assistant and are open 5 days a week. Like many studios they offer a selection of classes including a potter’s wheel weekend course, a day course and a shorter taster session. The classes are kept small to maintain a good quality of teaching. There is lots of chat and laughter!
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Emerging Potters – 18 Sarah Monk
2019 was a fantastic year for them, managing to run classes for over 2500 people. In May they will be taking part in ‘Hey Clay’. This will be their 5th year taking part. The Flying Potter part of the name belongs to the mobile side of the business. It provides pottery classes at team-building events, for school projects, community events, arts fairs and festivals. Last year they created 56 projects for schools and community settings reaching over 3,500 people.
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The studio has 21 potter’s wheels. Half are electric, the rest are kick wheels. The electric ones are used for the classes and courses. The kick wheels are outside in the pottery garden, and they make full use of the ‘Potting Tent’, a marquee with wooden flooring and decorated with bunting during the summer months. So, how did it all start? At the age of four her parents got a dog. While going on walks, strolling through the fields and playing in streams, she can remember finding clay. Taking some home she picked out the stones and played with the gritty clay.
Emerging Potters – 18 Sarah Monk
Growing up, she was surrounded by ceramics as her father collected antiques. They had glass fronted cabinets at home that would rattle and chink when you walked past. Piles of ‘Miller’s Guide’ books to look through. Her mother collected slipware, more commonly known as motto ware. Most of it was made by Watcombe. Doing a degree in Ceramics at Bath Spa University seemed like a natural progression for Sarah. There she met Jon Williams, a fellow ceramics student and eventually her husband. They were hard working students and made the most of all the studio time provided. Later she and Jon decided to set up a studio together, settling for beautiful rural Herefordshire, when an old redundant cottage on the Eastnor Castle Estate became available. At the very heart of Eastnor Pottery is their own work. The ceramics are always useful and she makes it in small batches of no more than eight items. This keeps the ideas fresh and the work individual. The main production theme is slipware. She uses terracotta clay because it has a deep, rich depth of colour and is a dream to throw with. The potter’s wheel allows fluidity, a quality she loves.
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Slabbing and modelling are also an integral part of her work. She finds when you brush white slip over terracotta it has a deep earthy quality. Working quickly on this, scratching into it (sgraffitto) with random scribbles and doodles. It’s an instinctive and intuitive process. She does not deliberate or labour over the surfaces, but likes to mess them up a little with a few random splats of coloured slip or underglaze. To finish off her pieces she uses a clear lead-free earthenware glaze. This makes them smooth to touch and also durable for everyday use. As a selected member of the Craft Potter’s Association she sells work at their dedicated shop ‘Contemporary Ceramics Centre’ at Great Russel Street, London. Added to this is a shop at the studio, which is open Tuesday to Saturday. Social media is also important with Instagram being the favourite. It’s visual and a very positive platform for creatives to connect and encourage each other. The last five years have seen a massive surge of interest in ceramics and Sarah working from the Eastnor Pottery has benefitted, and in return she has offered an introduction to ceramics for many people, which can only be commended. 20
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Jane Sarre
Ceramicist Jane Sarre is form-driven. Taking an exploratory approach to create works that speak of the world, filtered through her modernist-informed aesthetic and interest in subtly patinated surfaces that emphasis the articulations of her forms. She initially specialised in hand-thrown contemporary table-ware and serving- ware. Later being featured in the Crafts Council Directory and has clients including Nuno Mendez, Jamie Oliver and the Heatherwick Studio.
OPENING | CLOSED Reduction high-fired ceramic with oxides and stains, 2019. 42.2 x 63 x 3.3 cm Developed from a residency in Dungeness this piece responds to fences around the nuclear power station and was the starting point of my focus on the functional architecture and dissonance of the landscape. Photograph by Jane Sarre.
This 'archive' has fed studio-based work using prepared papers, cut outs, collage, layering and tape drawings. Ideas germinated through the work on paper are then developed freely in hand-built ceramic forms that are reduction fired to stoneware temperatures with patinated surface treatments developed with stains and washes. The resulting abstract pieces are interlocking geometric forms. They reference and explore the angles, proportions and chance compositions found in the functional architecture of the area.
SQUINT (left) Reduction high-fired ceramic with oxides and stains, 2019. 40 x 30 x 33 cm Reviewing my archive of photographs my attention repeatedly returned to the nuclear power station's looming presence on the ness, the sense of being surveilled it gives and the number of apparent apertures in the structure that cannot be seen through.
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Emerging Potters – 18
Collect 2020
Crafts Council Founded by the Crafts Council in 2004 COLLECT has the aim of building the profile of makers and offering work for sale to the public and collectors. It continues to be the only gallery-presented art fair dedicated to craft and design. This year the work was very much dominated by ceramics but with a strong showing of modern glass ware.
The show is now in it’s 16th year and took centre stage in London at Somerset House on the banks of the River Thames. This year 25 nations are represented, from Sweden, Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea to the USA. Vicky Lindon and Bill Brookes Mimbres Black Bear
Emerging Potters – 18 Collect 2020
April - June 2020
Hannah Townsend Medium Elliptoid Vessel 46 x 35 cm
Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust : Alice Walton Linn Ribbons 59cm x 31cm Coloured porcelain Photo: Mark Robson
Maria Murayama My tears and my tongue Ceramic, Gold paint
Clauda Clare Molly’s Odyssey
Emerging Potters – 18 Collect 2020
April - June 2020
Linda Bloomfield Porcelain and stoneware forms with lichen-effect glazes Height 28cm, diameter 22cm
Sang-Ho Shin Dream of Africa, head series Height 32cm, width 36cm
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April – June 2020
Jessica Duffy
Emerging Potters – 18
Website: Jduffyceramics.co.uk Instagram: J.duffy_ceramics Facebook: Jessica Duffy Ceramics
Emerging Potters – 18 Jessica Duffy
The northern town of Wigan is an example of the re-birth of the arts and ceramics at a local level. This is also the home of Jessica Duffy until she opens her permanent studio. Her temporary home is called STEAM. Wigan STEAM was set-up by ceramicist Elizabeth Parsons in 2015 alongside Louise Robson. The organisation was started with help from Wigan Council's Deal for Communities Investment Fund in 2015, and since then the organisation has received core funding from GMCA, and project funding from National Lottery, Arts Council, and the European Social Fund. As a creative organisation it aims to nurture creativity in people of all ages and backgrounds through exhibitions, workshops, creative projects, and a community makerspace and features a fully equipped ceramics studio. They host a regular pottery evening during which they encourage people of all abilities to get making with clay.
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Jessica completed a BA Applied Arts Degree at Glyndwr University in 2018, and continued her studies for another year completing a Master of Design. Participating in New Designers in 2018 she established an identity within the world of ceramics which led to further exhibitions in several galleries as a part of graduate shows and emerging artist/maker events. Bevere Gallery – Worcester The Willow Gallery – Oswestry Ceramic Wales 2018 & 2019 – Wrexham New Designers 2019 - London Ty Pawb – Wrexham - 2019 S.T.E.A.M Gallery – Wigan – 2019
Emerging Potters – 18 Jessica Duffy
April - June 2020
With every piece she aims to push the limits during the making and with the glaze firings to achieve different finishes. Designing her own compositions of three-dimensional surface patterns, she is inspired by architecture and nature. At the same time developing her home-ware range to make her art more functional and accessible to a wider market focusing mainly on mugs, bowls and plates. Initially she produced large decorative vessels which had an immediate impact, and now she is re-sizing them down to appeal to a wider audience. Since returning to her hometown she found that connecting with the local artist community gave her advice and support as an emerging artist that has been a crucial stepping-stone for her business to grow. Bouncing ideas and taking constructive criticism from other likeminded people has helped her stay focused and stay true to her Northern roots. The greatest business advice in her opinion has always come from other professionals in the area. She was keen to explain that she had excellent tutors at Glyndwr University who are also ceramic artist’s that have been in the industry for years. The knowledge they provided from their own experiences really prepared and inspired her for a future career as a ceramic artist. Through each piece of work she is constantly exploring new concepts and designs to push the creative boundaries. Looking for new, innovative shapes and forms to create unique pieces of work, combining the influences of traditional making techniques, with contemporary design.
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Within the next two years she aims to be fully set-up in her own studio. This will enable her to work full-time developing a career in her own setting. Selling more online and directly from the studio through open days, exhibitions and providing workshops is all part the plan. In the next year all being well she aims to take part in ceramic trade shows and other events all over the UK.
Emerging Potters – 18 Jessica Duffy
Following her launch at New Designers in London she found the networking opportunities with professionals, retailers and other people from major art industries has been a fantastic experience, especially with all the constructive feed-back. In terms of exposure and publicity, she received several invitations to exhibit in art galleries across England and Wales which led to some great sales and commissions. Also she was awarded a “one to watch” award from the Nation Trust. She uses a variety of making techniques, developed over the past few years. Preferring to use traditional hand building methods to construct the main body of the larger pieces, but when working on a smaller scale she likes to use a potter’s wheel to push the main forms of the pieces.
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To achieve her signature style of decoration, she places a layer and builds-up the bespoke shapes which have been produced by her own hand in carved sprig moulds. Carving the sprig moulds is tedious work but is rewarding as it allows her to produce an array of shapes and different themes throughout each collection. She brings the designs to life through a variety of playful and controlled compositions, enabling experimentation with all kinds of three-dimensional surface patterns. In terms of choosing glazes, she mainly goes for stoneware temperatures/colours that have two-toned qualities regarding the colour and types of finishes as she thinks they complement and highlight the detail. Some of the favorite glazes are chun blue and blue rutile from Scarva.com.
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Manuel Calvo
A member and ceramics teacher at The Kiln Rooms, London he was trained in Madrid and Palma de Mallorca, where he completed a diploma in artistic ceramics in 2006 with a graduation project inspired by Ken Eastman during a summer workshop at the Glasgow School of Art. The work shown here comes from an exhibition presented in London during the months of January and February 2020, called “Pangaea: ceramics and drawings”. In the exhibition, about a dozen sculptural ceramics were displayed in a glass cabinet of curiosities evoking geological strata, ritual objects and the evolution of living forms. The main piece is a re-creation of the Pangaea supercontinent as a large stoneware ceramic globe dominated by an organic sail in reference to the giant reptiles that populated the land at that time. His work reflects a contradiction of interpretations around a theme. Pangaea s ambiguous symbolism represents at the same time a unified world and a hostile territory for humanity. He seeks to explore the interior space of the ceramics vessels as a reference to our ancestor s first dwellings and as a representation of an enclosed methaphysical space. In Plato s famous metaphor of the human condition The Myth of the Cave, humans can only see the distorted shadows of objects behind them which they interpret as the reality. This resonates in this project whispering of unknown ancient civilisations and animated creatures, often with an element of distortion. The sculptural ceramics are made from combinations of different grogged stoneware clays, thrown and altered with handbuilt sections and single fired to Cone 6. They have a muted warm palette with occasional off-white matt glaze decoration, often including cuts and holes in the naked textured surface to reveal the interior of the piece.
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Emerging Potters – 18 Manuel Calvo
April - June 2020
www.quiromanu.com Instagram: quiromanu
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Craft Council Gallery Due to the Coronavirus pandemic the much awaited opening from the Craft Council Gallery has been delayed until later in 2020, but this is what can be expected. A former 19th Century chapel, located in the heart of Islington, will be the multiuse space created for exhibitions, events and study for both makers and the general public. It is also the home of the Craft Council offices. The permanent collection comprises over 1,700 objects and the gallery is at the forefront of activities building towards the national institution’s 50th anniversary in 2021.
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The first show will be Maker’s Eye and feature such objects as a delicate canary yellow bowl by one of the most important potters in modern history Lucie Rie, who arrived in London as a refugee in 1938; one of the first chairs made using recycled plastics by material pioneer Jane Atfield; a pink ’pussy hat’ by Abbey Gans Mather worn on the first Women’s March in 2017, an industrial toilet mould by Stoke-on-Trent manufacturers Armitage Shanks and the work of Hans Coper - which reaches a centenary milestone this year. Expect to see ceramics, jewellery, furniture, textiles, glass.
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Craft Council Gallery Providing a ‘Home for Craft’, the Gallery, which will be opened later in 2020 has been transformed to provide a multi-use space for public exhibitions, education and events. The Collection was established in 1971 comprising 1,700 objects. The Crafts Council has annually invested in the best of British and international craft. Alongside the exhibition, there will be a host of public events, talks, curator-led tours, and workshops held in the space. Rosy Greenlees, Executive Director of the Crafts Council, said: “As we approach our 50th anniversary in 2021, the opening of the Crafts Council Gallery will provide a key focal point for all that is brilliant about contemporary craft and making in the UK. “It gives us an opportunity to inspire, through a diverse and varied programme, to collaborate with our partners in the sector to plan and cocurate ambitious new exhibitions, and to develop new audiences, extending the UK’s reputation as a global leader in contemporary craft. The gallery allows us to share our extensive collection with the world, demonstrating the ways in which craft has engaged with issues that are more pertinent now than ever before – sustainability, materiality, provenance, wellbeing and the importance of creativity in education.”
Kate Malone MBE, British ceramic maker, said: “Hooray! this is fabulous news – at last a craft-dedicated exhibition space. I’m thrilled to hear that the Crafts Council will be reopening this space at a time of renewed awareness and interest in craft – and in a great building in a prime location. I’m looking forward to seeing the exhibition programme with keen interest. It’s going to be a pleasure to walk up those fabulous steps and through those doors again. This marks a new phase for the Crafts Council.”
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Book Review Pottery You Can Use by Jacqui Atkin Published by Search Press Ltd ISBN: 978-78221-560-8 UK £14.99 This practical and very elegant book concentrates on the actual making of everyday ceramics. Basic making methods of throwing, coiling and slabbing are explored, but does not look at surface decoration or slip casting and jigger/jolly have been emitted as they require a different level of technical skill. It is a project book aimed at a maker with a small studio or someone attending a studio where they pay by the hour.
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April - June 2020
Book Review
What the book does look at is the making. Chapters include health and safety, capturing ideas, the right clay, firing, and basic glazes. Cups and mugs feature in chapter two followed by jugs and boats, plates and platters, bowls, dishes and casserole, teapots, and making methods. Each chapter has step-by-step photo’s of the process, together with different handle and spout making for each project. Throughout the book is lavishly illustrated with photographs and copious notes and hints on how to best approach project. For the beginner it is a must and for the more experienced maker it offers a range of alternatives. 34
Emerging Potters 18 Thrown Gallery
April – June 2020
Gallery Show Gatherers 16th - 24th May 2020 OmVed Gardens, Townsend Yard, Highgate, London N6 5JF Check the website for details:www.omvedgardens.com For this year’s Chelsea Fringe, OmVed Gardens has brought together specialist ceramics gallery Thrown and a new floral design studio Metafleur to create an exhibition that celebrates our surroundings. ‘Gatherers’ will group artists and makers who forage to create their work; digging, cutting and collecting their materials from wherever they may be. The spectrum of locationinspiration on display, from Hampstead Heath to Tamborine Mountain, Australia, will also hone right back to OmVed itself where ceramicist Joseph Ludkin will feature a collection of new work created from clay dug from right beneath our feet.
The main stage of OmVed Garden's impressive converted greenhouse will showcase a collaboration between Metafluer - a floral design studio specialising in large scale and dried corporate floral installations wedded to environmental sustainability - and one of Thrown's most sought-after ceramicists Zuleika Melluish. The floral designs of Metafleur using dried flowers and foraged materials, will encourage further reflection on gathering and attachment to landscape as well as being illustrative of materials available locally and those used within clay making processes. Running throughout the Chelsea Fringe, this 9-day exhibition at Omved Gardens will also host several events and workshops with themes of the garden, sustainability and floral designs. All involved will be using their digital presence to bring the experience online with video tours and image-filled online catalogues.
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Emerging Potters is produced quarterly and can be found on the ISSUU platform or contact the editor e: paulbailey123@googlemail.com