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» Cover story
ARTISTS & MAKERS OF FROME
WITH EMMA CHAPMAN
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Much like her stunning pottery, Emma is a one-off. Here she talks dreaming in shapes, her love of hands, and her unique
‘tribute’ to our current government.
What is your creative background? I grew up in a musical house, yet I never learnt to play any instruments. My father was driven by music and had taught himself from a young age to play piano, he was a single-minded workaholic with a constant need for the next project. Our lives were a mix of legendary musicians and cheap Sunday drives….and no sex/drugs/rock ‘n’ roll…. My mother was a beautiful, unrushed, ahead-of-her-time kinda woman. And she left too soon. She did stay long enough to steer me into art college, where I couldn’t get enough of the stuff to play with. I deeply resented narrowing down my options to specialise. I just wanted to do it all.
What started you on your path to pottery? I remember when I was very small my mum used to take me to an outbuilding on a farm where she was learning pottery. The smell of the clay on the flagstone floor and the smell of the warmth from the kilns were both comforting and alien. I just love the smell of a workshop, working out what people were working with. My grandad made shoes, riding boots for the royal family, so stories go, and I would nervously hang around the door of his workshop. I never knew what he actually did until he died, but the machines and the smells in his workshop were just so exciting.
What is your physical creative process? What materials and techniques do you use? So I’m a thrower mainly, relying on a piece of bespoke, crafted machinery, made for me over 20 years ago, and it has been my constant companion. I make lots and lots of pots (same same but different), I mostly work in high-fired stoneware to withstand regular use and have a long life.
What inspires you and your creations? I’m inspired by how people hold things. Our first tools are our hands. I love to watch makers, painters, chefs, gardeners, and see how they use their hands. Everyone has their own language with their hands, it’s unique to them, and so pots will roll around differently in them. I love to watch how people hold my pots, where they feel they need to support it, which bits they’ll touch more, and how it sits with them. A regular but sometimes thing is that as I wake in the morning, a shape comes in, as I rouse; it’s like the post (of old) coming in, and I just have to make it. ASAP. Has the pandemic affected the way you work and create? As for many, Lockdown was full of fits and starts as shops and cafés opened and closed. Each time everything opened, I was crazy busy. People scrolled and found me and used some of their furlough. People being at home meant they wanted their daily routine to be nicer, so the dinner services were popular. I didn’t have many shape dreams….my brain was a bit sad, I think. I did make a Boris and Co teaset….. which you can find on Instagram. It was a fuming response to, well, everything.
Where do you work from? Tell us about your studio. I had a workshop built in my garden around 10 years ago. It is now rammed to the rafters, and bursting at the seams…..but I love it and it has been very good to me, my students and shape dreams.
Where is your favourite place to be for artistic inspiration? I love the beach for inspiration, I see little pots everywhere, all those pebbles, all those soft shapes that we discover, every one being unique, every one deserving a hug as we spot it and roll it in our hands.
What artists and makers inspire you, and why? I’m a bit all over Florian Gadsbyat the moment. He’s an incredible potter who did a mentorship in Japan, was educated at a Steiner school, and makes with such incredible beautiful and simple precision. He’s a prolific maker, doing everything himself, and I hugely admire his discipline and dedication. Check him out on Instagram.
If you hadn’t become a potter, what would you have done? I absolutely cannot imagine what I would have done if I hadn’t found ‘my wave’. Every crap job I did I knew it wasn’t gonna happen and that the ‘real’ thing was coming. Although I did create a pottery department in a mental health unit once, I really loved that job and I really miss it! So, maybe working in mental health.
How do you find the local creative and artistic community? When I first came to Frome around 15 years ago I was desperately searching around for a pottery vibe, a makers vibe, and it felt pretty underground. It was out there but it came through slowly. Frome is now thoroughly throbbing with making and creative drivers, it feels incredibly, creatively healthy, and the makers and craftworkers are hugely respected and valued and cared for!
What other artistic processes and disciplines would you like to work with? I love a basket and wood. I would love to learn more about weaving baskets. I just love a vessel, a carrying vessel. I will do this….
How can people see and buy your work? My work can be found at the Rye Bakery/Alfred’s bread, Donna Ashay, Lowlands Bristol, Objects of Use, Oxford. I can be found on Facebook and Instagram (@emmachapmanspottery ) and for the time being in my shed in my garden, looking out across the valley.
Anything you want to add? A bigger space is heading my way, so I can stretch out, welcome you all back, and get teaching again. …..whatever changes you’ve made to your lives, for you, you’re doing the right thing. We’re all shifting and shuffling with you.
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