Throughout the year we invite or select guest ceramic artists to exhibit their work at our shop for a limited period of 1-2 months.

If you would like to be considered as a guest artist please contact our Manager at pottersbristol@gmail.com with your artist statement and a selection of images or fill out this online form...

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Current Guest Potters

JESSICA THORN AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2022

Jessica was captivated by the alchemy of clay during her foundation at Plymouth College of Art, so continued to complete a Applied Arts degree. After graduating with a Ceramics BA she made her way back to her hometown of Bristol, where she acquired a space in the ceramics studio Maze, marking the start of my journey as a craftsperson. Since then she was awarded a place on the Crafts Council Hothouse program, took part in a one year Ceramic Artist is Residency, has exhibited in many fairs and galleries and am now part of a co-operative studio in the heart of Bristol.

She teaches hand-building beginners courses, and creates porcelain functional-ware inspired from antique kitchenware. Made from porcelain the clean simple design of each piece aims to capture the spirit created from these honest conversations and the feelings of joy when cooking.

July - August 2022 | ALI TOMLIN

Ali Tomlin creates wheel thrown porcelain, mainly for its smooth, white surface which makes it perfect as a canvas for her colours and mark-making.

Ali creates beautiful elegant contemporary ceramics with a dry, chalky surface, applying a bold, but muted palette of stains, oxides and slips.

She takes delight in splashing and sponging away areas, adding inlaid and sgraffito lines, aiming to create imperfect and unpredictable marks. Most of the decorating is carried out on the wheel to convey a feeling of movement and spontaneity.

Mainly Ali loves working with colour, line and marks, and luckily there's a never ending supply of them!

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K Ceramics is a small ceramics studio run by Kate Clark. Kate is a trained graphic designer, who had always wanted to translate her two-dimensional ideas into three dimensions. Clay gave her the perfect medium with which to express the tactile qualities she wanted to combine with her background.

Since 2016, with professional development and experimentation, She has evolved a style that she enjoys using and looking at. “I'm very much inspired by Japanese simplicity and appreciation of the hand made. I combine this with tactile textures and patterns derived from what I see around me. I enjoy making small batches or one of a kind pieces.”

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It is recommended that you handwash these pieces due to the complex textures that may be involved on the surfaces of each piece.

May - June 2022 | STEVE CARTER 

Steve Carter began his career as a production thrower, working with various other potters, before founding his own business: St. Werburgh’s Pottery. 

Combined with his teaching career, and St Werburgh’s Pottery, Steve creates ceramics full-time. He specialises in slipware, designed for simplicity and brevity, qualities he admires in country pottery.

He produces a range of thrown earthenware pottery decorated with slips, often formulated from local clays.  

“I seek to make vessels for everyday use.  My pots import much that is common to old country pottery of the world.

‘Circumstances of creation’ count for a lot: specially sourced tools & materials, mixtures & processes.

..and a fair helping of ‘happenstance’ in the way these things are used & dealt out - seemingly like what’s going on in nature?

For me the Kiln is an agency of transformation that may - on a good day - confirm this kind of alchemy - within which my work might come to life like a firework frozen in time!”

All work is dishwasher safe.

April - May 2022 | PAUL TAYLOR 

Paul experienced his first taste of ceramics at Berkshire College of Art and Design, where he was encouraged to pursue his interest in the subject gaining a Degree in Ceramics and Glass from Leicester Polytechnic in1983.

After several years doing a variety of jobs including working in a gallery specialising in contemporary British glass,Paul gained a PGCE in art and design education and has worked as a teacher of art and design for twenty five years, the last twenty in Cardiff, leaving the profession in 2014 to pursue a career as a full-time maker.

His work has largely centred on the vessel, using ultra thin slabs of textured terracotta, assembled and fired multiple times aiming to transform very simple materials into pottery that has its own distinctive characteristic. He wants to create vessels with interesting configurations, surfaces and textures.

“I am fascinated by the alchemy that occurs when combining clay, smoke and fire culminating in the often magical changes that occur during the firing process. My work is fired multiple times, the final firing is a low temperature saggar firing with combustible materials producing a range of surprising and often unpredictable outcomes.

I have also developed my work to incorporate slip cast forms in terracotta, these are then altered with the application of extruded and sprig moulded additions.”

October - November 2020 | TOM KNOWLES JACKSON 

Tom lives in St Chloe, a small village in the Cotswolds.  Potting has always been a passion of his, apart from ten year spell in the British Army, he has been making since childhood.  

You may recognise Tom from the first series of The Great Pottery Throw Down, where he reached the final. Ceramics is now his full time career.  As well as developing his own work, he has set up and runs The Clay Loft, a ceramics maker space near Stroud, and manufactures a range of pottery equipment and tools.

“I am a thrower, making all of my pots on a McMeekin momentum wheel. I make functional stoneware for the table, oven and sideboard with an emphasis on the ceremony of eating and drinking.    My work is stoneware, high fired in gas reduction and decorated using a small range of my own glazes derived from iron, copper and wood ash.

I enjoy making simple enduring forms that have function and purpose and that can bring joy to daily routines of eating, drinking and sharing.  My work is focused on creating beautiful, useable ceramics;  Vessels, containers and forms that have a robust yet refined aesthetic.”