I came into working with ceramics really by chance when a ceramics hand building course I had been attending came to an end and we were picking up our fired pieces from the tutor. It was a casual course and I hadn't attended all the lessons as I was working full time at one of the random retail jobs that had been my main 'career' up until that point. I had thoroughly enjoyed the course and making with clay had really struck a chord with me and so it seems the tutor saw something in me too as she there and then asked me if I would be her apprentice. Quite unlike the tv show she is now a dear friend of mine and not at all like Sir Alan she would teach me what I needed to know to develop my skills as a ceramicists and I would help her with the making of her sculptural ceramics and learn on the job as it were. That was 4 years ago now and to this day she is the hugest inspiration for me and the biggest help imaginable.
How long did you work as an apprentice for?
We worked together for about 3 years as I was building up a body of work and developing my skills. It was great learning from her like that, having a one on one tuition from someone who is a working accomplished artist who knows the pitfalls and has such helpful insights. Then at the beginning of last year I took the plunge and poured myself full time into Cat's Ceramics.
Has your tutor influenced your own style of work at all?
It's the funniest thing because me and my mentor's styles are so completely different! Her work is all about freeness and expression with bold character rich pieces ( you can see them at www.harestoyou.co.uk/ ) where as I've always been more drawn to intricate detailed work with clean lines and subtle tones and delicate textures. I am a perfectionist at heart yet she has no time for such fiddly-ness!
Have you ever collaborated together and would you like to take part in any other collaborations?
We have never collaborated on a piece together but it would be amazing to see what we would come up with!
Collaborating with other artists would be something I would love to do. Especially artists that work in a different medium to clay. Clay can be mixed really well with other materials and that was my inspiration for incorporating glass, plants and most recently sand and found objects into some of my pieces. There's this fascination for me with clay- it has so many applications and uses and possibilities that the objects with which can be created from it are so truly endless and completely boundless.
Is there any type of artist or medium in particular you'd like to work with?
It would be hard to choose just one other medium that I'd like to merge with clay but if I had to pick one type of artist to collaborate with a textile artist or fashion designer would be so much fun! I took a course for fashion design a while ago and initially that's what I wanted to do but then thought better of it....(I wasn't very good) yet textiles have always remained a love of mine.
Textiles and clay seem so at each ends of the scale, textiles and fabric so soft and vulnerable to flame and clay strong and solid, completely dependant on fire for it's strength. To play around and see what could be created with these two apparently opposing materials would be very intriguing.
I have these awful images of dresses with clay spikes and dangly bits off the hem or a teapot with a little jacket on, terrible stuff. I would hope for something more harmonious where the two mediums could really marry and complement each other. If that is at all possible...
I noticed that the work you do is mainly themed around nature. Why is this?
My current work is themed heavily around nature being luckily enough to be surrounded by natural beauty every day I work. Being immersed in the trees and hearing the birds is where I feel most comfortable and I hope to pass that sense of peace and harmony into my work for the viewer to enjoy too.
The natural world is one of my biggest inspirations but my influences are so varied if often feels like the pieces just pour out of me with little regard for any concious thought or real direction I have in mind. When I stop thinking about what I am making is when the best pieces seem to form.
You mentioned you had a love for textiles. Have you dabbled in any other art forms? What made you pursue a career in ceramics?
Growing up I wasn't encouraged to pursue my artistic endeavours as a career, they were always viewed as a thing to keep as a hobby even though being creative was all I knew I wanted to do for a job. For as long as I had a job where I could be creative I would be happy.
But I didn't think of working with clay or any art form for that matter as a sole career until it really presented it's self to me and I gained the encouragement and could see the possibility of me actually being an artist as a real proper job.
I think I had that whole stereotype embedded in me too of the penniless artist, suffering for his art and never really getting anywhere and as poetic as I found that notion it really didn't sit well with me.
But which art form satisfied me took a while for me to discover. And I dabbled in quite a few.
I tried painting and drawing but soon discovered I wasn't really a 2d kind of person then textiles with the aforementioned fashion design. I had a go at sculpture and that was great fun but ultimately when ceramics came along I fell in love. Ceramics just completely made sense to me and the scope it offered in regards to performing a function as well as an art form just grabbed me and I could see myself exploring those possibilities for ever and never getting bored.
Do you have any other interests apart from ceramics?
When I'm not working (which to be fair isn't very often at the moment) I spend time with my lovely fiancé, our three house rabbits, Toulouse, Jimi and Joey and our cats Scat and Marley. I have a lot of art-centric interests but really try to keep a balance and keep a interest in other things. I love music and play guitar. I enjoy gardening and I have a growing collection of exotic orchids which all keeps me busy. I love getting outside and exploring the countryside and just being around nature when ever I can.
You mentioned you enjoy gardening. Is that why you create pieces like plant markers?
A few of my pieces were born from me wanting such a thing that I couldn't find elsewhere. Like my plant markers with the little bees and garden bugs and the others with leaf portraits- they came about when I was sowing seeds as I love to do and using those wooden plant labels you buy at garden centres and before the plants even got outside the labels had rotted and I couldn't read the names I had written! Now a days I use my own markers and they last forever and can be used loads of times. My range of pieces for outside and in the garden has grown more as I have got more into the garden that's for sure!
How do you process your ideas and make them into objects?
When creating my pieces there is a few ways in with which I get from the initial inspiration to a finished created product. Sometimes I have the whole full idea or image in my head of exactly what I want to create, exactly how it will look and feel and then it is just a case of getting that thought out into reality. This is the most pleasing option for me as it seems much less processed and much more organic. Then other times I get just a tiny seed of an idea from a texture I have felt for example or a pattern in a rock. This idea then has to be developed and explored until I can create something that fulfils my intention and works well as a piece of art too.
What techniques and tools do you use to create your work?
I am very much drawn to the old traditional hand building techniques for ceramics and pottery such as coiling, slab work and pinching and these are the techniques in which the majority of my work is constructed. I like that you don't need expensive and fancy equipment and each piece is carefully constructed and built from a labour of love.
Using these techniques things can take a lot longer to produce and some of my pieces take days of work on them, and that's not considering drying or any 'setting up' time. I use very minimal amounts of tools and have about a handful I use regularly. These include some specific pottery tools I have bought and others are everyday household things like a ruler, a wooden spoon and a metal tin. Sounds rather conspicuous and I'd better not say exactly how I use these as these are the secrets of the trade but any kind of object can become a useful tool!
* I noticed most of your pieces are focus on being usable. Is there a reason why you create functional items more than decorative pieces? *
I love being able to make functional items as well as purely decorative ones. The utilitarian nature of ceramics is really charming and has a beauty within itself that is so pleasing. When objects are used in every day to day they become so a part of our lives and shape our surroundings and our homes. It makes me so happy to know that my customer is going to have my pieces in their home and see it everyday and use it and enjoy it.
Do you have any favourite pieces of work?
All my pieces are so fun to make but my favourite is probably the little leaf dishes glazed in the bright blues and reds. Rolling out the clay and gently pressing in the individual leaves and cutting out and shaping, builds up this methodical repetitive process where I can drift away with my thoughts and think of other ideas and pieces. Then when I'm back I have all these lovely little dishes made!
I also love any thing were I use the recycled glass in the decoration because lifting up the kiln after the firing I never know what I'm going to get, sometimes it doesn't really work and sometimes it's just great! Lot's of happy accidents as I like to call them!
Do you have any solid plans for the future?
I don't know what the future might bring but I hope to be exploring still and discovering even more about ceramics as a craft and an art form and having a great time doing it. I hope that Cat's Ceramics will grow and flourish with people enjoying my work and feeling it relevant. I am chuffed and amazed how far I have come this past year and cannot wait to find out what might be waiting around the corner.....
Is there anything else you'd like to add?
Thank you to you Carmen for conducting this interview and for all the hard work you put into running the team!
My explorations in clay, work and life can be followed on www.catsceramics.co.uk
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