Jeremy Steward trained in Cornwall and then in Cardiff before being invited to join Wobage in 1995. Since then he has made wheel-thrown, wood-fired salt-glazed stoneware and porcelain.
"Alongside a driving motivation to make functional pots, I am inspired by the soft fluidity of the materials themselves; clay on the wheel, slip and raw-glaze.
My work is decorated in various ways; I often draw, a sort of wet scragfitto, while the pot is still on the wheel, or after the pot has been slipped. Otherwise they might be embellished with stamps, roulettes or finger-wipes, a vocabulary of abstract marks which are forever changing, but which cons
...
Read more about Jeremy Steward
Patia Davis was invited to join the workshops at Wobage in 1991 following graduation from Cardiff and previously Harrow Studio Pottery Course.
Her gentle porcelain forms evoke a sense of quiet and calm. It is the beautiful smoothness of the thrown material which emphasises the directness of the maker’s touch; hand against rib, inner tension with lift and softness of rim. With crispness, fluidity and care in the making, these qualities are relinquished to the glazed pot upon firing, captured underneath the subtle pale hues of transparent glaze. The porcelain is bisqued and then gas-fired to 1300C.
The warm, rich colours and strong for
Josh was invited as a new member to the Wobage Makers group in the Autumn of 2009. He has during the Summer course programmes at Wobage in 2009 & 2010 been drafted in for occasional demonstration and he now runs his own evening class which invites students across all levels of ability, on a Friday night. The traditional apprenticeship which he served in production throwing before graduating with a First Class Hons Degree at Cardiff University(UWIC), offered a very firm, practical foundation for his now experimental and dynamic pot-making and sculpture.
"I'm trying to show something true to the tension and excitement of uncertainty.
Born in the UK, Matthew emigrated to Australia in 1988, where he studied at the National Art School in Sydney winning the State Medal in 1993. He moved from his first workshop in Sydney to the mid-north coast of New South Wales in 1997. Here Matt built workshop and gallery, making ranges of tableware and woodfired pots in porcelain and stoneware.
Moving back to the UK in 2002, he once more set up workshop and kilns near his current home in Lode, Cambridgeshire. Wobage is delighted to welcome Matt to the 2012 course programme. He will join us for demonstration and glaze lecture during the Porcelain course at the end of June. Here he explain
Stephen Parry set up Ryburgh pottery in Norfolk in 1981. after training at Croydon collage of art , and then Dartington pottery in Devon.
At his pottery in Norfolk, Steve makes small batches of individual pots, softly thrown on a momentum wheel. His pots are often thickly slipped, and then glazed with fluid wood ash glazes before firing too 1300c in a 125cu ft wood fired kiln.
Stephen also uses an anagama type kiln, which he fires for three to four days, allowing the wood ash that enters the kiln during the long firings to glaze and colour the work.
More recently Stephen has become known for his very large pots some up to 5ft tall, w
Bridget Drakeford has been designing and making pottery since 1977.
During the early years in Scotland she made domestic stoneware, but now works exclusively in porcelain using both reduction and oxidised firings.
She has been a prizewinner at the Mashiko Ceramics Competition in Japan, and at the World Ceramic Exposition in Korea. She won an Arts Council Award for an exhibition and study tour to Japan in 2005. She is a professional member of the Craft Potters Association of Great Britain and has exhibited widely at major venues throughout Britain and Internationally.
Bridget's influences come principally from the classical forms of Eu
Nigel Lambert's pots are both decorative and useful. He began his love of pottery and paintings whilst at art college in Cornwall. His interest in the work of abstract painters, particularly Roger Hilton, Terry Frost, Patrick Heron and other artists from the Cornish peninsula has influenced his work and the decorative marks he makes. His work is approached not as a painter, but as a potter. Clay is the starting point. After the pots are thrown or pressed from flat sheets of clay, these are cut and re-formed into ovals and square forms. They are dipped in a white clay slip, dried and then glazed, this produces a flat white surface on which
Tavs Jorgensen arrived in Britain in 1991 after completing a four-year pottery apprentiship in his native Denmark. He has been running his own design consultancy since 1995. Throughout this period Jorgensen has been closely associated with Dartington Pottery, operating as the pottery's main shape designer. He continues to work as a freelance designer and researcher, frequently guest lecturing at international universities and colleges. He has been involved in numerous and wide ranging projects, focusing in recent years on research into the creative use of digital technologies.
Wobage is delighted and privileged to welcome Tavs onto the tea
Sarah Dunstan works from the Gaolyard Studios situated in St. Ives, Cornwall. Her slab-built stoneware and porcelain vessels have earned her international renown. After the success of her teaching at Wobage on the 7-day course in 2007, we are delighted she has agreed to return again in 2009.
She writes, " I collect images, such as the shape of the railing in a hidden doorway in St.Ives or writing on an antique glass bottle. I use my sketchbook to draw and paint these impressions but also as a scrapbook. Feathers, fabric and packaging are glued in next to photos. These photos are fragmented memories of places I've visited, a close up deta
Petra Reynolds trained in the South East and then on degree at Cardiff before joining Wobage in 1995.
Petra’s innovative techniques in slab-building and decorating have in recent years earned her a reputation as one of the leading contemporary makers in the UK. Construction begins with one of many paper templates. Clay slabs are then cut around, mitred, bent and folded into a range of domestic shapes.
The inspiration for her decoration is many fold. From playful experimentation with line, pattern and composition, sketches evolve firstly on paper into monochrome or colour monoprint and collagraph. Decoration on pots takes place at the
Many of you will already have met Sheila on previous Summer courses at Wobage. Apprentice to Jeremy for 2009/2010, Sheila received the first grant under the 'Adopt a Potter' charity, initiated by Lisa Hammond. Sheila will be technician to some of the courses in 2011.
Sheila was a professional basket maker for over thirteen years, before changing her path towards the materials of clay and fire. Her current pots are predominantly wheel-thrown with some hand-built additions. The work is visceral and impassioned, combining a kind of abstract expressionism with subtle and robust functional shapes.
Since the beginning of her apprenticeship