Five Potter's who Inspire Me.
Over the years, I have been making ceramics. Many artists have influenced me. In this blog, I will tell you about five potters who have continuously been places of inspiration. I hope you enjoy learning about them and how they have inspired my work.
Lucie Rie
Dame Lucie Rie is most famous for her delicate bowls, but she had a career spanning 65 years, from setting up a studio in Vienna in 1925 until her first stroke in 1990.1 Her work is most renowned from 1938 onwards after resettling in the UK at the beginning of World War II.2
The ceramic department at Loughborough University owned one of her pieces; I remember viewing it every time I went to the office for a tutorial. At that time, I hoped my work one day would inspire others to work with the wonder of clay like Rie had inspired me. Check out her work.
Hans Coper
Hans Coper was a friend of Lucie Rie. He used the potter’s wheel to throw objects, but he would then reconstruct them to make sculptural forms. He always saw his work as a vessel rather than a sculpture.3
He used slips to decorate his work, and I love the textures he created with this medium. Cardiff Museum has a beautiful collection of Hans Coper’s work, and when I lived in Cardiff, I loved going up to the first floor and looking at his work. Studying his objects and looking at how they were constructed. Read more.
Gordon Baldwin
I first encountered Gordon Baldwin’s work while doing my slab-building unit at Loughborough School of Art and Design. I found his work fascinating: his abstract sculptures and how he decorated the surface like a painting.
His work is coil-built, which is a slower process than slab building, and Baldwin states that he spends a long time staring at his work, finding out how to take the piece forward. “A lot of staring at the piece is involved - a thoughtless gaze until there is a necessity for action.”4
He talks about the “soup” of inspiration that he uses from everything that has inspired him, from what he has seen, drawn or heard.5 I relate to this process of development in my creativity and can see how different interactions influence my making. Learn More.
Karen Howarth
Karen graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1996 and has been working on her collections since then. She currently works out of her garden studio in Huddersfield.5 You can see the Northern landscapes of Britain in her work. Her colours and marks reflect this beautiful part of the country.
Karen Howarth uses slip to decorate her work using different techniques to create marks. She makes jewellery, vessels, objects thrown on the wheel, and wall pieces.6 See More.
Jennifer Lee
Jennifer Lee is often named the silent potter as she has chosen to let her work speak for itself. When you visit her website, there are multiple essays written by others about her work, but there are no blogs about her inspiration, apart from her visit to Japan.
She adds oxides into her clay and then coil builds her vessel using the coloured clays she has carefully collected and labelled over the years.6 She has travelled extensively and has collected oxides from these different places.7
In 2014, Lee moved her practice to Japan for two months, and it was from this time, space, and new materials to work with she made a series of red vessels. Before this, she had always worked with white stoneware.8
Jennifer Lee’s work excites me. She has been working since 1979 with ceramics; you can see how her work has developed over the years. Explore her work.
Each of these makers will continue to influence my work and add to the “soup” that enables me to develop my creativity.
1. Wikipedia. “Lucie Rie.” Wikipedia, accessed 01/12/2023. Lucie Rie - Wikipedia
2. David Whiting. "Lucie Rie - 1902 - 1995." Oxford Ceramics, accessed 01/12/2023. https://www.oxfordceramics.com/historic-draft/lucie-rie/
3. Wikipedia. “Hans Coper.” Wikipedia, accessed 01/12/2023. Hans Coper - Wikipedia
4. Gordon Baldwin. “Biography.” Gordon Baldwin, accessed 05/12/2023.Gordon Baldwin - Erskine Hall & Coe (etc. art).
5. Gordon Baldwin. “Biography.” Gordon Baldwin, accessed 04/12/2023. Gordon Baldwin - Erskine Hall & Coe (etc. art)
6. Karen Howarth. “About Me.” Karen Howarth, accessed 04/12/2023. About | Karen Howarth Ceramics (bigcartel.com)
7. Edmund De Waal. “Jennifer Lee.” Jennifer Lee, accessed 05/12/2023. https://jenniferlee.co.uk/essays/edmund.html.
8. Edmund De Waal. “Jennifer Lee.” Jennifer Lee, accessed 05/12/2023. https://jenniferlee.co.uk/essays/edmund.html.
9. Jennifer Lee. “Japan.” Jennifer Lee, accessed 5/12/2023. https://jenniferlee.co.uk/japan/index.html.
Posted by Karen Dawn Curtis on December 5th 2023
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