I make art you can use every day, curvaceous stoneware pottery with striking surface designs.

Glaze veils or dots applied over a burnished surface allow the warm sheen of the fired clay to be seen and the tactile patterns felt. Dynamic glaze splashes, spirals and arcs rejoice in freedom and movement.

I’ve always had a deep affinity with circles. They feature prominently in my designs and guide the curved form of bowls, mugs, cups, vases and bottles I throw.

Bioscience motifs and concepts from a previous professional life have seeped into my work, evoking cellular vesicles in endocytosis or the reticulate pattern of mammalian cells in culture. Other designs come from thought experiments, for example imagining a glaze veil behaving like a mesh bag stretched across the form.

I use a limited palette of earthy colours, probably influenced by the landscapes I grew up with in Zambia and Kenya.

Being part of a continuum of potters through the ages and across the world who make beautiful vessels for every-day use gives me a buzz. I think it’s incredible that Minoan cups from five millennia ago would look at home amongst mine.

Catchpole Saffell Art