2026 – Taking part in Potfest Scotland – Scone Palace

My practice is driven by a desire to learn from and preserve traditional craft skills, using them to create contemporary domestic ware and sculptural work which is rooted in place. I believe craft cannot exist in isolation from its environment; the strongest work belongs both aesthetically and ideologically to the landscape in which it is made.

Living and working in Galloway, Scotland, I explore rivers, coastlines, and old middens, collecting fragments of pots, glass, and bricks—quiet traces of past domestic life. These finds inform my clays, glazes, and surfaces, and some are ground into grog and added directly into the clay, creating a physical link between past and present.

I also work directly with local materials, digging clay from rivers and hillsides and collecting wood ash from farms to make my own glazes. These glazes enhance the red clay body of my work and flow in the firing to create surfaces with depth, texture, and movement. For me, the true importance of functional pottery lies in objects made with care, used daily, and shaped over time through ritual and use.

www.byjoshuawilliams.com