Taking part in Potfest in the Pens – melton Mowbray

I am a studio potter based in Worthing, West Sussex making functional stoneware, incorporating natural materials.  My aim is to make friendly, useful domestic pots which evoke a sense of grounding and connection. I have always been attracted to pots which have the robust, kindly feeling I remember from some pots in the 1970s, and this is never far from my mind when making.

I have been fascinated with the challenges of wheel throwing from the very start, and I continue to be inspired and propelled by my desire to understand and develop this captivating craft.

My decorative themes spring from my desire to respond to the beauty of the natural world.  I long to adorn my pots with leaves, trees and birds and to evoke water, sky and hills – and I remain deeply engaged in the effort to do this to my satisfaction.

I am also attracted to colour, texture and repetitive patterns, though I find that I will always disrupt a repetitive pattern as soon as I have started it.  If I pick up a brush, as often as not, my desire to simply play with the brush against a spinning pot will override a design idea. To some extent, these things define the work I am currently producing, but I welcome this as an endless source of fascination and every pot is an education.

Most of my work is decorated (at least in part) with ash glaze or natural slip from clay in my local area.  I get satisfaction from using these natural materials and the effort required to process them makes me feel especially connected to the pieces.  I fire in an electric kiln and therefore I welcome the element of unpredictability that these ingredients can lend to my work. In the future I hope to have time to expand on the use of local materials and to experiment with different firing methods.

I sincerely hope that visitors to my stall will find something of beauty, interest and sometimes surprise- and they will definitely find something to put a salad on!

www.melissagrahampottery.co.uk