Roz Owen – Tideline Ceramics
Wheel thrown and hand built ceramics inspired by the sea and coast of west Wales, where I live and work. I make unique and functional collections that reflect the colours, textures, sea and landscapes surrounding us, telling the story of a coastline that is in retreat. Carving and texture is incorporated into many pieces, interpreting the rock and sand formations as well as the creatures found in the sea and at low tide.
I use stoneware clay for its durability and resilience, and the ability to better recreate the colour tones along the shore. Some pieces I tend to leave slightly heavy, as I feel it better recreates their attachment to our environment – this is particularly true of my Cliff Face and Coastal Erosion collections. The former is inspired by our low grey cliffs shot through with bands of quartz, and the latter by the way water – rain and sea – is irretrievably eroding our coastline here in the west.
My Shoal collection mimics the way the tiny fish, found close to shore at certain times of the year, ebb and flow through the shallows, risking being stranded or picked off by the ever present gulls and herons. Their movement is recreated flowing through bowls and platters.
At very low tides here we’re lucky enough to have colonies of Honeycomb Reef revealed by the retreating sea. These are amazing colonies of Honeycomb worm which build individual tubes of sand as their homes. Each worm builds itself a protective tube from sand and shell fragments, which together form a reef that looks like honeycomb. These can be a metre high and several metres long. My Honeycomb Reef collection is inspired by these amazing structures and the honeycomb texture is recreated on each pot.
For something quirky and fun I like making cheeky Seashore Sea Birds from pinch pots, the only thing is you need to keep an eye on them as they’re greedy blighters!
I try to build collections of a variety of pieces that are both unique and functional. I like to think that my ceramics are incorporated into people’s daily lives, serving as functional yet beautiful objects in people’s homes.