
Sheila Herring
2026 – Taking part in Potfest by the Lake – Compton Verney, Potfest South West- Shaftesbury, Potfest Suffolk – Haughley Park and Potfest in the Pens – Melton Mowbray
I make thrown and hand built functional black earthenware which is fired in an electric kiln. Choosing to make pots for daily use gives me boundaries to my explorations, and the purpose of the pot often acts as a starting point.
I spent many years working as a basket maker, building our straw bale timber framed home and creating a large garden from pasture. Influences from these find their way into the decoration of my pots. There are the suggestions of ladders, flower motifs and abstracted plants. Handmade nails and flower stamps are indented into the clay. My interest in drawn repetitive patterns stem from my childhood when I spent numerous hours drawing lines of patterns.
I make wooden moulds to form some of my hand built pots. I also like to throw and adjust pots, sometimes adding slab bases and hand built handles.
I build up layers of various thicknesses and colours of slip when the pots are at the leather hard stage. I like how slip brings fluidity to my work and offers many options in how it is applied. Using slip introduces spontaneity to the pot making process in a way I find challenging and rewarding.











