Zoë Slater
2024 – Taking part in Potfest South West – Shaftesbury
Zoë Slater is a ceramicist working in Glasgow. She learnt her trade as a visiting apprentice to Shin Chul in South Korea, and now runs her own studio. Her practice wanders between the functional and the sculptural, drawing inspiration from nature and natural materials. For recent projects, Zoë explored ancient methods – from collecting wild clay, to grinding rock into glaze, and smoke firing large scale vessels in a pit. Zoë is drawn to techniques such as smoke and saggar firing because of the element of chance it adds into the work: the markings on the vessels are unexpected and unique, pushing her practice in new directions.
She is currently cataloguing the effects of different varieties of seaweed upon the outcome of smoke firing, with the aim of producing a monograph in photography in 2024. By incorporating locally gathered materials she uses clay as a method of storytelling, since the pieces are intrinsically linked to location and personal history.