Hot House Ceramics
Do you concentrate on one medium, or do you work in several?
We work with clay, creating a varied range of objects. Porcelain is used for the wall art, decorative vessels, sculpture and jewellery, whilst high fire stoneware is used for the thrown functional pieces. Moving between the different clays and types of objects helps keep the work and our creative thinking fresh. The exhibition will mainly concentrate on the porcelain range.
Tell me about your workspace.
We work out of our gallery/studio based in Sudbury Shopping Courtyard in the Derbyshire Dales. The courtyard is renovated Heritage workshops that once served Sudbury Hall. It’s a beautiful location and being next to The National Trust Sudbury Hall we receive lots of visitors. We make, glaze and fire all our pieces on site as well as display and sell our pottery there.
What inspires you?
Often we plan what we are going to create next, other times just holding a piece of clay instructs us as to what it will be. As producing a piece of pottery takes weeks to complete we are always working on many pieces at once. The Derbyshire countryside, landscape, textures, colours, flora and fauna are the predominant inspirations for our work.
How did you start doing what you do?
We both came from very different backgrounds, Lesley as a textile designer and trend forecaster who retrained in ceramics 16 years ago and Terry from an engineering background, just 7 years ago he was still a sales manager working for a company suppling big manufacturing businesses.
Do you work on your creative business full time, or do you have another job as well?
Lesley has been a full time ceramic artist for 14 years and Terry a full time master potter for 7 years. The decline of the manufacturing industry and work stresses lead both of us to change careers midlife.
If you have spare time, what do you do with it?
We love to travel, both within the UK and overseas and visit museums and art galleries, always looking for new inspiration.
What’s next for you?
We will continue to create with clay whilst we enjoy it and people continue to admire and appreciate our work.
