Ceramics Archives - The Oxfordshire Craft Guild

Hannelore Meinhold-Morgan studied Ceramics and Chemical Glaze Composition in Nürnberg, Germany. After graduating, she gained experience in various studio potteries abroad and in London, including the Briglin Pottery.

Hannelore established her own studio pottery before settling in Oxfordshire, where she was invited to revive the disused Boot Barn Pottery in Stonesfield by producing individual studio ceramics.

Hannelore develops her own unique glazes to decorate one-off sculptural, hand-built and wheel-thrown ceramic pieces. Her decorative and functional ceramics distinctively combine colour, form and texture.

Hannelore is inspired by life’s natural wonders and surprises. She is particularly drawn to and inspired by the natural world, including historically and evolutionarily; forests, landscapes, the sea, and all that lives and lies therein.

Elements, minerals, plants, organisms, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, striking invertebrates, fossilised
impressions, ancient forms are often depicted in Hannelore’s work, boldly, conceptually, discreetly.

Concepts are recreated through form, colour and texture and may be intensified with the addition of other materials, such as glass or metal, or the effects of such materials are created with carefully-devised glazes.

Hannelore’s work has been shown in galleries and at exhibitions in the UK and in Germany, and is in private collections internationally.

The Boot Barn Pottery in Stonesfield is usually open during Oxfordshire Artweeks and, otherwise, by appointment.

Bridget Tennent

Carol Read

My work is mainly sculptural ceramics, either Raku fired or high fired in an electric kiln.

A couple of pieces have been cast as small editions in bronze or iron resin.

I also make small batches of decorative or functional pottery in porcelain or stoneware.

I am drawn to working on the potter’s wheel. As well as making mugs, bowls and jugs, wheel-thrown bases form the starting point for making the Raku fired animal sculptures. The alchemic magic of the glazing and firing process never fails to amaze me. Combining glazes and seeing how they flow together to make new unexpected colours and depth to a piece is always exciting. Results are not always as desired, but expectations are usually met and often exceeded.

Since 2008, I have been collaborating with Richard Ballantyne to create the Raku fired menagerie, often mounted on found or bootfair ‘antiques’.

Joseph Bull

July 30, 2024
by admin

Teresa Munby

May 17, 2024
by admin

Having attended evening classes as an adult for a number of years and then given the unique opportunity to use a professional potter’s studio to develop my work further, I set up my own studio space in Oxford in 2011. I mainly hand build creating vases, tiles, sculptural and wall pieces.
Since 2020 I have also created a studio on the Isle of Mull in the Inner Hebrides where I create similar work in addition to thrown pieces.
Dividing my time between Oxford and Mull, my work is inspired by the natural world -in particular the flora, seascapes and shores of places I have regularly visited over time in the West Coast of Ireland, from when I was a child, to the Scilly Isles ‘discovered’ in the early 2000’s and most recently on the Isle of Mull.

In Oxford and the surrounding countryside, I have always enjoyed the variety of flowering plants and trees in various formal gardens, parks and parklands as well as the more naturally occurring plants and trees alongside the waterways and meadows which surround Oxford and with which I am so familiar having grown up and lived in Oxford for a large part of my life.

Whether beach combing or photographing flowers and trees these images and forms inevitably end up in some way or other in clay! I am particularly drawn to the various textures, colours and patterns in rock formations, rock pools and sand as well as the geometric patterns re-occurring in flowers. In the last year or so I’ve become fascinated by the history and appearance of the Ginkgo tree -both its fabulous shaped and marked leaves as well as its dramatic change of colour in the autumn from green to bright sunshine yellow. This led me to explore mono printing its leaves onto clay tiles as well as decorating vases with imprints of its leaves.

Over the years I have developed various techniques for both colouring clay and texturing the surfaces of pieces -whether hand built or thrown- using a variety of tools and found objects. I like to experiment with different forms for slab building (often using tubes, cones and other objects designed for industrial use) as well as creating moulds for texture -which I make using both plaster and silicone- from found and beachcombed objects. Combining both the colouring and texture techniques has enabled me to produce both vases and wall pieces which reflect my favourite patterns, colours and forms in nature. I also enjoy ‘re-purposing’ discarded waste materials…cardboard, plastic and so on to create and replicate these textures in clay to create intriguing pieces in ceramic which have the appearance of their original paper, card and plastic forms.

Most of my pieces are constructed using porcelain or porcelain paper clay which I have learnt to ‘push’ to its limit to form extremely thin but highly durable and waterproof constructions and forms.

Tam Frishberg

May 17, 2024
by admin

I started doing pottery seriously after retiring early from teaching. All of my pieces are thrown on the wheel and are designed to be both artistic and functional. Stoneware clay is ideal for such pieces as it is not only robust but lends itself to the subtle colours which I find aesthetically appealing.

My work is often inspired by vessels I have seen, some of them quite ancient ones in museums. Other shapes emerge in a more spontaneous interaction between wheel, hands and clay. People often comment on the quietness and “Japanese” feel of my work–something which perhaps comes from growing up in northern California next to the sea.

Recently I have enjoyed the challenge of making quite large plates and bowls and experimenting with imbedding a very thin strand of copper wire in a volcanic glaze. During firing the copper wire, though only about a millimetre in diameter, melts creating a rather dramatic band of black tinged with green and grey.

I regularly take part in Oxfordshire Artweeks and in Oxfordshire Craft Guild exhibitions. My work has been shown in various galleries including the Wiseman Gallery, Oxford; Bell Fine Art, Winchester; SOTA Gallery, Witney; and Junction Art, Woodstock. Visitors are always welcome at my home studio in Oxford.

Robyn Hardyman

May 17, 2024
by admin

I throw and turn my vessels on the wheel in my garden studio in Oxford. I use porcelain for its unique combination of delicacy and strength, and the wonderfully pure surface it provides for a glaze. My work is both functional and decorative; the bowls, cups, vases and jugs are thrown thinly and are often inspired by classic oriental ceramics, but they have a contemporary feel of their own. I hope they celebrate the subtle beauty in simplicity, elegance and harmony. I would like them to be a joyful communication between the maker and the user, who will enjoy the attention to every detail.

I relish exploring a palette of serene glaze colours and textures, a variety of surfaces to complement the simplicity of the forms. This is always an ongoing process; the thrill of experiment and discovery I find one of the most rewarding things in making.

Robin McClelland

May 17, 2024
by admin

I first handled clay at an evening class in my first year of teaching and have been making pots off and on over the years ever since. I have taught hand building techniques with children and teachers. My ceramics throughout those years were mostly thrown on a wheel. On retiring I decided I wanted to explore the possibilities of hand building using stoneware clay. My constructions are mostly non -functional and often asymmetrical. There is a range of architectural bottle pots and flasks, though I am not sure when a bottle pot becomes a flask.

Having made a number of ship pots I have developed the theme further with hull shapes, some small enough to sit in the palm of your hand and all featuring brightly underglazed abstract superstructures. The most recent sit on top of compatible slab built pedestals.

I am also making a limited number of raku fired pots. The colour palette is similar but the effects of the firing are different, often bold and always exciting.

I exhibit during Oxfordshire Art Week and I am also a member of West Ox Arts.

Richard Ballantyne

I started my artist career at Bradford College of Art, where I studies as an interior designer prior to starting work as such for Samuel Smiths Brewery in Tadcaster. After a spell of destroying the character of a multitude of pubs and clubs in the north of England I returned to University at Bretton Hall to retrain as a teacher. Then on to work as a full time potter. My ceramics are as varied as the British climate – work being both sculptural and functional, life size to miniature, raku to high-fired porcelain.

Being not only a pyromaniac but also a bit of a magpie, I often incorporate found objects in the sculpture – from ash from Mount St Helens in a glaze to stones washed up on the beach, each one telling its own story