Anna Phillips Ceramics
WELCOME
Thank you for visiting my website. I endeavour to make works that will enhance people’s enjoyment of their environment by providing visual and tactile pleasure. All my pieces are unique, handmade creations and I hope that the joy I derive whilst making them is communicated to anyone who elects to take the work into their home.
ABOUT ANNA
I began my journey with clay at an influential age when, pre-teen, I started classes with a local potter on Sunday mornings. I cannot thank my parents enough for providing this opportunity as this was where the love affair with this wonderful material commenced, and, decades on, the passion continues.
The foundation to my clay education went beyond the classroom and was all encompassing. My tutor provided a thorough grounding teaching how to mix clay bodies and glazes, make moulds and firing kilns together with a comprehensive overview of hand building techniques and throwing skills; lessons were enhanced by trips to museums, galleries, exhibitions and demonstrations by other potters. I extended my education completing intensive courses in throwing, kiln building and alternative firing techniques and by attending Master classes facilitated by the local Potters Association. I studied ceramics at Art College and in later years revisited education obtaining City & Guilds qualifications in ceramics.
My current studio is at home where I explore the infinite possibilities that clay affords, one lifetime will never be long enough for the many alternative facets of this wonderful material and complex techniques. I continue to be fascinated by the vessel, an archetypal form which is basic, timeless and human, its shape offers endless possibilities of interplay between actual and symbolic use. I endeavour to impart my passion for clay together with creative playfulness into pieces I make and continue to experiment with clay bodies, firing techniques and decorative methods to produce pieces of work that have a richness and depth to them unified in the surface treatment that articulates the form. Please browse my on-line gallery showing current work together with an archive section of older series, should you find anything that catches your eye I would be delighted to hear from you.
I can be contacted by telephone on 07732 738321 or e-mailed at apceramics@hotmail.co.uk, or using the Contact form below.
Gallery
Current work has evolved through the exploration of the theory of the human body being a vessel for the spirit on a person’s journey through life, the forms all have a prow-like seam metamorphasising into a representation of a human head with the body of the structure forming a hull of a ship for cargo / body for the spirit of humanity. Surface treatments involve the application of coloured terra sigillata slip to the raw clay body and natural oxides to the bisque fired ware all fired in an electric kiln, alternatively the vessels are Raku fired.
Archive
Black and patina silver / gold leaf – use of a black clay body and the exploration of carved concentric patterns into the raw clay. Vessels are high fired and then a decorative application of silver and / or gold leaf is applied to the surface followed by a chemical ageing process.
Raku
Work exploring the juxtaposition of angles and curves both in the vessel form and in the decorative patters applied to the surface.
CONTACT ANNA
