Beneath the Surface
3rd May – 30th July 2016
This trio of new designers are making their mark in the world of Contemporary Craft and come together in this remarkable showcase of emerging talent. Kate Welton, Hannah Tounsend and Josie Seymour-Jones explore stoneware, earthenware and porcelain with a variety of making and decorating techniques. Each individual shares the love and beauty of mark making with their richly animated surfaces treating the clay as their canvas.
Kate Welton
Education
BA (Hons) 1st Class Design Crafts, De Montfort University, Leicester, 2012-2015
Level 3 Foundation Diploma Art and Design, Distinction, West Suffolk College, 2012
“Working in ceramics, my current practice is inspired by traditional gardening tools and processes, and the simple beauty they possess. Funnels, sieves, watering can roses and seed packets gathered from my grandfather’s shed all offer a sense of longevity, with worn surfaces and unchanged forms. I enjoy exploring ideas through mark making and the simple beauty of these implements is considered through detailed observation of surface pattern. I use a variety of decorating techniques to paint onto my ceramic pieces with slips, achieving worn and layered surfaces. Alongside this, established processes of sowing, cultivating, watering and harvesting are explored within the collection. Pierced bowls hint at sieving and watering, whilst narrow dishes mimic the furrows created to plant seeds. Each ceramic piece captures the essence of a different activity while surfaces layered with marks, earthy colours and familiar forms evoke the timelessness of the rural garden. My present collection comprises of a series of stoneware and earthenware thrown bowls, press moulded platters and press mould dishes.”
Hannah Tounsend
Education
MA - Fine Art by Independent Study De Monfort University 2011 - 2015
BA Hons Ceramics and Glass De Monfort University 2003 - 2006
Won the FRESH 2015 award at the British Ceramics Biennial for her series of printed vessels ‘Traversing the Line’.
“My work explores the layered landscapes and sea-washed, weatherworn surfaces of the British coastline. Marks, lines and diffuse merging colours are built up, cut through and dissolved away. The repeatedly worked surfaces of clay and print are under constant revision, referencing the endless remaking of the shore.
Vessel pieces are formed using a hybrid making technique of slip-casting and throwing. Within an open plaster mould I build layers of printed, poured and painted casting slips, overlaying colours on the porous surface. These designs are incorporated into a cast shell of clay, before mould and cast are fixed centrally to a throwing wheel. A partially thrown cylinder of plastic clay is joined to the cut rim of the still-moulded cast and fully thrown out. The presence of the mould allows the formation of a flange of clay that accentuates the join and breaks away in pleasingly irregular fragments as the piece shrinks and pulls inwards.”
Josie Seymour-Jones
Education
University/College: Hereford College of Arts
Course: Contemporary Applied Arts & Metal Smithing BA (Hons)
Working in porcelain, Josie creates ceramics with subtle surface qualities. Applying layers of colour, lines and marks to richly animate the surface of the clay, she draws from landscapes she has connected with. Beginning by observing the transitional nature of light, her paintings form the basis of a narrative, reflecting a sense of place. Treating the clay as a canvas, imagery is transcribed onto a collection of cylindrical forms; thin, delicate and light to reflect the fragile quality of porcelain.
