Elena Blunsum began her journey into ceramics when she joined a night school class. After seven years of adult education pottery she decided to study at a higher level and enrolled at South Thames College . Following graduation Elena moved into a studio and started to teach at the adult education centre where she first found her love of the medium and encourages her students in their development of ceramics.

Important to Elena are the tactile qualities inherent in her work. She is delighted to observe people reaching out to touch the work, as they are perhaps uncertain of the material. Elena is also concerned with how flexible the work is in its display in different environments. Each set of works can be arranged in an array of positions providing an interactive twist in what one may expect to be a stationary and unchangeable set of objects. This idea is intended to be responded to as a design feature of Elena's ceramics.

Contrasting elements are a strong theme in the work. The contrast of the formal element of the making process with the random results which firing can give is the first example of this. Secondly, the contrasts of black and white and smooth and textured are apparent in the work. These strong differences create an opulent display of work and are incredibly atmospheric as a collection grouped together.

All of Elena's work is slip cast in plaster moulds. The forms either have texture applied or are repeatedly burnished to produce a silky smooth surface. When the work is dry it is biscuit fired and then Raku fired prior to being finished. Some of the works are fired plain while others have a coat of slip and then glaze applied before being fired. Elena states how the firing stage “is definitely the most exciting and dramatic! The resulting carbon is absorbed by the clay body imbuing it with its own special qualities.”

A stunning display of breathtaking ceramics. A must see for those interested in the medium and for those interested in the design concepts surrounding the work.