Potfest Festival
Potfest
Potfest, United Kingdom – 2024
SHOWCASING THE ART OF POTTERY AND CERAMICS since 1994 –
Annual Festival of innovative ceramic eminence.
Set across nine different locations, each show has its own unique charm, style and energy where you can see and purchase unique and beautiful handmade pieces from talented artists. A wonderful opportunity to source beautiul, original, one off, artsanal pieces of quality ceranic art.
From the South Coast of England to the centre of Scotland, there are now 10 Potfest events distributed through the year from May to November. Spanning the country from the south coast near Brighton, to Perth in Scotland, each show featuring the work of between 90 -100 potters who exhibit and sell their handmade ceramics. Potfest is a fantastic day out – a popular event among ceramic enthusiasts, collectors, and members of the general public who are interested in pottery and ceramics. In addition to the exhibits, visitors have the chance to meet and talk with the artists themselves, and at the spring Penrith event there are also demonstrations, talks, and workshops by renowned potters and ceramicists.
See the work of the well-established artists alongside the up-and-coming, in an exciting mix of the sophisticated and raw talent of the next generation, combined in a bustling artisan marketplace atmosphere.
A selection of the diverse, original and fascinating ceramic art that proliferates the markets of Potfest, including decorative and functional pieces.
10, 11 & 12 May 2024
9.30am – 4.30pm daily
Potfest South East – Glynde Place is set in parkland immediately in front of a grand Elizabethan country house on the doorstep of the South Downs. The show is within easy access by road and rail from Brighton, Eastbourne and Lewes.
Dawn Hajittofi
Dawn Hajittofi
Dawn Hajittofi
Bethan Jones
Bethan Jones
Bethan Jones
Anthony Dix
Soda fired pots made for use taking inspiration from utilitarian architecture, mechanical devices and spirals in nature.
My work over the last 20 years has been about making pots that work well in use and add something unique to a table where food is shared.
Anthony Dix
Dee Barnes
My creative process is guided by intuition, allowing the clay to dictate its own path and the shape of each piece to influence its decoration. This organic approach infuses a sense of spontaneity and authenticity into my work, resulting in pieces that possess both artistic allure and functional appeal. Working in small batches, I specialize in crafting one-of-a-kind pieces, ranging from candelabras, vases, and bottles to plates and dishes. Embracing a naïve and narrative painterly style, I find inspiration in the simplicity and charm of traditional folk art, Staffordshire figurines and the Georgian era.
Dee Barnes
Dee Barnes
Elaine Humpleby
Elaine Humpleby
My sketches, my conversations with people and the Feminine and Pagan Mythos form powerful influences. When working I surround myself with notes, drawings, and loud music. Once I start manipulating the clay body, the result is a collaboration between my hands and the clay itself; it picks up my gestures and moods, responding and revealing itself. The tactile qualities of clay allow me to make dramatically changes as the final sculpture or drawing evolves. This process brings me joy and I hope that joy is conveyed within the final piece ”
Francesca Silverton
Ian Rylatt
Ian Rylatt
Ian Rylatt
Janne Greasley
I’m from Finland but now I live in the Lake District, in Cumbria. Lakes, forests, ancient places and the sea are all important to me. My sculptural and functional forms and mark-making reflect and reference where I live.
Harriet Caslin
Jennie McCall
Jennie’s professional background was Graphic Design and illustration but her career in most recent years has turned to developing her skills as a sculptor. Inspired by myth and nature Jennie uses stoneware and porcelain clay with hand-building techniques to create figurative sculptures, human and animalia that focus on simple form with intuitive gestural touches both in the making and the glazing.
Jon Bulll
Jon Bull
Jon Bull
Bridget Timoney
Julia Elliott
Julia Elliott
Ruth Readman
Ruth Readman
Ruth Readman
Veronica Kendal
Siobhan Miles Moore
Siobhan Miles Moore
Roger Cockram
May 25th, 26th & 27th
10am – 4.30pm daily
Peter Webb
My work has a strong connections with landscape; the natural characteristics of the earth such as strata in cliffs, rock outcrops, stones, craggs, all formed by the forces of nature rather than human hand. Embracing the Japanese concept of ‘wabi-sabi’ – the acceptance and appreciation of beauty in imperfection – my work is concerned purely with aethetics rather than functionality.
Charlotte Morrison
Charlotte is a ceramicist from the Yorkshire Dales, who hand-builds her individual ceramics. She uses porcelain clay to create both functional & decorative items, which are decorated using underglazes, oxides & various glazes. Her work reflects the past in some form; as she has a fascination in researching times past. She has two main bodies of work; her ‘Map Collection’ which her ceramics through form & symbolic inspired decoration, echo ancient roads, places & the surrounding Yorkshire landscape
Charlotte Morrison
Charlotte Morrison
Andrea Dyson
Working from her home studio in rural West Yorkshire, Andrea has been creating functional ceramic pieces for almost 3 years. As a self taught ceramist, she enjoys exploring the various ways of making and uses pinch pottery and slab building techniques as well as throwing pieces on the wheel and her latest small collection is inspired by the Sea and Sky.
Andrea Dyson
Adrian Austin and Adamina Turek
2 Hungry Bakers — Adrian Austin and Adamina Turek
2 Hungry Bakers– Adrian Austin and Adamina Turek
Dorit Deutsch
Stephen Laughton
Amy Pates
John Bavester and Becky Ayers
7, 8 & 9 June 2024
10am – 4.30pm daily
Ceri White
Ceri White
Ceri White
Ceri White
Christine Hester Smith
Christine Hester Smith
Eddie McPhilemy
Eddie McPhilemy
Eleanor Caie
Eleanor Caie
Eleanor Caie
Felicity Lloyd Coombes
Felicity Lloyd Coombes
Heather Armstrong
Jeremy James
Jeremy James
Jeremy James
Jeremy James makes sculptures of people and creatures in high-fired ceramic. The work ranges from the observation of animals and birds watched directly in the wild to human figures that appear to inhabit a world similar to our own, yet oddly different. Their lively modelling and dynamic composition characterise all of Jeremy’s work.
Jeremy James
Jeremy James
James Coogan
James Coogan
James Coogan
I hand-build ceramic art in a small studio in South Cowal, Scotland. My work is inspired by ice and water from my time spent working as an oceanographer researching in the Arctic. After three and a half years immersed in the world of fractured ice I have been inspired by the interactions between warming oceans and shrinking glaciers. I make a range of unique sculptural forms representing icebergs, glacial landscapes, and monoliths.
Iona Crawford – Iona Ceramics
Iona Crawford
Jessica Osbourne
My Joy is colour, form and texture. Inspiration comes from nature, particularly plants and natural formations. Clay is the perfect medium to create pieces of all shapes and sizes for indoors and outdoors. I look at the love and care plants need in addition to what will enhance its beauty.
I also incorporate my food and cookery background, creating practical but quirky homeware. My desire is to make unique pieces that can bring pleasure for their individuality rather than continuity. My ceramic journey is a learning curve and I am enjoying the ride.
Jessica Osbourne
Jessica Osbourne
Sara Hood
Sara Hood
David Wright
David Wright hand builds pots from coils or ropes of clay. The slow method of working, beating and scraping the surface allows the form to be modified whilst building. Each pot is therefore very individual, it possesses a unique character with a distinct textural surface. The pots are glazed with simple ash glazes made from the ashes of different woods; traditional Shino glaze is also used to give warm reds and oranges.
Finally the pots are fired in a wood fuelled kiln to about 1300°c; the flame and ash from the fire give their colours and warmth to the work.
David Wright
Pauline Beauytman
21, 22 & 23 June 2024
Nick Marsh
Nick Marsh
Sarah Saunders
Sharon Griffin
Sharon Griffin
Sharon uses the human figure to help communicate a sense of deeper meaning within humankind and of her own experience of being a woman. The sculptures represent a state of being; internal struggles of love, loss, displacement, vulnerability and strength.
Using hand-building techniques, Sharon intuitively works with the human form, face and heads as a 3D canvas, allowing each individual piece to evolve organically.
The highly textured surfaces are achieved by working into the raw, un-fired clay, with a variety of slips, found oxides, synthetic body stains and glaze before being once fired using an electric kiln.
Tony Laverick
Tony Laverick
Tony Laverick
Vicky Hageman
Vicky Hageman
Patricia Millar
Her vessels celebrate form, colour and texture of their geological and anthropological origins.
Patricia Millar
See more artists and locations here — potfest website
Full list of participating potters
