We have made a difficult decision to end People’s Pottery Classes and Thursday night pottery for the rest of the term. All classes starting from 17 March will be cancelled to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
We will let you know if it will be possible to make up classes next term. If it is not possible we will be offering refunds.
At this time we hope we will be able to re-open as planned next term, however this will be reviewed, and we will keep you informed.
is not possible we will be offering refunds. At this time we hope we will be able to re-open as planned next term, however this will be reviewed, and we will keep you informed.
There are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the studio. Despite that our team decided to take precautionary measures to ensure the wellbeing of students, staff and artists.
We will keep all your work in progress and finished pieces, so everyone can pick up on where they stopped and not miss out.
Thank you for your understanding and support in this difficult time. Please take care and we will miss you.
Exhibition open on Friday and Saturday afternoons, 1pm to 5pm
Holly Stevenson, Get Well Soon, 2019
Caroline Fisher Projects is delighted to present the work of ceramicists, Lydia Hardwick and Holly Stevenson
Lydia Hardwick
graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2013. Using surface
techniques, such as inlaying and slip decorating, her working methods
are meditative and intuitive, developed through an understanding of
materials gained over years of working with clay.
Hardwick
is drawn to patterns and motifs found within indigenous craft objects
and textiles, made by communities that attribute great expressive power
to visual things. Intrigued by the mysterious formal vocabulary of folk
geometry, she combines a myriad of making traditions with influences
from European art and design to produce work that aims to reconnect us
to an ancient appreciation of line, surface, tone and texture as
presences unto themselves.
At Caroline Fisher Projects,
traditional ceramic forms will be exhibited alongside abstract material
experiments. Pots, forms that are intrinsic to human creativity, adorned
with pattern will be placed throughout the space, alongside relief
palm-sized ‘swatches’ of clay arranged on the walls of the gallery. The
work will act as a series of meditations on the illusive nature of
meaning in visual things, reawakening personal experiences of place,
pattern and surface.
In 2015, Hardwick collaborated and exhibited with the Turner Prize winning group, Assemble
and showed in the Beazley ‘Designs of the Year’ exhibition at London’s
Design Museum. She is a qualified teacher, regularly delivering
workshops at the Royal Academy of Arts, Whitechapel Gallery and Camden
Arts Centre, London. In 2016 her work with Assemble was acquired by the V&A for their collection.
Holly Stevenson’s
ceramic practice is informed by an intense interest in psychoanalysis
and her sculpture explores how shape and colour might suggest embodied
narratives.
Her ongoing studio project entitled ‘Freud’s
Ashtray’ is inspired by Sigmund Freud’s favourite marble ashtray, still
to be found on his desk at the Freud Museum in Hampstead. The feminine
shaped ovular artefact equipped with the remains of a cylindrical
phallic cigar provide the two modest forms, the oval and the cylinder,
that the artist repeatedly recreates in clay as the foundation stones to
her work. Within the hand built bulging surreal forms meaning becomes
contained: Clay shapes up to take on characters, often adorned with
chains and flowers, so that Narcissus’ pools and Uncanny bouquets develop into brightly glazed ceramic compositions reflecting on tales of quirky bodies, femininity and sensuality.
Stevenson
started to work obsessively with clay in 2016, after a guest residency
in Sichuan, China. She graduated from the Chelsea College of Art and
Design MFA in 2011 with the generous help of the Stanley Picker
Foundation and is currently a resident artist in the Ceramics Studio
Co-op, London. Her work has been shown widely in the UK, Cubitt, The
Barbican, Zabludowicz Collection, Flat Time House, John Latham
Foundation and Gazelli Art House amongst others, as well as in China and
Italy.
Caroline Fisher Projects encourages artists working in clay and other media to realise innovative work that pushes the boundaries of these disciplines.
Over recent years there has been a questioning of the role of ceramic practice within art and craft.
Can a functional object also be an art work? What is the status of making in an art world increasingly obsessed with ideas? How will a new generation of artists learn about ceramic techniques now that there are so few higher level courses that focus on these? How can clay be combined with other media such as film, photography, performance, music and food?
The first floor space at 93a Upper St Giles’ Street, Norwich is an exhibition space but also hosts a ‘Clay Conversation’ on the first Friday of the month at 11am during exhibitions. All welcome to attend.
We wish all our students, studio members and supporters a merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We had an amazing year with you, full of achievements and truly inspiring work! Thank you for working with us, and making the studio we run amazing place to work and make!
Here are few things that defined our last year
We started Open Access run 3 days a week in the studio.
Fired sculptures and pots for shows of Esther Neslen, Sandra Lane, Camilla Haney, Holly Stevenson, Fredrik Andersson, Shelly Bancroft to name a few artists/makers we worked with.
We had 4 new studio members joining the space, and 2 new tutors starting to teach with us.
Helped prepare favours for several weddings, including the one by our dear studio member Ella Martin.
We were also delighted to have given a helpful hand firing most beautiful procelain print work for Bella Easton, for which she received Jerwood London Original Print Fair Award.
Our year started from studio exhibition with fellow cooperative Cubitt Artists and workshop with Voice of Domestic Workers, facilitated by Louise Shelley. You can read more about the project here.
We had amazing pieces produced in the classroom, and progress from students continuing to actively pursue the craft. We are so proud to see our student’s work, and your inventiveness and confidence with clay. It had been a delightful end of the last term in the decade, seeing all the success and visible growth that your process went though. Thank you.
Technically challenging and delightful to see this work come together. This is a study of Monstrosity initiated by Esther Neslen and carried out with students in Walthamstow area.
Onwards and upwards! Let’s see what 2020 has in stock for us!
We are excited to start taking bookings for classes running in the new year. You can click on the classes icons to find out more about each class and make your booking.
If you are keen to join longer and more in-depth session, Thursday mornings are best for you. It is our longest class of 3 hours!
If you are unsure about signing up for 12 weeks – join Friday mornings, which can be booked in half-terms, so you can see if you like it before committing for couple of months.
All our classes have structured introduction into pottery techniques that will allow you to build understanding of ceramics and make your own special pieces.
If you have any questions about the classes in the upcoming year, do get in touch.
Ceramics studio space available from November 2019
Desk spaces for ceramics are available at Ceramics Studio Co-op starting in November 2019.
The studio is equipped for professional ceramics practice, with essential equipment like throwing wheels, a slab roller, 5 kilns of various sizes etc.
Rent of desk space includes access to studio equipment and shared common areas where bigger pieces can be produced.
Studio spaces are a part of busy studio that is attended and looked after 5 days a week by professional staff. Access to studio is 24/7.
Spaces available for £165 pcm.
You will be included into studio’s directory of studio members.
We are looking for a ceramics practitioners, makers, sculptors who are able to practice independently, and are organized and willing to work within a shared space long term. (More than 3 months).
You will be expected to be responsible for your making process (sourcing materials, tools, recycling etc). Assistance with firings and kiln training is provided on fixed regular basis.
Contact us via email to arrange a viewing appointment with information about your practice and experience.
Wrestle with the evil clay and shape your ultimate fear!
Take home your very own piece of iconic 80s horror and learn a new
skill.
Tristan Lathey’s porcelain and earthenware pieces modelled for the workshop.
Horror fan and ceramics artist Tristan has 8 years of slab building
experience. He primarily makes cute animals which he exhibits in the
north of England. He has been working at the Ceramics Studio Co-op since
it opened in 2014.
This workshop will be run in a form of a masterclass that is focused
on slab-building and decorating complex shapes and characters. Pieces
created at the workshop will be glazed and fired in the studio after the
class. They will be available for collection in 2-3 weeks.
All materials and firings are included in the price.
31 October – 19 December 2019
Thursdays, 6:30pm – 9pm
This 8-week course is a good introduction to ceramics and pottery techniques with special focus on decoration and colour. The course is suitable for beginners and those with some experience making pottery or ceramic sculpture.
Bella Easton – Winner of Jerwood London Original Print Fair Award
We are very proud to share that artist and printmaker working in ceramics Bella Easton received Jerwood London Original Print Fair Award of £10,000 for the piece of work we helped her to produce. Well done Bella.
You can see the celebrated lithograph on porcelain panels called ANGEL HEART in Royal Academy during Summer exhibition.
We have been firing more work Esther Neslen’s collaborative work
These pieces were produced by school and nursery children under skilful supervision by artist Esther. Here they are downstairs ready to be taken away for assembling. 2 out of 10 human-size persons. Brilliant and challenging project!
