Fiona Bates

Ceramics

Fiona’s interest in clay began with childhood visits to her Gran who worked and lived in the potteries in Stoke on Trent and took her to the Gladstone pottery (where the Pottery Throw Down is filmed today).

Following a foundation course at Winchester Art College, Fiona went on to study a BA (hons) in ceramics at Central St. Martins, London and some years later an MA in Making and Archiving at UWE Bristol. It wasn’t until she had moved to Ilfracombe and both her children were at school that she was able to set up a dedicated ceramics studio in 2013.

Here she explored the magical qualities of clay and whilst she acknowledges that it is a very tricky material to master she has learnt to love its unpredictability.

Her work is all hand built using earthenware clays and finished with a range of earthenware glazes. Pieces are inevitably influenced by the spectacular coast line of North Devon and the underwater world. She also incorporates folk tales, sea shanties and found objects in her work