Annie is a Manchester based ceramicist, specialising in wheel throwing and glazing. She combines simplistic forms as a canvas and explore experimental and tactile glaze to create sculptural objects. This process evokes an abstract response to the weather worn coastal landscape that informs her current practice.

 

Finding inspiration within the natural world, Annie’s starting points often come from sketches, photographs or found objects from a plethora of coastal destinations and the memories of these places. Residing in the starkly contrasting urban environment, she aims to encapsulate and translate her experience of the coastline  within the objects she creates.

 

Her work is informed by the transformative effects of natural weathering and the patterns and textural qualities that imprint on surface, such as rocks and …… She reflects the ongoing reconstructive process of nature in her practice. 

 

 

Annie translates these ideas  through a combination of slips, englobes and bold reactive glazes that transforms and produces unpredictable spontaneous outcomes during the firing process, capturing a permutable state as the kiln cools. Working with a subtle and muted colour pallet of neutral tones, enables texture, gradient and depth to be the focus of the object.

 

Annie values the unpredictable nature and challenges that occur when working with a natural medium like clay. She considers her practice to be a collaboration between herself and the material, allowing her making process to be flexible and lenient, often resulting in unpredicted outcomes.

 

‘I found my direction with ceramics when transitioning from slip casting to throwing. As a person, I learn best through handling and touching in order to form a stronger connection. The wheel brought a new dimension of togetherness and understanding to the process of making. As I throw, the clay responds to my gestures and I respond to the clay.’