Now in its 13th year, the Oxford Ceramics Fair was started by the Craft Potters’ Association, the professional body that represents studio potters. Studio pottery is pottery made by craftspeople working alone or in small groups to make unique items or short runs. It includes both functional wares and sculptural pieces. The Ashmolean is collaborating with the fair to hold an Overture Event on Saturday, October 20. This will be at the Ashmolean and introduced by Timothy Wilson, Keeper of Western Art, who has responsibility for the museum’s contemporary ceramic collection. Tanya Harrod will give a talk based on her award-winning book The Last Sane Man. The book is an elegant exploration of the life, work and philosophy of Michael Cardew, a main architect of modern studio pottery.

International ceramicist Phil Rogers will both demonstrate throwing on a wheel and lead an informal tour of the Ashmolean’s ceramic collection, which includes his own work. Six days later, at the fair itself, 70 makers — including local potters Phil Jolley, Gilles Le Corre, Dylan Brown and Richard Phethean — will be showing and selling their work.

Phil Rogers will also be at the fair with pieces fired in his new three-chambered wood kiln, work that is still at an experimental stage. Cornwall-based potter Jack Doherty will be showing his ‘Cafe Ceramics’, a range of beautiful and functional cups, bowls and the like, including his Mantlepiece collection. Doherty works in porcelain, throwing or carving each piece. His new ‘soda’ kiln enables him to set up a reaction between intense heat and the soda that gives birth to colours that range from smoky greys to lemon, russet and turquoise.

Sally MacDonnell’s work is fashioned by her fascination with people watching. She translates this into ceramic sculptures by smoke-firing her pieces fast, in a ten-minute fury of flames, created by burning wood and newspaper. After which she removes the now blackened figures leaving them to sizzle and cool on the lawn, before cleaning and waxing them.

Oxford Ceramics Fair and Overture Event
Ashmolean (Overture:  October 20)

St Edward’s School (Fair: October 26 & 27)
oxfordceramicsfair.co.uk