• The Guardian
  8 Monday 2 May 2022
  Arts

of today’s pupils. “You just have

to keep trying.”

That’s because, of late, the world

has gone potty for pots. Ceramics

are on fi re. The craft that was until

fairly recently associated with

a lumpy 1970s earnestness, and

shoved to the back of the cabinet

of embarrassments throughout the

minimalist 1990s and 2000s, has

re-emerged and is now deemed

to be hot.

The oddity of this modern

appreciation for one of civilisation’s

most ancient activities – just a

short anthropological move from

hunting and gathering – is perhaps

best expressed in the number

of mega-celebrities who have

expressed a passion for getting

their hands dirty. Serena Williams

admitt ed on social media , back in

2019 , that she was “ really getting

into pottery ”. Actor Seth Rogen

became so enthused by pots during

lockdown that he built a studio in

his garage and sells his own ceramic

marijuana paraphernalia.

Brad Pitt doesn’t just sculpt

in clay, he uses other materials,

apparently while listening to

Frank Ocean – he is also sometimes

joined by Leonardo DiCaprio.

Laura Harrier, star of Spider-

M an: Homecoming , has her

own pottery studio , while Josh

O’Connor , who played Prince

Charles in The Crown, regularly

posts pottery appreciations on

Instagram, praising the late Lucie

Rie. An acclaimed British ceramics

artist , formerly only known to a

niche audience, Rie’s name is now

nodded at sagely by anyone who’s

bought a four-set of wobbly cereal

bowls from a clay-splashed parent

at the school fair.

In fashion circles, it’s got to the

point where you’re no one if you

haven’t already launched a micro

collection of organic-form vessels.

Last year, the designer Jonathan

Anderson , a ceramics collector and

Serena Williams

and Seth Rogen

have joined the

growing ranks of

amateur potters

taking the wheel.

Kate Finnigan

gets her hands

dirty with the

new ceramicists

PHOTOGRAPHS: CHARLOTTE GRAHAM/THE HEPWORTH WAKEFIELD; THE FITZWILLIAM MUSEUM, CAMBRIDGE; @SETHROGEN; BBC; HENRY HOLLAND; GETTY

IMAGES

Home made

... Seth Rogen

with one of

his pieces

superfan, collaborated with both

the Kenyan-born, Surrey-based

artist Dame Magdalene Odundo,

known for her hand built, highly

burnished works, and young

American ceramics star Shawanda

Corbett on a collection of blankets

for the JW Anderson autumn/

winter 2021 collection.

French designer Isabel Marant

has stopped working on Mondays

so that she can pursue a ceramics

practice in her own recently

completed pottery studio. “I

don’t want to make any business

out of it,” she says. “It’s the

realisation of a dream and very

satisfying to me. Although I think

my friends are going to be pissed

off because they won’t get clothes

as presents any more – they’ll get

ceramics.”

Henry Holland , the former

London fashion week star who has

dressed the likes of Alexa Chung

and Rita Ora , has moved over to

the kiln-fi red fun side entirely.

When his fashion brand, House of

Holland, went into administration

at the start of the pandemic , he

sought creative solace in a bag of

clay. The morning after he’d posted

a few pictures of some stripy bowls

on social media, he woke up to

150 orders and is now at the helm

of a new ceramics enterprise, a

collection of graphic tableware

made from contrasting coloured

clays in the Japanese tradition of

nerikomi , sold by, among others,

Liberty and Soho Home.

“The ceramics industry across

the country is fl ying,” he says.

“When I’m asking my suppliers

if they can create new colours for

me, they’re saying, ‘We don’t need

any new business.’ They’re totally

overwhelmed. There’s a resurgence

in homewares in general, and hand-

making processes and craft, a move

away from mass production. People

are becoming much more aware of

what they’re buying and attaching

more emotion to objects. And

I’m not going to lie: it’s defi nitely

increased in relevance because of

Throw Down.”

Jovial, inclusive and messy, The

Great Pottery Throw Down , which

recently broadcast its fi fth series

on Channel 4 after launching on

BBC Two in 2015 , has done much

to educate Britons about ceramics,

making them as au fait with the

dangers of fl oppy rims as they are

with Bake-Off ’s soggy bottoms.

Helen Ritchie is a curator at the

Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge ,

which holds the country’s most

important collection of European,

Middle Eastern and Far Eastern

ceramics, and is exhibiting

Odundo’s works and inspirations.

She sees more engagement with

ceramics from visitors these days.

“They ask more questions about

how things are made,” says Ritchie.

“They’re not just walking past

I t’s Saturday morning

and a group of women are standing
in a nervous huddle, waiting to
see if the vases and bowls they
popped into the kiln last week have
survived. “That came out really
nice,” says one student. “Oh, wow!”
proclaims another, holding up a
small bowl. “I’m so proud of me.”
Freya Bramble-Carter , their
30-year-old teacher, looks on at this
studio in Kingsgate Workshops, in
London , like a mother watching
her children make fairy cakes
for the fi rst time. “It’s really fun
seeing their reactions,” she says.
“Especially after they’ve applied
the glaze. Then the clay’s been
through all of its transformations.”
An artist and a teacher, Bramble-
Carter recently showed her work
at the Collect art fair in London.
Channel 4 viewers may also
remember her from the 2017 series
of The Great Pottery Throw Down ,
which she exited after failing to
make a successfully fl ushing toilet.
She has more than 26,000 followers
on Instagram and is much admired
in this class. Watching her at the
wheel, gracefully turning a ball
of wet clay into the beginnings of
an elegant vessel, one of Bramble-
Carter’s pupils refers to her as
“the goddess of pottery”.
She studied at Chelsea College
of Arts , but it was her father, Chris
Bramble , who has been teaching
ceramics for 30 years, who passed
on his craft to his daughter and
her twin sister, also a ceramicist
and performance artist. It’s hard
to get a place in Freya and Chris’s
classes at the moment. “They’re
always booked up,” says Emily, one

Tactile business ...

Henry Holland

at work

Goddess of pottery

...Freya Bramble-

Carter makes a toilet

on The Great Pottery

Throw Down

Pot heads

Record-breaker ...

Dame Magdalene

Odundo; left, a

Lucie Rie bowl