RACHEL GRAY

RACHEL GRAY makes wheel-thrown pottery from her home in Salisbury. She studied textiles at Chelsea College of Art and then completed an MA in Contemporary Crafts at UCA Farnham.

Rachel creates pottery for the table; bowls, plates and dishes to serve and eat from. Her pots are thrown on the wheel and then bisque fired before glazing. She mixes her own glazes from raw materials using oxides to colour the glaze. The pots are then fired to 1240°C in an electric kiln. Rachel’s ceramics have earthy colours and free decorative marks making them beautiful and useful. These are pieces to be used and loved everyday.

I love cooking and part of the joy of making and sharing good food is choosing the right bowl or dish to serve it in, the food and the pot complementing each other. Drinking from a handmade cup enhances the ritual of a tea or coffee in the morning.

Making is an on-going learning process, throwing pots on the wheel is about creating forms and curves that feel right in my hands as well as to the eye. The texture and brushstrokes of the glaze, the weight of the pot in your hand and the marks of the making process in the finished piece are all a part of the joy of handmade ceramics.

Rachel Gray, 2021