Community (Beginnings)
“Community (beginnings)” - white stoneware, ash glazed cups, slip decorated. November 2025-January 2026
This collection of cups explore the woodland as a symbiotic community, drawing parallels between ecological systems and human communities.
The individuals of the woodland are depicted through slip and stencil decoration, coated with ash glaze to directly connect people to the natural world through use.
Cups are objects of social connection, facilitating community engagement inspired by nature’s example.
Photos of cups by @mattdaviesimages
Inspiration:
It started with a walk around a woods nearby to my pottery tutor in South Wales.
I noticed the pops of yellows and browns that were appearing from the greens as the leaves turned. the start of Autumn.
The rows of fungi sprouting from the saturated trunks.
The ferns, herb robert (geranium), brambles, and the other densely sprawled plants that make up the undergrowth.
The diversity of trees and leaves, and an ash sapling starting its growth spurt within a newly formed gap.
The vines that cling to their chosen tree trunk and grow with it.
Sampling
Form inspiration: tree trunk
Clay choice: brown stoneware, colour of the soil/woodland floor
Laser cut stencils made of corrugated craft paper
1st and 2nd layers of slip
Once peeled. Painterly with the brush strokes and abstract with the mix of colours.
Underglaze transfer, drawing onto an ‘inked’ tile which picks up the ink on newsprint paper. You can then rub this onto the clay surface. This helped add different yet coherent visuals.
