Venue
Venue Address
3 Rackenford road
Witheridge
Venue Postcode
EX16 8AQ
What3Words
Proposal.paddle.limits
Directions
You’ll find me in the purple log cabin
Parking
I have several parking spaces outside my studio
Venue Facilities
Artist statement
I am a hand built potter, which means none of my work is thrown on the wheel, but rather rolled out like pastry, coiled or made using thumb or pinch pots, this means that I can add loads of texture into my work.
A lot of my work is botanical, using real flowers and leaves rolled into clay. I love using beach finds in my work too such as seaweed and shells
Extended Bio
I’m Laura Butcher, potter at mud and moor pottery.
What inspires me? The gorgeous world outside my home and studio in Devon. I am a hand builder, which means none of my work is thrown on the wheel, but rather rolled out like pastry, coiled or made using thumb or pinch pots, this means that I can add loads of texture into my work.
A lot of my work is botanical, whilst walking my dog Rocky in the woods I had the idea to try and roll leaves into clay, I was amazed by the texture that the leaves left behind, and it spurred me on to try all sorts of flowers and leaves.
I collect most of my plants from my own garden and hedgerows around my studio, but I also have a lovely local florist who grows things for me in her cottage garden, for example I really like the swirly bits and peas from her sweet peas, I think she finds supplying me a bit different to her usual florist requests!
My favoured technique is slab rolling, I roll a piece of clay to size using a rolling pin on a tea towel, and then roll in the plants, I quite often add text too, and then either use a plaster mould to shape the piece in the case of a bowl, or free form a mug or jug.
I also love the sea, and really enjoy making beach inspired pottery. I make little tealight beach huts and make bowls using sand, shells and seaweed.
I love how my work changes over the year as different plants become available, the bright yellows of spring as the daffodils appear, the abundance of flowers in the Summer, and the leaves changing to orange and brown in the Autumn. It means my work never gets boring as I get different plants to work with as the seasons change.
I also teach workshops year round to adults and children, mainly from my little studio in Witheridge. I enjoy sharing my knowledge with others, and love to see what people make. My 6 week courses are my most popular, I also teach in schools, and for small friend groups in my studio for one off and 2 part sessions.
Once the pieces have been bisque fired to 980°C. the only things left of the plants are the imprint and a little pile of ash, I try to stay true to the colours of the original plants as much as possible, but my favoured clay fires a creamy white, so sometimes I have to use a bit of artistic license to make the colours pop.
I recently had the pleasure of making pottery from someone's wedding bouquet, she had quite a few white flowers within the bouquet so as well as making some pieces using the true colours, I also used the blue from the bridesmaid dresses, as well as the brown hessian that the flowers were tied in to make some unique mementos from their special day. Once I have hand painted each individual flower, and then dipped them all in a transparent glaze, everything is fired again in my kiln, this time to 1125°C this second firing takes around 36 hours until my kiln is cool enough to be opened.