Alison West

I am a ceramic artist working from a tiny studio in a converted tack room in a stableyard on the edge of Dartmoor in Chagford, Devon. My work is shaped by the surrounding landscape and by an ongoing fascination with the interaction of clay, fire and natural materials.

My forms are influenced by Roman and Eastern ceramics and by time spent living in a ceramics region in Japan, where I gained a deeper appreciation of both decorative ceramics and functional pottery, and of the long traditions of making that continue through generations of potters and are fully valued within the local community.

I make wheel-thrown vessels and small batches of tableware, often decorated with terra sigillata slips made from wild clay that I collect on Dartmoor. These slips are carefully burnished to create soft, tactile surfaces that respond beautifully to alternative firing processes.

Much of my work is saggar fired using organic materials gathered from the landscape, including wood shavings, ferns, seedheads and grasses from Dartmoor, together with seaweed collected from the nearby coast. During firing these materials create subtle patterns and smoky markings so that each piece carries its own unique record of the process.

I previously produced saggar-fired tableware and now make this work on a commission basis. My current research explores lower-temperature reduction firing for tableware using locally sourced clays.

I teach pottery from my studio and run alternative firing workshops with raku potter Abi Higgins.
Workshop information can be found on my website.

My saggar-fired work was featured in the August 2019 Complete Pottery Techniques, published by Dorling Kindersley. In August 2025, I was featured as a Masterclass Maker in the Ceramic Review Masterclass and September 2025 featured potter in Artisans of Dartmoor by Suzy Bennett.

I take particular pleasure in seeing the moment when someone understands the time, skill and commitment that goes into the making process and appreciates the unique character of handmade ceramics.