Beth FrenchBeth French Pottery
"of land and sea"
My pots are functional and decorative stoneware, with form, glazes and brush work inspired by a life long love of the sea, leading to a record setting decade of channel swimming. I like to balance form and function- creating soft curves that hold the eye with bold graphic stroke work of slip and underglaze decoration that shares the joy of a wild and lumpy sea swim… or soft diffuse glaze work the mirrors the sea mists, or gentle rolling hills of my Somerset upbringing.
Having spent a year ordained as a buddhist nun in Thailand, I like to meditate on the wheel as I throw, and enjoy leaving an imprint of the maker- either in throwing lines or a finger dent in the line of the glaze. The simple, honest shapes of my pots is inspired by having grown up in the hamlet alongside David Winkley, his being the pots that filled my home and his pottery being a formative memory of my early years.