Jane rye

‘I came to ceramics rather late in life - and watching other people learning to use the wheel looked nerve-wracking, so I stuck to hand-building. I use moulds, slab-building, pinching and coiling, with stoneware clay, and sometimes crank, decorated with patterns using wax relief and paper relief, with slips, underglaze colours and oxides, and a matt dolomite glaze.

One of the great attractions of ceramics it that even the most simple techniques provide one with seemingly endless possibilities and permutations in the way of decoration. Making patterns seems to be a basic, primitive instinct, like making music, and dancing, and I enjoy myself very much.’

October 2026