Not Core

I have been working with clay for nearly 5 years, but I have been making art for as long as I can remember. My background in oil painting and life sketching is what inspired me to begin working with clay initially, I was searching for a new canvas for my artwork. As I continued to illustrate on my ceramics, I started to fall in love with pottery as its own individual art form. I now work full time as an artist that makes primarily one of a kind illustrated ceramics 

I started my clay journey on a pottery wheel, but I am absolutely enamoured with hand building (Sorry to my poor abandoned pottery wheel that is sitting in my garage!). I choose hand building partly because I love the slower and more intuitive process, but mainly it is due to the gorgeous slightly warbled effect my finger marks leave on the surface, I feel it almost mimics paper in a journal, and I think it pairs really nicely with my illustrative designs. 

It's really difficult to choose a favourite project! I have a really soft spot for all of my one of a kind illustrated mugs, I use them almost like a sketchbook journal, and so they're all very special and hold their own meaning and memory. My most recent favourite is a mug named "rocks fall but I will catch them". I really love how the composition landed on the mug, and I used my favourite Kiwi underglaze colour! (Maroon Red) 

Grace fires her work at Cone 6 (1220c) and applies underglaze on bisque and occasionally greenware at leather hard for Sgraffito.

See more of Grace's work on Instagram! 💚