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Jenny Charles
As a ceramicist Jenny loves the earthy feeling of working the clay in her hands and predominantly works with rolled slabs to create her pieces. She is equally happy throwing on the wheel for a fast and immediate result or working in a slower and contemplative way when coiling damp clay.
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Jenny has been exploring the joys of ceramics for over 30 years and now works from her garden based studio near Blair Atholl in Highland Perthshire.
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Aesthetic
Jenny’s pieces purposefully convey a simple and authentic design, always original and often with a nod to the past. Her joyful work is both tactile and desirable, and will delight any ceramic lover, whilst providing a useful functional purpose. By individually hand-building each piece and often combining different techniques, Jenny truly connects with every creation.
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Practice
Jenny develops her designs via many methods. Time is invested thinking through and researching an idea, sometimes sketching and more often, instinctively playing with the clay, until a clear way of working unfolds.
Through her years of exploring ceramic techniques, Jenny uses a number of ways to create form. These include self made moulds which both shape and support the making process. Recently Jenny has been designing her own templates with a desire to produce consistent shapes for a more tightly controlled finished appearance. The clay is either rolled into slabs, thrown or coiled before being constructed into a final structure.
Having worked previously with white firing clay, Jenny’s currently preferring the high firing red clay. Once fired, Jenny is excited by both it’s colour and texture, and that it becomes watertight, which provides new opportunities to develop both her product range and style of working.
Additional individual characteristics can be added through either hand painting or glazing in the decorative phase of the making process. Whilst often preferring to make her own glazes from scratch, Jenny also enjoys experimenting with layering bought brush on glazes resulting in unusual colourations and finishes.
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Location and Links
Near Blair Atholl, Highland Perthshire
