Artwork for Tim Thornton
Crossing the Styx
Pollen 4
Pollen 2
Small blue bowls
Blue clinker vase
Ash glazed bowls
Details
My making falls into three categories.
First, drawing on my design background, consists of carefully designed functional pieces for everyday use in the home. These are intended to not just be attractive, but also to be well designed, so they are a pleasure to use.
Second, more freeform shapes, often rich in surface texture, designed to create an emotional response in the viewer.
Third, pieces with a message that can be seen as political (in the widest terms), such as the Bugger the Bees series of pollen forms, reflecting on the loss of pollinators having wider, more systemic and complex causes than just not enough people keeping bees.
I find working in ceramics satisfies a number of aspects of my personality. The technical attention to detail comes out in my functional pieces and my work on glazes, whereas the more sculptural work brings out more of an emotional response, as well as giving expression to my political views.
Tim Thornton Ceramics
I make a number of pots, some functional and others more sculptural.
I also teach technical aspects of ceramics, primarily through online courses, such as on glazes, product safety, kiln firing and so on. Demand for teaching has dominated my time over the last few years, but this year I aim to do more making.
I have begun the process of turning these into books, with the first one aimed to come out later this year.
My background is a varied one in design, engineering and computing, but 14 years ago I took up ceramics as a hobby, and became increasingly engrossed in it. As my work for the decade prior to Brexit was primarily research for the EU, that came to an end, and I decided to turn to ceramics full time. Covid resulted in a big increase in demand for my online courses, though this year I am aiming to rebalance things with more making.
I started at evening classes, originally taught by Sally Betteridge and then by Mirka Golden-Hahn. Since then I have been largely self-taught, though with workshops by Akiko Hirai, Shozo Michikawa, Sasha Wardell and others.
I have also been heavily involved in wood firing, initially at Wytham Woods, Oxford, where I was helping and then leading teams firing the Anagama kilns there, and then post Brexit helping build and fire the Girel kiln under Jean Sampson at Mid Wales Arts, and I attended the European Wood Firing Conference and also the Grande Feu at La Borne, a well established wood firing centre in France.
10 years ago I set up my studio just outside of Winchester, then 4 years ago moved to just outside of Hereford
27 - 29 June 2025 International Ceramics Festival, Aberystwyth
14 - 24 September 2023 Art at the Hall, Llangathen
2 - 10 September 2023 h.Art, my studio
30 June - 2 July 2023 International Ceramics Festival, Aberystwyth
2 - 4 June 2023 Potfest in the Pens, Penrith
29 - 30 October 2022 Ceramica Botanica, National Botanic Garden of Wales
3 - 11 September 2022 h.Art Herefordshire Art Week, Cup Ceramics, Hereford
2 - 23 July 2022 One Ash project exhibition, Chapel Arts Studios, Andover
Direct from my website, or studio visitors by prior appointment
