2023 AWARD WINNER | Potclays Emerging Makers Award at ICF

RHIANNON GWYN | Recipient of the Potclays Emerging Makers Award at ICF in 2023 as part of our Educlaytion programme

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Tell us about yourself, your work, and your career path so far.

I was raised in Sling near Bethesda - a slate quarrying village in North Wales, a place that has, and continues to strongly influence my creative practice. In 2019 I graduated with a first class Artist Designer: Maker degree from Cardiff School of Art and Design. I've developed a process of melting and shaping Welsh slate through high firing in the kiln. The melted slate is displayed with my ceramic objects that are painted with a glaze made from materials collected from the land such as slate and the gorse flower.

Describe your first encounter with clay.

I began working with clay in 2019 during my third year on the BA Artist Designer: Maker course at Cardiff School of Art and Design. Since graduating I've been working from my home studio in North Wales developing my making skills and building the groundwork for a career as an artist. In 2021 I invested in my first kiln, 2 years on my education and appreciation for clay continues. I sometimes find this material, its processes and my professional journey intimidating and overwhelming. The unpredictability scares me. But the excitement and joy of opening a kiln, curating and exhibiting a collection of my work and making connections with people and places through clay reassures me that this is the path (and material) for me.

Why did you choose ceramics?

I naturally started experimenting with slate as it is so accessible to me and mounds of slate have always been in the background as a backdrop to my life. Whilst studying on the BA Artist Designer: Maker course in Cardiff I was encouraged to experiment with materials and processes as much as possible whilst finding my own voice within them. As slate has derived from clay it made sense for me to try and combine both materials and use slate with clay and ceramic processes. My love for clay developed and I started my journey to creating ceramic and slate sculptures.

Where do you find inspiration?

My practice explores the deep connections between humans, place and landscape. I’m interested in how materials can act as identity markers; influencing the way in which we view ourselves and the world around us by imprinting emotion and memory onto our surroundings. In my work I explore the full potential of waste slate by incorporating it with ceramic processes to create objects that depict forms of the land as part of a circular process whereby I have been personally shaped by my surrounding landscape form and shape its raw materials. A process of sculpting the materials that have sculpted me. Working with clay and materials sourced and gathered locally feels like a partnership between myself and the landscape. We shape each other, work together and influence the outcomes of the artworks created.

What are the tools of your trade that you can't do without?

My most prized possession is my Gas Kiln.

What is a typical day in the studio like?

Every day is different and the reality of being an artist is that time making work is limited. Most of my time goes to admin work, planning, writing applications etc. But when I have a full day of making I'll either be slipcasting my clay bowls or handbuilding something new whilst listening to a podcast.

What do the next 12 months have in store for you?

Within the next year, I will research and develop a new body of work working in partnership with the local Slate quarry and continue my exploration of incorporating waste slate with clay and ceramic processes. I will strengthen my relationship with Snowdonia National Park whilst developing a glaze made from gorse ash. The gorse is burned on Carneddau mountains for land conservation purposes with the ash usually discarded. I will work with the Park to experiment with other discarded materials and use them in my work. To support this project I will seek funding from organisations such as Arts Council of Wales. The hope is that the project’s outcomes will be exhibited in venues and galleries across the UK. Within the next 5 years, I intend to study an MA in ceramics.

What advice do you have for those currently studying ceramics in further education?

Use your time in University to find your own unique voice in the work you make.