2024 AWARD WINNER | University of Central Lancashire

STELLA BOOTHMAN | University of Central Lancashire | MA Ceramics (Distinction)

Recipient of the Potclays Graduate Award in 2024 as part of our Educlaytion programme

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

My name is Stella Boothman, I live in Pendle in Lancashire with my husband and daughter. I have two grown up kids and two gorgeous grand children. I run a busy ceramics business called Pendle Pottery Studio where we teach wheel throwing and hand building and operate a membership scheme.
I have always been a creative person and have always been a ‘maker’ for as long as I can remember but I didn’t become a full-time ceramic artist until 6 years ago. I have a long career working supporting children and vulnerable adults across education and social care. I took a brave step and completed a Fine Art degree in 2015 and focussed my practice on sculpture incorporating some aspects of ceramics into this work, At the end of my degree my exhibition piece was selected as a finalist for the Hix Art award. I decided after graduating I would focus on clay as my main medium, as it has always been my go to, favourite material, and that is how Pendle Pottery Studio was born.
I became so busy creating my pottery business that I got a little lost along the way, and two years ago I realised that I needed a way of focussing my ceramics practice. I felt I really needed to develop my own voice and narrative for my work, it was too disparate at that time and I felt it didn’t really represent the things I was interested in or what I wanted to say, so I decided to enrol on the MA in Ceramics at UCLAN.

Describe your first encounter with clay?

I first started working with clay as a young child, I used to make clay sculptures from mud in my garden and had a battery operated potters wheel when I was about 6 years old! I remember the wonderful ceramics teachers at my high school. My O’ Level Art work was a giant ceramic Toblerone chocolate bar and a ceramic bin full of ceramic rubbish! Can’t remember what all that was about I just knew I loved it.

Why did you choose ceramics?

I love the tactility and haptic nature of clay, there is alchemy and magic in creating pottery, being able to take mud from the earth and transform it into something beautiful and permanent still amazes me to this day. I also love the huge potential ceramics has as an artistic medium, there is so much choice and variety out there, it’s very hard not to be seduced by the allure of a new process, technique or style!

Where do you find inspiration?

Places, people, objects, music… My inspiration comes from the natural world, I am fascinated by the smooth lines and curves of rocks, pebbles and weathered wood. The complex and intricate structures in fungi and mushrooms, the fascinating surfaces and textures in leaves, seeds, pods and plants. I am equally fascinated with people and our relationship to nature and to organic looking objects, it’s what my body of work is all about. Why do some objects make evoke such emotional responses in us, how objects remind us of our own bodies and our own connections to others. Connection is the core element of my works narrative, it’s what makes us human, helps us survive, develop, evolve and feel whole as people. I am using the mycological world as a metaphor for this narrative and a way of expressing these ideas in my work, as there are many similarities between the human and fungal world.

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

Apart from the obvious ones, (my hands and eyes)! I would say for my work a good quality soft rubber rib (I love my red Mudtools one), a decent banding wheel that can cope with some weight, I use a Rohde one and a good quality sponge for finishing.

What is a typical day in the studio like?

I tend to split my week between Pendle Pottery Studio tasks, which are mainly tech tasks such as kiln firing, clay recycling, glaze mixing, general maintenance and admin but also include some teaching time. The latter end of the week I devote to making my own work, often starting with images, photos or sketches and then rolling out clay ready for formers. My work is very component constructed. I use a combination of slab and throwing construction to create my pieces and the component elements are made and then wrapped ready to be brought together to create a whole piece, this process can take days or weeks depending on the scale and complexity of the work.

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

Carry on running my business, making time to keep making my own work, applying for lots of open calls and trying to engage with galleries. I would live to explore residency options towards the end of next year as I think this could be a really exciting opportunity for an emerging ceramic artist.

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

When you start this journey It is important to have fun and enjoy it (mostly), experiment, be brave, do the thing that you thought you would never do, listen to your own voice, and trust yourself, it can be hard when there a lots of other voices around you too. Don’t be tempted to play it safe, this is the space where it’s ok not to! When you are heading into your second year Keep going! Even when it’s hard, on the days it doesn’t feel good and everything you put in the kiln came out broken or nothing like you had hoped, keep turning up and making. Try not to be overpowered and distracted by the shiny new way of making that you saw on Insta or TikTok last night! You get good at something by doing it lots and lots and at times that’s painful to be in, but it’s all part of the journey – good luck and happy mud days.