Gill’s focus is on making ceramics from locally sourced materials, processed by hand to develop a deep connection with all the elements that make up her finished pots. Her work is hand thrown and made predominantly on a momentum wheel, powered by her feet, which produces a steady and tranquil rhythm to her making.
Through a process of research and testing making and using small test tile pieces she has developed glazes, wild clays and natural pigments to work with. The testing has been painstakingly recorded and repeated to get the results that she now uses in her work. There have been many unexpected and unpredicted results, some ‘total triumphs’, some disastrous but all part of the learning process.
The raw materials have been foraged and collected locally, the willow ash sourced from Cumbria’s master basket maker Phil Bradley to utilise his waste material and link one heritage craft to another. Wild clays have been collected from natural sources in Cheshire, Yorkshire and as far a field as The Shetland Islands.
With this work the hope is to take you on the journey of the processes and research Gill has created, starting with the raw materials in their unaltered states, through the process of testing and developing forms, to the resulting finished pieces, carefully bringing the elements together in a series of pots, all of which tell a story of the places and people involved.
CV
2019-2022 Masters Degree in Creative Practice.(Ceramics) Harrogate College.
2018-2019 Ceramics (day class) Harrogate College.
Shows and exhibitions.
2022
Otley Courthouse, Artisan Craft Market, Sunday 30 January,27 February & Sunday 27 March.
‘Thrown Together’ Final Masters Degree Exhibition. Hopewell Studios, Knaresborough. 18-19 February.
North Yorkshire Open Studios, Spa Studio, Starbeck. June 3rd- 5th and 11th – 12th.
Potfest in the Pens, Skirsgill Auction Mart, Penrith. October 28th-30th.
2021
December 2021, Spa Studio, Christmas Open Studio,
September 2021. Northartcraft Art Market, Henshaw Arts and Craft Centre,
September 2021. Green Shoots’ ExhibitionArt in the Mill, Knaresborough.
August 2021. Nidd Art Trail, Open Studios, Starbeck, Harrogate.
June 2021. Spa Studio, Starbeck,, collaborative studio space.
2020
May 2020. ‘Northartcraft’, online gallery and shop, set up, collaborating with five other makers.
December 2019. ‘Studio 17 Makers Market’ Stockport,
December 2019. ‘Seven Makers, Christmas Market’ Stockport.
2019
December 2019. ‘TAKE 6’ Guest Maker, Cumbria.
Gill Owen Ceramics 