About Ceramic Artist Laura Plant
Making in her hometown of Stoke-on-Trent, Laura draws from the creative heritage and ambition of the pioneering potters who made the city famous. The desire to make beautiful objects, has always intrigued Laura, as it serves no practical function but it is a key part of being human.
With a passion for historical ceramics, Laura she strips back ornamentation and re-imagines the form; playing with proportions and silhouettes to create pieces with a new sense of grandeur.
Since learning to throw during her degree at Camberwell college (2010), Laura has been fascinated with the vessel form. Pots have a human quality, they have feet, necks and shoulders. A form can seem to stand tall and hold its own space or appear to float above the surface as if hesitant to leave a footprint. In holding form and space, a vessel can convey its own emotion.
As a ceramic artist and designer, she currently works as a designer for Wedgwood. These two threads of Laura’s work inform each other. Laura creates unique sculptural vessels with a design sensibility that question the contrast between the handmade vs precise, chance vs control.
Thrown in porcelain each piece is unique, the outside carefully turned to reveal a precise form with crisp edges, adding a sense of drama. The internal throwing lines and turning marks show the makers touch. Selected pieces are adorned with sweeping, dramatic handles adding character. Laura develops glazes with a sense of movement, pouring the glaze to accentuate this and allowing the glaze to shine.
EDUCATION
MA Ceramic Design | 2018 | Staffordshire University
BA (Hons) Ceramics | 2010 | Camberwell College of Art
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2024 Collect represented by CAA, Somerset House
2024 New Members Showcase, Contemporary Ceramics
2023 Summer Craft Showcase, Newashgate Gallery, Farnham
2023 In the Window, Cambridge Contemporary Crafts
2022 Contemporary Applied Arts, New Makers Showcase
2022 ‘Breaking with Tradition’, The Burton Gallery, Bideford
2021 Fresh Talent, British Ceramics Biennial, Stoke-on-Trent
2021 'In Full View', The Byre Gallery, Cornwall
2020 Buy Better, Buy Less, Bluecoat Display Centre, Liverpool
2020 Rising Stars, New Ashgate Gallery, Farnham
2019 Celia Coleman Gallery, London
2019 FRESH, British Ceramics Biennial, Stoke-on-Trent
2019 One Year In, New Designers, London
2018 New Designers, Business Design Centre, London
2018 Show and Tell, Staffordshire University, Stoke-on-Trent
RESIDENCIES
Residency | British Ceramics Biennial | 2021
ABF Step Change Programme | Staffordshire University | 2020/21
Artist in Residence | AA2A Staffordshire University | 2018/ 19
Internship | Honav (Beijing & Jingdezhen) | November 2018
Work Placement | Denby Pottery | August 2018
Work Placement | Churchill China | July 2017
AWARDS & ACHIEVEMENTS
2023 Most Promising Craft Buisness, The Design Trust at GNCCF
2022 Selected Membership Craft Potters Association
2021 Crafts Councils Crafting Buisness (formerly Hothouse)
2020 The Byre Showcase Award, Digital Craft Festival
2019 British Ceramics Biennial FRESH (BCB Residency)
2019 RAW Talent art& York
2018 New Designers Denby Associate Prize
2018 New Designers National Trust Artisan & Craft Associate Prize
2017 Shelley Group Student Award (Bursary)
PUBLICATIONS
‘Design and create contemporary tableware’ by Linda Bloomfield and Sue Pryke, 2023
Ceramic Review : One to Warch, March/April 2022
Emerging Potters Issue 25, 2021
Country Living 'Modern Rustic 17' : Objects of Desire, 2020
Emerging Potters Issue 15, 2019
National Trust Mailer, 2019
FREELANCE DESIGN CLIENTS
Wedgwood
Waterford
Royal Doulton
Iittala
Abode Creative