Elspeth Soper

Elspeth Soper lives and works in Shropshire.

Her earthenware is made out of red clay and decorated using coloured slips (liquid clay) often built up in painted layers over a poured or dipped base colour. The line is usually scraffito (scratched through the slip to the dark colour of the pot clay.) The pots are raw-glazed (thus dispensing with a bisque firing) using a transparent or honey glaze, then fired in a gas kiln to around 1120° centigrade. The non-functional fowl models are built up in coils on top of a thrown base and decorated and glazed in the same way.The stoneware is also raw-glazed using an ash glaze (using ash from the pottery wood stove) or a shino glaze, and fired in a reducing gas kiln to around 1260° centigrade. She occasionally makes large stoneware figures built up by coils, using crank clay.

'The pots I make are very rooted in pots made in the past which I love. These include English medieval pottery and later slipware, and European slipware, most especially Hungarian "peasant" pottery. I sometimes make hangings which combine clay with other materials – wood, leather, string, feathers. These reflect my interest in Native North American arts and cultures.'

Prices range from: £8 - £76

Boxing Hares Dish
ceramic

Eggcups
ceramic

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