Emerging Potters April - June 2026

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Potters

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Issue 44 April June 2026 1

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Introduction Welcome to this edition of the magazine.

This edition looks at just some of the work for the Craft Council’s COLLECT show which was held at Somerset House in London.

The choice has been purely mine and does not represent any views or choices by the Craft Council or their sponsors.

In the next edition we will be looking at the Ceramic Art London show.

This edition has been produced on a new platform, so let me know if there are any technical issues please.

Regards Paul Bailey, Editor

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Front Cover: Jihyun Kim South Korean artist based in London.

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Henrietta MacPhee Ruup & Form is a curatorial-led contemporary gallery in London, championing material driven artists at the intersection of art, craft and design.

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Craft Council: COLLECT 2026 About Collect Collect is the leading international art fair for contemporary craft and design. The fair is presented by the Crafts Council and takes place annually at Somerset House, London.

Proudly positioned at the forefront of the contemporary craft movement since 2004, Collect brings together collectors, patrons, curators, art advisors and interior designers, and features international and British galleries showing museumquality works in curated presentations. Through the Collect Open initiative, the fair provides a platform for experimental installations by individual artists and collectives.

The Collect Open 2026 expert advisory panel comprised Director of Collect, TF Chan; independent curator, Lewis Dalton Gilbert; creative industries business consultant, Caroline Jackman; and Creative Director of Spinocchia Freund, Brigitta Spinocchia Freund.

Collect Open is presented in partnership with Spinocchia Freund, the London-based interior architecture and design studio led by Brigitta Spinocchia Freund. The studio is a longstanding advocate of British craft and often collaborates with artists, artisans and heritage workshops, contributing to the preservation of traditional craft techniques and the promotion of modern innovation. SpinoFreund’s partnership with Collect Open, now in its second year, reflects the studio’s core principles of curation, collaboration and craftsmanship.

Each edition of Collect showcases the work of over 400 exceptional living contemporary artists and designers, made from a range of materials with rich narratives. These span ceramic, furniture, glass, jewellery, metalwork, sculpture, textiles, woodwork and more. Over 80% of work is made in the previous five years, with many pieces commissioned for the fair. collectfair.org.uk | @collectartfair #collectartfair

TF Chan, Director of Collect, said:“This year’s Collect Open presentations stand out not only for their exceptional craftsmanship but for the compelling stories they tell. Our eleven artists push the boundaries of their chosen materials, while expressing ideas of personal resilience, cultural heritage, ecological vitality and social change.

Together they offer a wonderful reflection on the richness and relevance of contemporary craft and design. I'm particularly pleased that our newly established bursaries have enabled us to include more UK-based artists from global majority backgrounds. I'd also like to thank our Collect Open partner, Brigitta Spinocchia Freund, whose ambition and enthusiasm have helped bring the programme to new heights.”

Brigitta Spinocchia Freund, Creative Director of Spinocchia Freund, said: “I’m delighted to be supporting Collect Open 2026. Each year brings a fresh moment of discovery, an opportunity to encounter new voices and ideas that shape the future of contemporary art and design craft.

Collect announces the 11 artists selected for Collect Open 2026, the annual showcase of bold, craft-led installations by artists and collectives. Collect Open champions work that tells stories challenging material, social, political or personal perceptions, and cements Collect’s broader commitment to platforming artists who push the boundaries of traditional craft techniques, as seen this year in works which span from contemporary embroidery to silversmithing. Collect Open 2026 is presented in partnership with Spinocchia Freund.

The Collect Open bursaries were launched in May 2025 to support UK-based artists from global majority backgrounds and to increase representation and equity across the programme.

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The successful proposals for Collect Open all represent a fresh and ambitious direction in the artists' practices and were selected by an expert advisory panel. The Collect Open 2026 artists are as follows: Kamilah Ahmed (b. 1991, British, lives and works in London, UK) will create a large-scale embroidered textile installation celebrating Dhaka, Bangladesh's cityscape. Rooted in heritage embroidery techniques such as Jamdani weaving and Ari hook embroidery, the work will incorporate hand-wrapped silk warps, both digitally and hand embroidered, suspended from a metal frame.

Ella Merriman (b. 1995, British, lives and works in London, UK) will present six sculptural furniture pieces that combine rush basketry with abandoned pieces of wooden furniture found on the streets of London. The installation will celebrate revival and reinvention, bringing together an endangered craft technique and discarded home objects.

Jynsym Ong (b. 1992, British, lives and works in Oxford, UK) will show a series of wood-fired pots, staged with a variety of props to signify uses that may be contradictory, surprising or puzzling. The installation will explore how objects become intrinsic to people’s own stories, identity and memory, influenced by their cultural upbringing.

Amelia Dennigan (b. 1987, Irish, lives and works in Lisbon, Portugal) will produce two large-scale, wall- hung embroidered tapestries and a fabric vase, all exploring the emotional complexity of miscarriage.

Dennigan will employ chiaroscuro and rich embroidery in a painterly method.

Hanna Salomonsson (b. 1981, Swedish, lives and works in London,UK) takes inspiration from veteran trees which provide essential habitats and hold deep cultural importance as living records of the landscape and local communities. She will present three monumental ceramic totems that explore the threats posed to tree species due to disease and climate conditions.

Olly Fathers (b. 1987, British, lives and works in London, UK) will build on his work with wood veneer to create an installation using 4,600-yearold bog wood, formed from trees long submerged in riverbeds. For the central piece, Fathers will use a traditional marquetry method in a ripple-like composition with 500 individually handcrafted segments.

Zofia Sobolewska Ursic (b. 1982, Polish, lives and works in Krakow, Poland) will experiment with straw intarsia, wood and woven metal to create a cabinet, sculpture, jewellery box and two mirrors. This continues her interest in the contrasts between folk and bourgeois aesthetics; the severity and decorative qualities of marquetry; and geometric and organic forms.

Katherine James (b. 1993, British, lives and works in Leeds, UK) combines charcoal and silver,celebrating a traditional silversmithing process whereby charcoal is used as a base for soldering, clay, questioning ideas about resilience.

Jihyun Kim (b. 1997, South Korean, lives and works in London, UK) will develop her series of slip-cast ceramic vessels in vivid colours, evoking the organic forms of fungi. Kim works with a specially formulated glaze that becomes gloopy and slimy at high temperatures, lending her pieces a magical quality. She takes inspiration from Korean folk beliefs and rituals taught by her grandmother.

Oriel Zinaburg (b. 1973, Israeli, lives and works in London, UK) will create a collection of ceramic sculptures inspired by Wally Birds, an idiosyncratic series of stoneware jars by the late-19th-century pottery manufacturers the Martin Brothers. Alongside, Zinaburg is developing three-dimensional ceramic tiles, which will be used as cladding fixed to prefabricated metal plinths and structures, to explore the role of ceramics in architectural storytelling.

Chloe Lennon (b. 1994, Irish, lives and works in London, UK) will present a dining table and three stools, sculpted to represent the rock formations from which cobalt is sourced. Cobalt has a long history in art and ceramics, and is now used in the of batteries that power electric cars. Lennon explores the ethics and systems of cobalt mining, specifically in the Democratic Republic the Congo.

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Joanna Bird Gallery

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Craft Council: COLLECT 2026

Contact: Cockpit Studios Deptford 18-22 Creekside London SE8 3DZ The Collect Open bursaries were launched in May 2025 to support UK-based artists from global majority backgrounds and to increase representation and equity across the programme. Developed in response to research conducted by Crafts Council that highlights how financial barriers can hinder participation in Collect as well as career progression in craft, the bursaries help to cover the costs of exhibiting and provide a one-off financial allowance for each recipient.

The three recipients for the inaugural bursaries are Kamilah Ahmed, Jihyun Kim and Jynsym Ong. The Collect Open 2026 expert advisory panel comprised Director of Collect, TF Chan; independent curator, Lewis Dalton Gilbert; creative industries business consultant, Caroline Jackman; and Creative Director of Spinocchia Freund, Brigitta Spinocchia Freund.

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Jihyun Kim (above and cover) is a South Korean ceramic artist based in London. Her work is influenced by Korean folklore, ritual, and ideas of protection and belonging. At Collect Open 2026, she presented a group of work of slip-cast salt vessels arranged in a circular formation.

Using her distinctive ‘gloop’ glaze technique, she creates vividly coloured fungus-like forms that appear to defy gravity. The work weaves together Korean beliefs in salt as a protective material with European fairy-ring mythology, inviting audiences to step into an immersive environment shaped by ideas of protection, ritual and shelter.

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Craft Council: COLLECT 2026

Sonja Kastner “I don’t discriminate” 2026 White stoneware, decorated with underglaze colour, photographic underglaze print and onglaze lustre gold.

27x28 cm Alveston Gallery, Notting Hill, London

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The Alveston Gallery, Notting Hill presented a group of diverse artists at Collect 2026. United by their devotion to storytelling through their chosen mediums.

The presentation explores how humour, history, fragility and imagined worlds converge, revealing how artworks hold experiences - whether playful, intimate, or epic. It invites viewers into the artists’ evolving mythologies, offering points of connection that make their stories, and the exhibition itself, deeply approachable and human.

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Craft Council: COLLECT 2026

Evelyb Albrow. ‘O Angels ,You- Cecilia’s celestial choir. 2025. Stoneware vessel 42x26 cm.

Photo: Peter Martin. Alveston Gallery.

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Craft Council: COLLECT 2026

Evelyn Albrow. The Horned Witch, the Poppet and the Raving Ones, 2026.

Stoneware charger.

54 cm.

Alveston Gallery.

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Craft Council: COLLECT 2026

Carolyn Genders Carolyn is an established ceramic artist and printmaker based in the UK, well known for her individual ceramic sculptural vessels and forms and her unique relief prints. The essence of her practice is the relationship of form, line, brushstroke and colour,evident in both her work in clay and paper.

“My work comes from a place informed by my practice of looking and seeing - the interplay of colours, the counterbalance of textures, the energy of gestures and the constantly evolving pattern of my surroundings,”

Contemporary Applied Arts (CAA) It is London’s original multidisciplinary applied arts gallery. For more than 75 years it has championed and promoted the very best of British applied arts.

The CAA is a registered charity and a membership organisation representing more that 200 artists.

The CAA stand at COLLECT 2026 embraces the theme ‘In Conversation;, presenting a dialogue between generations, materials and disciplines.

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Craft Council: COLLECT 2026

Maja Padrov. Entanglement 2024. High fired stoneware 34x40x26 cm. Photo Jeff Crawford.

Maja Padrov is part of the Craft Alliance Atlantic Association.

The Craft Alliance presented at COLLECT ‘The Power of Objects: Voices of Contemporary Craft’ a multidisciplinary exhibition bringing together ceramics, textiles, glass, wood, plant fibre, and handmade paper sculpture from leading artists across the region. As a Canadian non-profit organisation it is dedicated to advancing the role of craft.

Maja is interested in the vernacular of traditional vessels and utilitarian form. Working towards unexpected interpretations of familiar objects. She emphasises or conceals the function, aiming to evoke an intuitive connection with the viewer.

The use of clay’s ability to mimic other surfaces, such as metal and stone, allows her to reflect on other craft disciplines, materials and traditions.

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Craft Council: COLLECT 2026 Annie Turnerr. Net-White, 2026. Stoneware 54x48x25cm

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Craft Council: COLLECT 2026

Founded in 2020 in Amsterdam, Mia Karlova Gallery is a contemporary art and design gallery presenting functional sculpture, collectable design, and contemporary craft-based art.Its programme is distinguished by material intelligence and works shaped with sensitivity and intention.

The gallery made its debut at COLLECT in 2026 with ‘Beyond What Meets the Eye’ a presentation bringing together various artists.

Valeriya Isyak Drop of Water, 2025 Handcrafted porcelain and pigments, black brass frame. 110x125x5 cm

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Craft Council: COLLECT 2026

Ruup & Form Gallery The gallery is a curatorial-led contemporary gallery in London, championing material driven artists at the intersection of art, craft and design. The gallery advances groundbreaking practices that use the intelligence of making to shape more connected and sustainable futures.

Working with an international cohort of artists the gallery presents research-led exhibitions and collaborations with collectors, institutions and partners on acquisitions and commissions.

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Craft Council: COLLECT 2026

Henrietta MacPhee She creates expressive ceramic works that draw on a diverse background in classical studies and fine art, bringing an unusual combinations of narrative with material sensitivity to her work.

Rupp & Form Gallery

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Craft Council: COLLECT 2026

Barbara Gittings Contemporary Applied Arts

The elemental uncertainty of working with clay, especially the random and uncontrolled shifts and reactions that take place when creating pattern through clay, is central to her work. She sees it as the manifestation of a thousand transitions. She is fascinated by the geometry in nature, especially as growth and random chaotic forces.

Barbara is a ceramicist best known for her striking smoke-fired Nerikomi porcelain vessels.

Contemplative and sensual, they have a sense of calm and serenity that draws the viewer to the vessels surface. She embraces inexactness and embraces.

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Craft Council: COLLECT 2026

Choi Boram (b.1985, South Kores) Blue Jar - Small series, 2026 Hand-built stoneware, drawn cobalt blue lines, unglazed 22x9 - 24x18 cm Lloyd Choi Gallery

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Craft Council: COLLECT 2026

Jungsuk Lee. Fragile 1841, porcelain, 26.7x22.6x22.6 cm. Photo: Inge Clemente JJungsuk Lee presents a body of work that reflects Lloyd Choi Gallery’s commitment to studio practices that challenge Korean tradition through a contemporary lens.

Working with clay shaped by pressure and erosion, Lee treats ceramics not as a finished medium but as a site of material inquiry.

Lloyd Choi Gallery The gallery brings together contemporary Korean ceramic arts who rethink blue and white beyond inherited decorative conventions.Blue and white moves from surface ornament to a 21st

century language grounded in material presence, process and a distinctly Korean sensibility.The artists unsettle the tradition’s long-held associations with refinement, symmetry, and controlled cobalt.

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Craft Council: COLLECT 2026

Nessie Stonebridge. Birdarn, FiveSongbirds 2025. Glazed stemware with wild clay.

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Craft Council: COLLECT 2026

Thrown Gallery Zuleika Melluish. “I am fascinated by the physical quality of plants: the textures and patterns of leaves, stems and flowers. I enjoy the challenge of replicating every detail of the plant: first observing and dissecting the living plant and then modelling each component by hand. I am awed by the complexity of a plants construction and, beyond its botany, how every petal or leaf has a subtle difference in the way it curls or ripples or curves.”

Established in 2018, Thrown Gallery is an online and pop-up gallery specialising in contemporary ceramics.

The gallery prides itself on an engaging and accessible curation tat showcases exceptional art and design in all their forms, drawing connections and questioning boundaries between process, form and function.

Thown Gallery was set up by director Claire Pearce, who has been working in galleries since completing her architecture degree in 2010. Her passion for ceramics grew from five years spent in St Ives, Cornwall, where she was first introduced to ceramics as an art form.

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Craft Council: COLLECT 2026

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Turning Earth Studios Hoxton Market Spring is in the air, and the Turning Earth Ceramics Market is back at our Hoxton studio for a vibrant weekend of pottery, music, and great food on April 18–19. With 80 talented makers (different each day) showcasing their handmade pottery, you’ll discover an array of beautifully crafted, one-of-a-kind pieces.

To set the mood, enjoy live performances from Jimm of the Jazz Cannibals, whose genre-hopping sound moves effortlessly through jazz, rap, folk, reggae, sea shanty, punk, and funk. Expect an atmosphere that’s as lively and creative as the market itself.

Come hungry: Sourdough Daali, a microbakery and street-food pop-up, will be firing up wood-fired sourdough pizzas, along with a brand-new cocktail list. And if you need a pick-me-up while browsing, Perky Bean Café will be serving freshly brewed barista coffee, pastries, and soft drinks.

Here and when: Date: 18-19th April 2026 Time: 11-5 pm each day Location of the market: Turning Earth Hoxton, 361-362 Railway Arches, Whiston Road plus Turning Earth Hoxton Learning Hub, located across the street opposite the main studio.

Whether you're hunting for a special piece, soaking up the music, or simply enjoying the buzz of the studio, the Turning Earth Hoxton Spring Market is the perfect way to spend a spring weekend.

Free entry Wheelchair access Dog-friendly (on the leash, please)  25

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Turning Earth Studios Hoxton Market

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Book Review

Exploring Crystalline Glazes

By Diane Creber Published 14 May 2026 | Paperback | 192pp | £25 | ISBN 9781789943931 The New Ceramics Series. Published by Herbert Press imprint of crafting books by Bloomsbury Publishing for makers of all levels.

Crystalline glazes are known for producing exciting works reminiscent of floating galaxies, frosty windows, rare gemstones and delicate flowers. Until recently, however, few potters worked with this elusive medium. Now, with new advancements in materials and digital processors, amazing results can be achieved without the problems usually associated with these glazes, such as excessive glaze run-off and unpredictable crystal growth.

In this book, Diane Creber explores the history of this process, beginning with the most suitable clays, the different types of crystalline glazes, how they can be grown under controlled conditions, and how different ingredients react with each other.

Through a survey of several well- known crystalline glaze potters, she reveals their secrets and shows examples of their unique work. From clay and glaze recipes to an indepth look at firing aids and types of kilns, Exploring Crystalline Glazes has everything a potter needs to make their own glazes and create their own stunning works of art.

About the author: Diane Creber’s award-winning pottery has been displayed internationally and at galleries throughout Canada, where she is based. Creber operated Wilton Pottery for 45 years, making one-of-a-kind and functional ceramics. Once she discovered crystalline glazes, there was no turning back.

At the time, there was little to no written information on this process, so she contacted over a hundred potters working in this medium.

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Once she discovered crystalline glazes, there was no turning back. At the time, there was little to no written information on this process, so she contacted over a hundred potters working in this medium.

The material became Crystalline Glazes, the first book written on the process, first published by A&C Black Visual Arts in 1997 and later with University of Pennsylvania Press in 2005. The book is now available from Herbert Press where it remains part of the Ceramics Handbook series.

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Ceramic Art London Talks

Kate Malone CBE

The fair is curated by the Craft Potters Association and has an extraordinary range of work on sale, priced from £30 to over £10,000 for collectors’ pieces. 125 independent makers were chosen through a rigorous selection process to exhibit at this year’s fair, with artists travelling to London from across Europe, and as far afield as Japan, Korea, Canada and the USA.

Professor Felicity Aylieff

Ceramic Art London announces talks programme for the 22nd edition of the Fair this May.

Professor Felicity Aylieff is the Craft Potters Association keynote speaker at this year’s Ceramic Art London with her talk at 1.30pm on Friday 8th May, titled: The China Affair: Porcelain, Practice, Place. Internationally renowned, she is recognised for her innovation in largescale ceramics.

Speakers include Kate Malone MBE and Dame Zandra Rhodes, Professor Felicity Aylieff, William Cobbing and curators from the V&A,Watts Gallery, and Leach Pottery.

From sustainability to collecting, this year’s talks programme at Ceramic Art London at Olympia, which takes place from Friday 8 May to Sunday 10 May 2026, covers a wide range of subjects and artists. All talks are included in the ticket price and are offered on a first come, first served basis.

Recent exhibitions include Kew Gardens and Yorkshire Sculpture Park, with a forthcoming exhibition at Petworth House in West Sussex. In this talk she reflects on over two decades of working in Jingdezhen, exploring how these collaborations have shaped her distinctive ceramic language.

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Ceramic Art London Talks Pioneering ceramicist Kate Malone joins visionary fashion and textile designer Dame Zandra Rhodes for a vibrant exchange discussing From Clay to Catwalk,exploring their shared passion for ceramics on Saturday 9th May at 1.30pm. Malone talks as a celebrated maker and Rhodes as a devoted collector. Together they will delve into their respective handcrafted practices of ceramics and screen-printing, exploring the role of colour, pattern and form.

In an age of the development of AI, the panel will place the handmade and ancient techniques at the fore, considering how material affects response. The talk, Collecting Contemporary Ceramics is at 11.30am on Friday 8th May. Catrin Jones is Chief Curator of the V&A Wedgwood Collection. She has published widely on historic and contemporary ceramics and silver. Her talk, Wedgwood as a Creative Sourcebook is at 3pm on Friday 8th May, explores why Wedgwood remains an icon of ceramics, and what that means in a changing world.

William Cobbing will be talking about the video, Inner Horizon, Wild Clay Adventures in Utah, made in 2025, for his solo exhibition at Utah Museum of Contemporary Art at 3pm on Saturday 9th May. Travelling across Utah state, from the Great Salt Lake in the north to Green River in the south, he made a series of site-specific sculptural interventions and performances with clay in the landscape.

From the enduring importance of Wedgwood's anti-slavery medallion, to the major project to make the whole 175,000 strong V&A Wedgwood Collection and Archive available online for the first time by 2030, Catrin will share insights into Wedgwood's enduring impact on creativity in ceramics and beyond.

The Leach Pottery is currently undergoing the biggest changes onsite since it was set up in 1920. Libby Buckley has been Director of the Leach Pottery since 2016, leading its transformation into a thriving cultural hub for training, making, residencies, exhibitions, and commerce. She is talking at 3pm on Sunday 10th May about The Leach Pottery: Community and Legacy.

Perhaps best known for the extraordinary funerary chapel at Compton, Surrey, consecrated in 1898, Mary Seton Watts (née Fraser Tytler, 1849-1938) was an artist, maker, designer, biographer, and founder and married to the painter George Frederic Watts OMRA (1817-1904). This talk by Penelope Hines, Collections Curator at Watts Gallery, Surrey titled Mary Seton Watts: I have followed, worked and loved is at 11.30am on Saturday 9th May. The talk explores Mary’s work, which spanned the 19th and 20th centuries, and the impact of the end of the Victorian period, the Arts & Crafts movement, and the rise of Art Nouveau.

Contemporary ceramicist, Freya BrambleCarter stands alongside a collector of her work, Henriane Mourgue d’Algue, in a lively discussion about what it means to collect this medium today. The panel will be moderated

by Collection Manager and Founder of CURA Art, Georgia Powell. The group will consider how collecting ceramics differs from other art forms and collectibles, ceramics’ aesthetic appeal and functionality and how it offers a vessel for self- exploration.

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Ceramic Art London Talks Mella will speak about her practice and her conscious choice to use clay to raise awareness and inspire action in the face of the global environmental and ecological crisis.

Fernando Casasempere’s work rests on three fundamental pillars: pare-Hispanic art, landscape and the environment, and nearly 30 years of living in London. Since 1991, he has been speaking about ecology, yet we face the reality that current technology does not avoid the enormous energy consumption that firing a kiln demands.

Her talk, Ceramics for Change: Art, Action and Activism is at 1.30pm on Sunday 10th May will explore her practice and her conscious choice to use clay to raise awareness and inspire action in the face of the global environmental and ecological crisis. Using examples of her own ceramic projects: Harvest, Sounding Line and Rare Earth Rising, she will explore themes of tipping points, thresholds, longing and loss.

The question is how to maintain, despite this incongruence, a coherent discourse that genuinely contributes to addressing the climate crisis. His talk, Firing Up: Art, Ecology and the Inconvenient Kiln is at 11.30am on Sunday 10th May. Casasempere has exhibited extensively in the UK, Chile, North America, Japan and Europe and is renowned for monumental installations including the critically acclaimed Out of Sync at Somerset House, London, 2012.

Tickets are priced from £21 + booking fees, and for the first time a small allocation of tickets is on sale for the Private View on Thursday night (7th May).

For more information on the fair and how to buy tickets, visit

Mella Shaw is an artist using clay to make thought-provoking objects and site-specific installations rooted in activism. For over a decade she has made publicly engaged environmental work addressing specific issues in the global climate crisis.

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