Pottery West – The Artists’ Journal

Can you tell us the story of how Pottery West began?

When we moved back to Sheffield after studying in London and living in Berlin for a year, we both settled down in different jobs.  Matt worked as a baker and I worked as a marketing manager/writer at both an architects firm and also a start-up promoting makers. We already shared a studio at the Yorkshire Artspace doing various things – not pottery – but working with craftspeople I became immersed in a new world and we took some evening classes with a potter at the Artspace. Matt especially became hooked on the process of throwing and declared that one evening a week was not enough. We bought the contents of another potter’s studio who was shutting down and Matt, who spent early mornings baking, then spent afternoons throwing and recycling the clay. Then we got a kiln and I started making glazes, and things grew very naturally from there. I should also add that before clay, food had been a big interest for us, and we used to spend many a weekend at David Mellor’s in Hathersage – a cutlery, crafts and food shop – dreaming of, and sometimes buying cooking things, which is where we first became familiar with some big studio potter names like the Leach pottery and Richard Batterham. From the earliest moment, it was always functional tableware that interested us most. Then things grew and we gradually shifted from our part-time jobs to being Pottery West full time – Matt in 2016 when our son was born and me in 2018.

Were you nervous starting up your own ceramics studio?

Not at first because for a few years it was a side project, low risk, never quite a hobby, but certainly we didn’t depend on it for our living. However, there were some nerves when it came to quitting our jobs. For Matt, this came when our first son was born – we realised there was just not enough time to do everything, life is relatively short and there seemed to be a hungry audience for our work. When it was my turn to make the leap in 2018, I worried a lot, but we were armed with a plan and we were a bit too busy to feel any nerves. 

It seems important at the studio to nurture and share your knowledge with the team. Is it a shared creative process?

It’s really nice that you’ve picked up on this because it is something that I enjoy about working in a small team. I would say that Matt and I sit in the driver’s seat for developing new work, but certainly tasks are allocated to Luna.  She not only works on production, but also often works on prototypes for us and contributes massively to new designs.