I am a self taught potter based in Penzance, on the rugged south west Cornish coast. Using stoneware with pinch and handbuilding techniques, I primarily produce tableware and functional items. Working with a natural colour palette and textured clays to create contemporary pieces with a handmade aesthetic.
After being introduced to the medium by a friend in 2017, I found the accessibility of picking up and working with a lump of clay huge satisfying and took to it immediately. Having a creative outlet to work with my hands felt appealing to me, after a succession of jobs as a fishmonger, builder and (almost) baker, showed me how much I enjoyed the honest appeal of manual work. Pottery seemed a natural progression into a new avenue, where I could continue working with simple and natural materials by hand to achieve a tactile and tangible result.
My process relies on trial and error, making mistakes, and seeing physical form evolve after each iteration. I find for me the process of visualising beforehand doesn't allow a direct connection to the end result, and as i can't really draw, I feel the need to hold things in my hands to understand them. Working in this way I find that my early experiments effectively become the sketches from which I work towards a final result, prototypes from which weight, feel and form can be fully appreciated, My current collection is a result of hours of this hands on experimentation, working directly with the clay to hone and refine shapes, designs and textures
Ant Adams 2019