Featured Maker: Jessica Thorn
Image credit Silkie Lloyd
Featured Maker: Jessica Thorn
5th November - 31st January, Retail Gallery
Jessica Thorn is a ceramic designer-maker creating high-end functional vessels and tools inspired by the heritage and forms of the objects used in the kitchen. Each piece is designed to fit harmoniously in the hand, bring joy and enhance our everyday rituals.
Her work is made by crafting individual handbuilt or thrown components for each item, and joined with a contrasting coloured slip, leaving a stitch like line and a trace of her construction process.
Jessica uses porcelain allowing for a simple and clean aesthetic. In contrast to this, Jessica uses strong bold colours in her work. This is integral as it is essential to highlight the construction process and to help define her bold forms which makes Jessica’s work instantly recognisable.
Jessica has built up an archive of her own coloured slips experiments, that she can now draw upon to build her colour palettes. She takes her inspiration for these palettes from her natural surroundings.
The first time Jessica worked with porcelain she was instantly captivated, and her exploration for the material continues to grow with her practice. Jessica celebrates the qualities of the material by leaving the outside of her work unglazed and highly polished. This allows the user to connect, appreciate and build an understanding of the material through touch. She celebrates the fluidity of the material with visual traces of the process such as leaving the throwing lines, and accepting the movement and softening of her designs as they transform through the heat of the kiln.
Image credit Ben Boswell
Image credit Silkie Lloyd