ceramics
Jessica Mason
Please tell us a bit about yourself. How did you become a ceramic artist and why did you specifically turn your attention to ceramics?
I grew up in Devon and whilst still at school I spent a week doing work experience with a glass blower followed by one week with a local potter. I was instantly drawn to ceramics and the history of the craft, particularly as it was relative to the landscape of the South West of England. I then spent the last couple of years of school, visiting and spending more time at Hollyford Pottery before going on to do a Foundation of Art at UAL in London and later a Fine Art BA at Chelsea College of Arts London. However, It wasn’t until 2019 when I moved to Stoke-on-Trent to study at Clay College on the Diploma Ceramics Course that I was able to come back to ceramics and pursue pottery full-time.
I now have a studio onsite at Potclays - a fourth-generation run Clay manufacturer in Etruria, Stoke - where I make my own tableware range, work on private commissions and run workshops.
Were there any practitioners or other artists that were early inspirations for you?
I was fortunate enough to grow up in a creative family, so my main inspirations were those immediately around me. My grandmother, Eileen Ellis (Industry weave designer) was a big influence as well as my mother, Lucy Mason (Textiles) and also my father, Greg Mason (Oil Painter). They showed me that although it isn’t easy to work full-time as a creative, it is possible and always encouraged me to find my own voice and medium. The slipware potter Doug Fitch was my first unofficial tutor, who I went to at Hollyford for work experience and I owe alot to him for sparking a passion in me to find joy in working with clay and to take interest in its rich history and the materials around us.
Sue Lawty is also an inspiration, she is an artist and a fell runner. She inspired a lot of my mother's work and I inherited some of the books she had about her and they are the things I most look at when I'm sketching or thinking of new shapes and designs. I find it’s important to look at a range of craft practices for inspiration, and not just other potters' work in order to help develop my own individual language in my work.
Can you take us through the process of developing your pieces?
I often sketch on the wheel as I'm a very process-led maker and the walls of my studio are covered in tiny drawings of ideas and notes for measurements. I also try to take time to sit down and work on my sketchbooks when I can and I create tiny mood boards and cut up drawings and prints as inspiration for possible surfaces and textures to translate onto my pots. Mainly however, I find that it's actually the architecture of my surroundings that informs my work, without me even realising it. I’ll hold a pot up against my studio floor after it's finished and fired and realise that the both patterns speak exactly the same language.
How do you keep an open mind for finding delight in trial & error and respond creatively to the challenges of working with clay?
It’s not easy working with clay - there are so many variables to work with and try and control which often means that failure is always a key part of the process. I’ve found that the only way to improve and develop is through constant testing, learning and perseverance. The more you experience failure, the better you are at finding joy and celebrating the glints of possibility when a pot starts to hold the truth of what you've been trying to say. However I think the difficulty of working with clay is part of what keeps me focused on it. I know that I have a lifetime of joys, surprises and challenges ahead of me which is what keeps me constantly invested in the process.
I also have learnt that it takes time to see a pot fully, because you place such high expectations on it each time you load it into a kiln. So you have to not judge it too quickly, and make sure to live with it for a while in order to decide what you want to take forward and what to leave behind.
How has your academic background in fine art shaped your approach to ceramics?
Truthfully, I think it’s been invaluable and I’m so glad that I pursued fine art before settling more into the world of craft and design. As I feel that it has given me confidence in knowing how to contextualise my work in a way I wouldn't have otherwise had any true understanding of.
It also provided me with a range of skills in other mediums, such as metal (lost-wax casting), textiles and wood which I find useful when I'm translating my ideas in and out of clay as I fully understand the nature and characteristics of many materials and their physical limits.
How do you feel about working with your hands? Can you tell us more about the impact that it has on your happiness and wellbeing?
As with all self-employed lifestyles, the time I spend making is always squeezed into the smallest possible window and pressing e-mails and admin somehow find a way to often take over. I have to work extra hard to make sure that I can take space to play and keep experimenting but when I do, it's extremely rewarding and satisfying. I have both an electric wheel and a kick-wheel but I often work on the latter when I want to loosen up and just be fully attentive to the process of throwing. This is when I find myself in the ‘flow state’ and my mind slowly calms down, which is so important to my wellbeing.
How do you personally think that we can revive traditional and sustainable techniques?
I believe that it’s important to continue to support ceramics education in the UK in order to preserve the traditional skills and technical knowledge that are slowly in decline. This is due to cuts in finances stopping ceramics being taught in many schools and universities. Therefore I think it’s important to support independent colleges - such as Clay College which I studied here in Stoke - and also apprenticeship craft schemes which support young people learning skill-based practises.
Also by supporting local craftspeople in purchasing products which are made slowly with skill and that last. I believe we will help revive our understanding and connection to more sustainable lifestyles.
Where do you want your most significant contribution to be?
I simply want my work to hold a sense of honesty and authenticity relative to the making process so as to impact others in their daily life and formulate an atmosphere of creative possibility around them.
What current projects excite you right now?
I’ve recently gotten a ball mill so I'm looking forward to testing and formulating some new glazes with the materials I've gathered in recent years. I’m also currently making work for a few firings coming up in 2024 plus have a few special collaborations planned, so exciting times ahead!
You can find Jessie at: Instagram: @jessicamason_ceramics Website: www.jessica-mason.com Email: speaktojess@icloud.com Photos by the photographer Adam Grüning, except the ones that have the name of the photographer underneath.
