Alistair Gillies

Ceramics

Contemporary Ceramics from the Heart of England
Since leaving college in 1980 I have almost continually worked with clay. I have worked for other potters, run production workshops [mainly slip casting], demonstrated in a museum, taught Art / Technology full time in schools and offered pottery & coloured pencil drawing in adult education, as well as running my own pottery classes and children's pottery parties, and for 15 I was a self employed potter.
My own work combines all of the techniques that I have experienced over these years, throwing, mould making, hand-building and modelling, at times raku and custom designed decals, using custom developed slips for casting, lustres and more, as well as developing entirely new working methods.
In 2015 I took a job as technician in a secondary school in Shropshire which was great as I like working with the young people and helped introduce claywork into the school.
This has also allowed me to develop my own work in ways that are not based upon commercial requirements and recently I have been concentrating upon modelling and hand building and also making the occasional run of porcelain lamps that exhibit a relief picture that lights up with the lamp.















