Helen Coulton is a recent graduate from Cardiff Metropolitan University. In her third year, she specialised in ceramics and thrown pots as she found the repetitive motion of the wheel therapeutic.
Her work aims to bring nature inspired colours to tableware that can be enjoyed in everyday life. She has made a selection of different bowls as well as a variety of marbled tableware. As a lover of colour, marbling allows her to explore colour, shapes and patterns in abstract ways, freezing in time the moment when two colours mix together.
Throwing is the ideal forming method for her work, as the wheel acts as her paint brush, pulling the coloured clay through the form. For her, this is much as a painter works on an abstract art, but with ceramic form as the canvas. The mechanics of throwing distort the pattern of the clay creating movement in the design. This links with nature as nature is always moving and changing around us.
Helen made coloured clay by adding specific stains reflecting the colours from nature.
Helen created her marbled tableware in two ways. For the mugs and bowls, she added the coloured clay before throwing, so the act of throwing the pot blended the colours together, which created a marbled effect. Then for the plates and jugs, halfway through the throwing process, she carved sections in the clay and added the colour in. As she finished making the pot, the act of throwing distorted the colours, creating the marbled effect.
