PETIT CUPS
W 8 x H 7cm approximately
£40-£60 each
TEA BOWLS
W 14.5 x H 8.5cm approximately
£110 each
Last bowl sold
SIM TAYLOR
My ceramic work is inspired from the landscape and objects in those environments. The work is fashioned on the potter’s wheel or hand built using bespoke wooden press moulds. These Pots or Vessels are further altered through hand manipulation processes and naturally sourced materials. The final forms are developed under the severity and subtlety of wood fired Kiln. This creates a complimentary aesthetic marrying form, surface and colour.
Walking is a necessity to my process of generating ideas. I explore new paths, scrub and thickets but visit and repeat regular routes. This activity allows me to find objects large and small that inspire creative thoughts to ideas of making, shape, surface and form. I record these places and things using the camera, by drawing or through memory. The physical act of walking over miles of hard terrain induces a mental state of contemplation permitting me to metaphorically experience landscape like it’s the clay form I will make. Working and abandoned quarries are the textual surfaces and inner spaces of my vessels. Agricultural or industrial machines and objects become containers. The meandering contours and the horizon line are the rims to my pots. And the greys in the winter trees and mauves, pinks and blues at dusk are present in the colours of my Pots, Forms or Vessels.
These resources are later used in the studio to fashion designs through drawing and mix media and by playfully exploring clay in hand to work out size, volumes, shapes. I am aware that my ideas come spontaneously, or they derive from years of looking, perceiving and in thought. In this context I often revisit previously made forms from years back and regurgitate them into new versions. This act is becoming an important element of my practice as it prompts reflection and evaluates the change in my present creative concerns, motives and concept. These developments are interesting when viewed through my sketchbooks.
My Degree training at Falmouth and Farnham College (1987-91) taught me how to make clay, slip and glaze. All my materials in making my work are recipes that I have personally originated, adapted and developed over decades of trial and error. I make my own Stoneware clay with added heavy grits and stones which I use in my larger sculptural work and for my thrown ware I mainly use a porcelain body. It’s also important to me to use as many indigenous materials as possible in my Clays and Glazes. I go as far as seeking out environments, hence my intrigue and curiosity with quarries, that I can gather clays, grits and stones that contribute to my works aesthetic appearance.
Please email us for a pdf of Sim’s full creative process and biography