Northern Potters Association

The aim of the NPA is to encourage and support artists in the production of sculptural, functional, fine art and decorative studio pottery in all its forms throughout the North of England

Brayshaw, Alison

  • Alison Brayshaw
  • Alison Brayshaw
  • Alison Brayshaw

I started making ceramics over 30 years ago at St John’s University in York, followed by a year at Goldsmith’s College, University of London. I moved to Zimbabwe in 1992 and taught ceramics at Harare Polytechnic whilst running my own ceramics studio. Returning to the UK in 2002, I began a career as a curator in the museums sector and made pots on a part-time basis using porcelain to create hand thrown vessel forms with a transparent and celadon glaze.

I now work exclusively in my studio making ceramics. I use two different clays to build a body of work decoratively based on the many different landscapes that have been part of my life over time. The pieces are created from the muscle memory of past forms, repetition of thought and the drawn line, creating a purity of form. Each piece is hand built using slabs to create sculptural forms or concave flat ware, they are decorated with slips using resist and sgraffito. Some are left unglazed to show the tactile nature of the clay.