STEPHANIE PACE

Ceramic artist Stephanie Pace says of herself:

'Born in London originally and living the City life, I came to Cornwall where I have become entirely entrenched in its natural beauty for the past six years and could now never think of leaving.  The landscapes and bays are so breathtakingly beautiful here that it seems impossible not to become completely inspired.  As a creative person, with a fifteen year career in design I was in need of a new creative skill.  My interest in ceramics led me to study traditional pottery but my ideas and expectations of what I could produce were revolutionised after studying for my HND in Ceramics and graduating with a distinction in 2004.  I am now working and producing my current designs in my studio, overlooking the glistening and ever changing estuary views, at my house in Lelant near St. Ives.

My work is contemporary, individual and handmade.  My present range of white porcelain wall art and scuptural vases are finely textured, washed with matt colours and further highlighted with focal points of bright, shiny and sometimes iridescent colour combinations.  It is inspired by landscape themes and also by contemporary Japanese simplistic style.  I am looking to create cleaner and calmer images which will further emphasis the fineness and elegance of porcelain clay.

Previous ranges have included by psychedelia and electronic art, Pop Art; including the Assemblage movement, and the use of Abstraction from figurative.  My aim is to produce ceramic desins that are truly unique.  I am concerned with presenting clay with a fresh eye in order to give it a completely new identity, producing pieces that are visually desirably individual and also beautiful.

I chose porcelain for its very fine texture and the smooth white surface appearance that I believe to be a perfect vehicle for contemporary design.  I mainly slab roll the clay and utilise found objects to make marks and prints on the body before forming them by hand into their individual shapes and high firing to a temperature of 1260 C.  A stunning contrast is created against the textured matt white surfaces by selecting combinations of contemporary low firing matt and bright high shine glazes, sometimes using small placements of metals and iridescent lustres in multi firings of 1035C, 960C and finally 750C.'