Ruth Fairhead

Ruth’s ceramics are carefully hand built from slabs of clay and reflect her fascination with contrasts - texture with smoothness, sharp edges with sweeping curves, matt with shine, precision with freedom, delicacy with strength, gentleness with impact. Surfaces on each piece are imprinted with pattern using linocuts, which are often historically referenced.  She uses glazes that enhance the ridges and troughs of the imprinted clay, selecting the right glazes after many tests and experiments. Colour, texture, and contrast are all very important to her and she often uses a matt underglaze against the high shine of glaze.  Mixing just the right underglaze colour to complement the glaze brings another aspect of experimentation and she find it ‘incredibly satisfying when a combination comes together’.