Rose Jenkins Ceramics

I create my ceramic pieces in a garden shed surrounded by nature and built from reclaimed materials, on the border between Dorset and Wiltshire. I work with three different types of stoneware clay and each has its own character and reacts with glazes in a different way. Stoneware clay is exceptionally strong and resilient and so it is ideal for the pottery I create as it can be used for both decorative and functional pieces.

My work is made with multiple hand-building processes. The form of each piece has evolved through many tests and uses in my own home, whether that is being used for cooking or being filled with different flowers from the hedgerow or garden.

Although there is similarity in some of the pieces I let the clay guide me as I work with it. This might mean adjusting the edges of pieces, lifting a little more or less, and considering the outer edge of pieces-torn, shaped or moulded with fingers, or the surface of the main piece,
possibly leaving fingerprints as a narrative about the making process.

When the making of the piece is completed, there is always careful drying, before pieces are then fired for the first time. Pieces then cool, are prepared for glazing and glaze is brushed on, sometimes with handmade brushes.

Later, after a final firing to 1250 degrees comes the excitement of opening the kiln and seeing the magic and alchemy of how the glazing process has worked.