Mary Johnson

In her Derbyshire Studio Mary Johnson makes slip decorated earthenware using a blend of traditional craft skills and unusual yet contemporary design sensibilities. Inspired by drawings made in the garden and allotments, the designs reflect and stand up for the ‘unpalatable’ parts of the landscape we often ignore; without the earwigs, and rusting wheelbarrows, ‘life would be infinitely dull and sterile’. Using red earthenware clay that represents our contemporary connection with the earth, each piece starts at the potter’s wheel before being decorated with coloured slips, glaze, and occasionally different materials to vary the texture and create pottery with a Frankenstein effect. Even when being made, each piece can be torn apart, reassembled, and combined with other works in progress to create gorgeous recycled artwork.

Mary Johnson studied Craft at the University of Derby in 2009 and an Ma in Studio Ceramics at the university of Loughborough in 2014.