ali gane ceramics West Yorkshire, United Kingdom

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Ali Gane is a Yorkshire-based ceramicist who creates work that has a sense of place, a feeling of connection and familiarity. Primarily a hand builder, her work is informed by the shapes, forms, structures and colours of the natural environment. She combines white earthstone and red earthenware clays to create a unique patchwork of strata-like patterned clay that is applied to formers and moulds.

Ali’s ceramics training started in the 1980s at Ripon College in North Yorkshire where she studied for a BA (Hons) in Geography and Art. Under the tutelage of Victor Priem and Peter Clough, she specialised in big, classically shaped and meticulously constructed coil pots that were simply glazed and mostly fired in a gas kiln under reduction.

After graduating in 1986, several years later Ali joined the ceramics community at Harrogate College, where she started to explore exciting new ways to work with clay that were adventurous and authentic. She is now studying for an MA in Creative Practice and is loving the opportunity to experiment and develop her ceramics practice further.

Ali is a hand builder who works with two types of clay - white earthstone and red earthenware. Alternate clay layers are stacked together and then stretched out to produce thin elongated strata-like strips. These are then applied to a variety of formers and moulds to create quite complex interlocking surfaces and structures. Ali’s formers and moulds include bespoke thrown cylinders, her own coil pots, and even atmospheric weather balloons!

Following an initial bisque firing, each piece is glazed using a minimum of three different glazes applied by pouring, dipping and brushing. The volcanic lava effect is created using glazes containing silicon carbide. Once the glaze has been applied, each piece is fired in an electric kiln to 1280c to produce distinctive ceramic pieces.

Ali’s piece ‘Fragile Earth’ won Saturday’s Public Vote at Potfest in the Pens in October 2022.

“My blue pots are inspired by the glistening turquoise Croatian sea and the limestone rocks we swam off each morning during a holiday there in 2019. I hope my work sparks something in you too, perhaps to contemplate, reminisce, and be transported somewhere magical!”