Pottery Teachers
Birgit Pohl
Birgit has been based in London for many years, but is originally from Germany. After a career in publishing, during which she had nurtured her love for ceramics through evening classes, she realised that she wanted to work with clay full-time, which led her to study at Clay College, Stoke-on-Trent.
Since being introduced to porcelain at Clay College, she has found that this material is ideally suited to the precise, refined shapes that she is looking to create. In the development of her designs, she aims to balance precision of form with fluidity in the surface decoration.
Her work has been exhibited in various locations, including Celebrating Ceramics Waterperry, Potfest Southeast, Art in Clay Farnham and the British Ceramics Biennial.
Birgit won Best Thrown Exhibit at the London Potters Annual Members Exhibition 2022 and is a Selected Member of the Craft Potters Association.
Instagram: @birgitpots
Joanna Szwej-Hawkin
Joanna was born and raised in Poland before moving to the United Kingdom in 1992.
Determined to learn how to make pottery, she began her adventures with clay. She took her first lessons at Camberwell College of Arts, then at Morley College and Southwark College in London. She later joined Roland Austin's Ceramics Studio.
Since 2018 she has been working from her own workshop studio in Nunhead. In her mother tongue “Asia” is a diminutive of Joanna.
Her decorative and functional pieces are mainly slab-built in earthenware or stoneware clay. To achieve a distressed look, she applies layers of different coloured slips, decorates them with bespoke photocopied transfers and ready-made decals. She makes limited editions and one-off pieces. Won Best Hand-built Exhibit at London Potters Members Exhibition 2022. One of her ceramic pictures has been selected for The Summer Exhibition 2023 at Royal Academy of Arts.
Instagram: @asiaceramics
Kyriaki Stratoudaki
Kyra Stratoudaki creates small batch, wheel-thrown, functional ceramics in her studio in Glyfada, Greece. Located in London for the last eight years, she has been a full-time member of a communal studio where she also teaches. In her own practice, she focuses on stoneware, functional ceramics as well as handbuilt, porcelain and jewellery. Having lived abroad for many years in her childhood and early adulthood, her yearning for the Greek sea, waves and sky are often depicted in the blues and whites she uses to decorate and glaze her pieces. Kyra's interest in ceramics started at secondary school and has been a constant thread throughout her life thereafter. Studies in languages and European Law/Economics took her to various European countries. All of which have influenced her style and work.
Instagram: @kyrastratoudaki_ceramics
Schneider
Schneider’s punk-baroque sculptures explore margins of functionality and aesthetic standards, using a full palette of ceramic techniques. Her embellished collage-like pieces, accentuated with gold lustres and inspired by traditional transfer-ware, bear witness and reflect contemporary urban life. Schneider has a sideline of tableware and has been teaching ceramics for a number of years.
She was born in East Berlin and escaped to West Berlin in 1985, where she studied Fine Art at Hochschule der Künste, graduating with MA Experimental Film / Performance Art. In 1998 she moved to London and having started a family, found a creative valve in Ceramics. She studied Ceramics at London City&Guilds, graduating with a Medal of Excellence in 2006.
She set up her own ceramics studio in East Dulwich in 2007. Schneider has been a ceramics judge at Koestler Arts in 2020, 2021 and 2023. She is showing her work at Ceramics in the City at the Museum of the Home in September 2023.
Instagram: @whatisschneider and @sch_pots
Eliza Triance
Eliza is a ceramicist whose adoration for clay has led her to work and teach internationally and to gain a first-class 'Ceramic Design' degree from Central Saint Martins. Her positive and upbeat personality ensures that Eliza's classes are engaging and fun. She believes it's essential for people of all ages to engage with their creativity and to experiment with the opportunities that clay presents.
Instagram: @eliza_triance_ceramics
Alice Wakefield
Alice has experience teaching students in both throwing and hand-building in potteries, community centres and schools. Alice's experience is varied and includes running children's clay clubs over summer holidays, clay classes for the over 65s and evening classes for adults. Additionally, she has run one-off workshops covering kiln building and firing, and preparation of raw materials. Alice enjoys running clay-based workshops with other artists and potters, exploring play, imagination, and free expression. Creating community through clay and utilising its therapeutic qualities has become an essential part of Alice’s creative practise.