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Antoinette Kelly
Antoinette Cecilia Kelly
Functional and decorative ceramics
As a child I loved nothing better than painting, drawing and crafting and my very first ceramic creations were made at a Saturday morning class when I was about 10 years old. After ‘A’ levels I was so very determined to follow a creative path but didn’t quite know which direction to take… fortunately I had the good advice to enroll on a full time Art & Design Foundation Course at The City & Guilds of London Art School in Kennington. The course was fantastic – it included lots and lots of printmaking, drawing from life and some sculpture...
I was fearful of going down a traditional fine art route, so I ended up studying graphics and after four years of full-time study, I graduated with an HND and a BA (Hons) in Graphic Design in 1994. I then spent the next 25 years working as a Designer/Art Director and Creative Head in Central London for various large retailers and marketing agencies. Redundancy in the summer of 2019 gave me the time and space to rekindle my love of ceramics – the rest as they say is history! A few pottery classes at The Clay Room in Orpington, with some personal tuition from Sophie Southgate, marked the beginning of my new clay adventure!
Following a house move from Eltham to Bexley, the summer of 2022 saw my garden studio take shape and I have since been working in my own dedicated clay space. It is big enough for a sizeable kiln, potters wheel and some very sturdy work benches with a fantastic view out onto the greenery of our garden. I love the idea of applying graphical designs onto 3-Dimensional functional objects and have been exploring the possibilities of colour, pattern and texture on clay using different methods. I am still very much exploring and for now I am happy not to be stuck with one particular style.
Work to date has mostly been hand-built, thrown and carved stoneware – which has either been glazed, hand-painted with underglazes, decorated with slip or water-etched. I’ve also slip-cast some porcelain tea bowls from my own complex mould – something I wish to do more of in the future!
I am very excited to see how my work develops and progresses with time – my plans for this year are to work more with porcelain which includes the launch of a ceramic jewellery range.
Email: antkellycreations@gmail.com
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