Menu

  • Home
  • Stories
  • Gallery
  • Crafts magazine
  • What's on
  • Directory
    • Overview
    • Supporting craft businesses
    • Join the directory
    • Opportunities
    • Craft business resources
    • Craft business booster sessions
    • Crafting Business programme for makers
    • Overview
    • Make First
    • Education
    • Families
    • Participation
    • Craft learning resources
    • Craft careers
    • Craft School: Yinka’s Challenge
    • Young Craft Citizens
    • Overview
    • About the collections
    • How to hire and borrow
    • Exhibitions
    • Curatorial fellowship
  • Collect art fair
    • Overview
    • Our work
    • Our team
    • Governance
    • History
    • Research and policy
    • Diversity and inclusion
    • Current vacancies
    • Contact us
    • Craft UK
    • Press
    • Overview
    • Appeals and projects
    • Patrons
    • A gift in your will
    • Corporate partnerships
    • Our supporters and partners

Quick Links

  • Subscribe
  • Opportunities
  • Crafts Council at 50
Home
Login
Crafts CouncilDirectoryLiz Mathews at Potters' Yard

Vessels containing volumes

I like the idea that a bowl doesn't have to contain fruit or vegetables to still be useful, and that the domestic references of pots add extra meaning to vessels celebrating something more abstract, like love or joy. These bowls are often inspired by a particular poem and are usually, but not always, happy; they can also mark sad times - containers of memory, too.

Liz Mathews at Potters' Yard

London, England


Golden day bowl, Liz Mathews

'The day and the journey are yours and mine to share' - from a poem by Theocritus. The bowl is thrown in creamy white stoneware, and filled with a swirl of golden brushwork and lettered by brush in warm, joyful golden ochre hues. I often make bowls like this to commission to celebrate weddings, civil partnerships, anniversaries.


Pleiades bowl, Liz Mathews

A large open bowl thrown in white stoneware, whose lines can be extended to contain the infinite night sky. The words are from a poem by Valentine Ackland, 'All Soul's Night', and are set around the outside of the bowl to mirror the fallen leaves on the grass and the stars like flowers in the sky. The inside of the bowl is painted with a map of the November stars - set first in wax, with a wash of dark blue cobalt oxide; then appearing to be made from the clay itself, as the wax burns out in the firing - a cosmic association of material and poem.


Meteor bowl, Liz Mathews

A large bowl thrown in white stoneware, lettered with an inscription by Giovanni Pascoli, translated by EJ Scovell. The words are lettered by brush on the outside of the bowl in cobalt oxide, and on the inside of the bowl in liquid wax, with the dark blue oxide brushed over the top. When the wax burns out in the firing, the words remain, lettered in the clay against the dark blue sky, where the wax resisted the oxide. The bowl is glazed on the inside with a clear glaze, giving a lovely contrast in feel with the unglazed earthy outside.

Vessels containing volumes

I like the idea that a bowl doesn't have to contain fruit or vegetables to still be useful, and that the domestic references of pots add extra meaning to vessels celebrating something more abstract, like love or joy. These bowls are often inspired by a particular poem and are usually, but not always, happy; they can also mark sad times - containers of memory, too.

Liz Mathews at Potters' Yard

London, England


Golden day bowl, Liz Mathews

'The day and the journey are yours and mine to share' - from a poem by Theocritus. The bowl is thrown in creamy white stoneware, and filled with a swirl of golden brushwork and lettered by brush in warm, joyful golden ochre hues. I often make bowls like this to commission to celebrate weddings, civil partnerships, anniversaries.


Meteor bowl, Liz Mathews

A large bowl thrown in white stoneware, lettered with an inscription by Giovanni Pascoli, translated by EJ Scovell. The words are lettered by brush on the outside of the bowl in cobalt oxide, and on the inside of the bowl in liquid wax, with the dark blue oxide brushed over the top. When the wax burns out in the firing, the words remain, lettered in the clay against the dark blue sky, where the wax resisted the oxide. The bowl is glazed on the inside with a clear glaze, giving a lovely contrast in feel with the unglazed earthy outside.


Pleiades bowl, Liz Mathews

A large open bowl thrown in white stoneware, whose lines can be extended to contain the infinite night sky. The words are from a poem by Valentine Ackland, 'All Soul's Night', and are set around the outside of the bowl to mirror the fallen leaves on the grass and the stars like flowers in the sky. The inside of the bowl is painted with a map of the November stars - set first in wax, with a wash of dark blue cobalt oxide; then appearing to be made from the clay itself, as the wax burns out in the firing - a cosmic association of material and poem.

More from Liz Mathews at Potters' Yard

  • Project

    Meadow pots

  • Project

    Waterfalls and harvests

  • Project

    Beloved houses (house portraits in clay)

Stay informed and inspired

Select an option to receive a newsletter

Follow us

  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Pinterest

Crafts Council
44a Pentonville Road
London N1 9BY

hello@craftscouncil.org.uk
+44 (0)20 7806 2500

Reg. charity no. 280956

  • Our work
  • Our team
  • Privacy policy