Carys Davies

A contour, a curve - the lie of the land

Carys was brought up in Conwy, North Wales and her pots reflect the influence of the colours and textures of the coast and mountains there. She throws pots in porcelain, then marks and alters them with texts or incised images. She has developed her own reactive slips and volcanic glazes, echoing the materials of the area - the copper of the Great Orme's mines, the fieldspars of the granite mines of Penmaenmawr.

Touch is important to Carys so her work can be handled, used and washed - maximising interaction with it as a 3D object, rather than as a screen image. She often uses words and poetry on pots and writes about her making at www.carysdavies.wordpress.com

Most of the pieces in the exhibition are from the series "On the horizon" which bring together text from the Shipping Forecast and a horizon at the meeting of shiny and volcanic glazes. The small green vessels are from the "Thorn" series which is an inland version relating to grass and green hills.

Having started her career as an engineer, Carys changed direction when, instead of working with materials and design, she found herself working more in the digital world. She returned to materials and making by retraining as a potter at Harrow (University of Westminster), graduating in 2007. She worked as a studio assistant for Edmund de Waal for five years and then set up her own studio in London.

Plymouth City Museum has a collection of Carys' work and it has appeared in a number of magazines including Ceramic Review and Crafts.

Carys also makes site-specific installations using the shape of the pots and inscribed text to invoke thoughts, feeligs and memory. Her work can be seen, for example, at Cotehele.

www.carysdavies.com