Harriet Ferris MSDC

Ceramics

About Harriet
With an eye on detail and an understanding of three dimensional form, Harriet is forever exploring the unique properties of clay.
Website
Biography Back to top

It has been over 25 years since Harriet left her jewellery studio in Soho London to move to live by the sea in Whitstable. After graduating from Central St Martins in the late 80’s with a degree in Jewellery Design, she worked in the contemporary jewellery gallery Jess James in London, before going on to join an artist studio in Beak Street to launch her solo career.

During that time Harriet designed and made her own jewellery collections as well as working with a variety of leading designers and companies from Danny Hall to Stüssy, Tom McEwan to De Beers, either working on collections or designing for specific clients. Her speciality was in wax carving which was then cast in precious metals, her sculpting skills even stretched to making the tiny masters of dolls and animals for the toy company Polly Pocket.

Many years later, having moved to Whitstable and raised a family, Harriet was given an evening course in ceramics as a present and that was it, she was hooked! From the beginning it was all about touch, the handling of the material and being able to manipulate and explore form so freely captivated her.

With a lifetime of wonderful experiences, there are many influences that Harriet can draw from but her most immediate springboard is her local environment. Whether it’s the marine structures of sea forts, coastal landscapes, or a simple stone picked up from the beach, Harriet plays with scale and form to produce distinctive functional and sculptural pieces.

Her work is hand built using a combination of slab, pinched and coiled clay. With an eye on detail and an understanding of three dimensional form, Harriet is forever exploring the unique properties of clay. Her experience of sculpting in wax translates quite effortlessly into this wonderfully versatile material by slowly piecing together, adding or taking away, forever altering until the form appears.

Investigating new techniques to test her sculpting skills and with a growing confidence Harriet has recently been exploring the human form, focusing on the human head and its ability to tell a story with the slightest of gestures.

Resumé Back to top

Shows 2023

  • Margate Ceramics Market - Turner Contemporary - Margate - Kent - March 2023

  • Wandering - Group Multi Media Show - Whitstable Museum Gallery - Kent - 26th June - 2nd July 2023

  • Kent Potters Association - Open Exhibition - The Horsebridge Arts Centre - Whitstable - Kent - 5th - 17th July 2023

  • Joint Show - Fstone Art Gallery - Folkestone - Kent - 13th - 26th July 2023

  • Wonder - Oxmarket Contemporary - Chichester - West Sussex - 29th August - 10th September 2023


Shows 2022

  • The Winter Group Show - Linden Hall Studio - Deal - January

  • Give Me Love - The Lido Stores - Margate - February

  • Open Call - Ryebank Gallery - Rye - June

  • Kent Potters Association - Open Exhibition - The Beaney - Canterbury - July

  • Positive Vibes - One New Street Gallery - September

  • End of Year Show - Fstone Art Gallery - Folkestone - October

  • Craft Potters Association - Oxford Ceramics Fair - October

  • ING Discerning Eye Exhibition 2022 - Mall Galleries - London November

  • Surface Tension - Group Ceramic Show - Whitstable Museum - November

  • Earthed - Fish Slab Gallery - Whitstable - December

  • Designers and Makers Market - Turner Contemporary - Margate - December


Member of Craft Potters Association

Member of Kent Potters Association

Other Makers in Ceramics
  • M M Adams often uses old tales to explore timely themes. She hand builds in stoneware, her pots mixing traditional ceramics with sculpture.

    View profile
  • Sophie is a London-based ceramicist whose unorthodox approach to ceramics is rooted in experimentation, play and mixed media.

    View profile
  • Working as a Designer-Maker remains a major source of satisfaction even after many years. What more could one ask of the creative life?

    View profile
  • Growing from a fascination with drawing and handbuilding, Anna's ceramics are characterized by their monumentality and painterly surfaces.

    View profile
  • Cheyenne explores the connection between form and colour, through design and combined decorative techniques. Pieces are created with...

    View profile
  • Cosmin Ciofirdel is a Romanian-born ceramic artist based in London. Working in porcelain and stoneware, he explores rhythm, colour, and...

    View profile
  • Johanne works on the wheel with porcelain - a clay that both challenges and rewards. Its strength, translucency, and texture continue to...

    View profile
  • Marshall Colman's ceramics, inspired by Mid-Century Modern, combine refined finish with the individuality of the hand-made.

    View profile
  • Michèle creates vibrant decorative ceramics informed by the vivid Mediterranean colours and light of her childhood times in Tunisia and...

    View profile
  • Steve creates architectural and industrialist forms combining wheel thrown porcelain with other materials such as metal and wood

    View profile
  • Amy addresses the fragility and transience of life and the natural world, through the transformative properties of light on porcelain. She...

    View profile
  • Sarah works with the physical, mindful and repetitive process of making in clay, building expressions of internal narratives and responses...

    View profile
  • Cathy's work incorporates a lot of mark making on unfired hand built and thrown work. Often her work will make you want to smile.

    View profile
  • Working from his Staffordshire studio, Mark Dally handbuilds, casts and throws his Black & White Ware in high-fired white earthenware. He...

    View profile
  • Libby Daniels has been a full-time ceramicist since 2020, working from her studio in Haslemere on the Surrey, West Sussex border. She makes...

    View profile
  • John came from New Zealand in the early 70's to study music at Trinity College of Music, London but always continued his love of ceramics...

    View profile
  • Ferri has always been interested in nature and its influence is evident in her work. She is particularly drawn to the human form where she...

    View profile
  • Over the years Alan has worked in a variety of ways with different clays, but principally hand-building in Crank stoneware clay. Current...

    View profile
  • Barbara Gittings’s smoke fired Nerikomi porcelain forms embrace abstraction and asymmetry while still referencing the geometric

    View profile
  • Moira creates hand built contemporary vessels inspired by her discovery of the Essex salt marshes and tidal coast line where nature...

    View profile
  • London-based Ceramic Artist, Kayley Holderness, creates sculptural forms with textured clays and engobe decoration.

    View profile
  • Claire produces elegant hand-built sculptural forms on different scales, inspired by her studio’s London location.

    View profile
  • Josefina is a ceramic artist whose work consists of both the functional and sculptural. She combines hand building and thrown porcelain...

    View profile
  • A relentless dedication to thoughtful and durable design, sustainable practices and interest in exploring the limits of the ceramic...

    View profile
  • Sonia's work is wheel thrown using either porcelain or stoneware, aiming to abstract vitality from the elemental.

    View profile
  • Claudia creates unique ceramic sculptures that explore physical and psychological layers, challenging conventional expectations

    View profile
  • Henrietta MacPhee is a ceramic artist whose work stems from exploring the exotic. She models and carves the clay by hand, painting with...

    View profile
  • Celia is a ceramic artist, mainly a hand builder, and honed her coiling skills under the tutelage of local potters when she was living in...

    View profile
  • Judy McKenzie is a contemporary ceramic artist whose porcelain work explores pattern, colour, and movement through hand-built forms. Her...

    View profile
  • Laura Murphy creates delicate, translucent parian porcelain vessels with a crisp and contemporary feel, alongside sculptural...

    View profile
  • Karl Owen is a UK based ceramic artist. Born and raised in Wales, he currently works from a small ceramic studio in Falmouth, Cornwall.

    View profile
  • The bulb from ‘Tikkun Olam’ in the ‘Onward Journey’ series. Life moments when we have to ‘hunker down’, so new roots and shoots can emerge.

    View profile
  • Huw’s work is hand thrown exploring the soft, pliable quality of clay. The finished pots are burnished with slip and saggar fired.

    View profile
  • Potter, maker in ceramic with shop, gallery & teaching studio in London SW!4 stocking handmade ceramics for the home & table. Commissions

    View profile
  • Corinne Price makes colourful ceramic vessels in pigmented porcelain that explore colour and pattern in three dimensional form.

    View profile
  • Jacqui believes that craft is very much about working through a process with her hands, and understanding the material. Basic sketchbook...

    View profile
  • Christine-Ann works in thrown porcelain and also creates large bespoke garden ceramics as well as experimenting with these same rough clays.

    View profile
  • Helen is a ceramicist with a professional background in the creative industries. Her sculptural work is inspired by the passage of time,...

    View profile
  • William makes animal sculptures through the distillation of many years of experimentation and exploration of ideas and materials. HIs...

    View profile
  • Nici lives on the edge of London; the cusp of urban and rural life. Superstition has historically prevailed here, and seemingly prosaic...

    View profile
  • As a child Pam was fascinated by the ancient artefacts in the local museum and continues to find the craft of past cultures colours her...

    View profile
  • Combining elegant ceramic forms rich colours and intricate sgraffito drawings each one of Tiffany’s unique pieces have been designed and...

    View profile
  • London based potter, Robert Silver is a maker of tableware. Best known for his `Winklepicker' jugs (named after the shoe) with their...

    View profile
  • Susan makes sculptural pieces that have an intentionally delicate aesthetic, and that play with notions of beauty, function and strength.

    View profile
  • Based in his rural Essex studio, Neville makes functional slipware pottery that is raw fired to earthenware temperatures. His pots are hand...

    View profile
  • Joanna Terry is a ceramicist working in Parian Porcelain. Casting grasses and native plants observed through her daily walking. This ritual...

    View profile
  • My work is thrown porcelain in a variety of sizes. I paint, score and splash surfaces, creating a feeling of spontaneity and movement.

    View profile
  • Joy Trpkovic is a ceramic artist who specialises in hand-built porcelain. She creates delicate, translucent sculptures that are inspired by...

    View profile
  • Passionate about wild landscape and plants, Robin’s ceramic work is inspired by her natural surroundings or designed to integrate with...

    View profile
  • Originally a textile designer for luxury brands, Talia is a ceramicist who uses colour, form and pattern to create contemporary ceramics....

    View profile
  • Jane's hand-built and burnished ceramics derive their unique colours and patterns from firing with organic material in a large open pit.

    View profile
  • Tessa makes a range of work in white earthenware clay. Inspiration for surface decoration is distilled from a process that begins with...

    View profile
  • Mignon makes hand built earthenware jugs inspired by nature, flowers, abstract natural forms and the work of William Morris.

    View profile