Laura Murphy LSDC

Ceramics

About Laura
Laura Murphy creates delicate, translucent parian porcelain vessels with a crisp and contemporary feel, alongside sculptural botanically-themed organic structures, juxtaposing strength with fragility. Working with a limited palette of striking colours against the ice-white clay her ceramics feature fluid patterns inspired by botanical structures and movement across rural landscapes such as a swallow’s flight, a ripple across a wheat field and the flow of a river.
Website
Biography Back to top

Laura Murphy designs and makes delicate, translucent vessels and sculpted pieces from her studio in Oxfordshire, using traditional white parian clay. Working with a limited palette of striking colours against the ice-white clay her ceramics feature fluid patterns inspired by botanical structures and movement across rural landscapes such as a swallow’s flight, a ripple across a wheat field and the flow of a river.

Each piece features thin walls, and the fired parian clay is highly translucent, producing a radiant glow when interacting with light. Light itself is a key consideration in all of Laura's work, both in terms of contrasting translucent white clay with the opaque colour decoration, and also in terms of the weight of the work. Items are easy to handle and often have a 'lighter than air' quality. Vessels are slip-cast from plaster moulds made by Laura, usually from forms thrown on the wheel. The simple forms offer a blank canvas for the fluid movement of thin colour trails.

Laura’s Torquil Tree series was developed during an artist residency and features hand painted vessels that celebrate the striking silhouette of trees in winter, with thinned undulating rims echoing misty horizons. Her Hydrangea series of sculptural work started from one tiny petal skeleton to create a selection of highly translucent, delicate latticework pieces of increasing size, inspired by research into the effect of natural light in seasonal affective disorder (SAD).

Resumé Back to top

Having completed an MA in Ceramics at the University of Wolverhampton in 2014, Laura now works from her studio in Oxfordshire.

Personal highlights include an Artist-in-Residence role at Torquil Pottery & The Gallery Upstairs and collaborating on a large installation (Pleasuredome) for the Kubla Khan series of contemporary ormolu by Maison Lignereux (2017). For further details of shows, exhibitions and stockists, please see www.lauramurphyceramics.com.

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
  • Lindy designs & makes functional & decorative ceramics in her studio in London SW14. She studied Textiles and Art at Hereford Art College....

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

    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
  • 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
  • With an eye on detail and an understanding of three dimensional form, Harriet is forever exploring the unique properties of clay.

    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
  • Kate is an artist based in Fireworks Clay Studios, Cardiff.

    View profile
  • London-based Ceramic Artist, Kayley Holderness, creates thrown and coiled 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
  • Sonia's work is wheel thrown using either porcelain or stoneware, aiming to abstract vitality from the elemental.

    View profile
  • Lyn lives in a small village near the city of Lincoln in a large chapel she and her partner converted to a spacious home. This gives her...

    View profile
  • Claudia's work is inspired by her travels & open exploration - she is always trying new techniques, glazes and firing methods including Raku

    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
  • Karen works with porcelain which is thrown on the wheel and then abstracted to create flowing abstract sculptures.

    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
  • Leslie Parrott makes bowls, vases, teapots, mugs, butter dishes, jugs in porcelain and stoneware. They are sold via galleries, craft fairs,...

    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
  • 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
  • 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
  • Bridget works from a studio in Taston, Oxfordshire, using porcelain to make fine thrown and slip-cast vessels. She studied at Farnham and...

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

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

    View profile