Helen Coulton

BA (Hons) Artist Designer Maker

In my project, I have designed and created ceramic tableware, combining decorative art with functional products, using marbling to mimic abstract art. The works aims to bring nature inspired colours to tableware that can be enjoyed in everyday life.

As a lover of colour, marbling allows me to explore colour, shapes and patterns in abstract ways, freezing in time the moment when two colours mix together. Throwing is the ideal forming method for my work, as the wheel acts as my paint brush, pulling the coloured clay through the form. For me, this is much as a painter works on an abstract art, but with ceramic form as the canvas. The mechanics of throwing distort the pattern of the clay creating movement in the design. This links with nature as nature is always moving and changing around us.

Clay has a forgiving nature and its plastic properties make it ideal for my practice; I am able to move and form it into any desirable shape, seeing how the marbled clay responds to form and touch. The fact that I can re-claim the clay and use it again and again, gives me peace of mind as it as sustainable process and I find the repetitive motion between the potter and the wheel therapeutic.


Yn fy mhrosiect, rwyf wedi cynllunio a chreu llestri bwrdd seramig, gan gyfuno celfyddyd addurniadol â chynhyrchion swyddogaethol, gan ddefnyddio marmori i efelychu celfyddyd haniaethol. Nod y gweithiau yw dod â lliwiau wedi’u hysbrydoli gan natur i lestri bwrdd y gellir eu mwynhau mewn bywyd bob dydd.

Fel un sy’n hoff o liw, mae marmori yn fy ngalluogi i ymchwilio i liw, siapiau a phatrymau mewn ffyrdd haniaethol, gan rewi mewn amser y foment pan fydd dau liw yn cymysgu gyda’i gilydd. Taflu yw’r dull ffurfio delfrydol ar gyfer fy ngwaith, gan fod yr olwyn yn gweithredu fel brwsh paent, gan dynnu’r clai lliw trwy’r ffurf. I mi, mae hyn yn debyg iawn i waith arlunydd ar gelfyddyd haniaethol, ond gyda ffurf seramig fel y cynfas. Mae mecaneg taflu yn aflunio patrwm y clai gan greu symudiad yn y dyluniad. Mae hyn yn cysylltu â natur gan fod natur bob amser yn symud ac yn newid o’n cwmpas.

Mae gan glai natur faddeuol ac mae ei briodweddau plastig yn ei wneud yn ddelfrydol ar gyfer fy arfer; rwy’n gallu ei symud a’i ffurfio i unrhyw siâp a ddymunaf, gan weld sut mae’r clai wedi’i farmori’n ymateb i ffurf a chyffyrddiad. Mae’r ffaith y gallaf gael y clai yn ôl a’i ddefnyddio dro ar ôl tro yn rhoi tawelwch meddwl imi gan ei fod yn broses gynaliadwy ac mae’r symudiad ailadroddus rhwng y crochenydd a’r olwyn yn therapiwtig.

Other Exhibitors:

Claire Maloney

Claire Maloney

Antidote Yarns and Designs – Yarn is the Remedy! I spent 25 years working in the high stress Financial Services sector, where I used knitting and crocheting as a means to cope with that stress. In a bid to help others access the therapeutic powers of knit and crochet,...

Florence Strang

Florence Strang

I am an artist designer maker with an interest in jewellery, community, and sustainability. I aim to create a business in which I sell my jewellery alongside other likeminded creators, as well as offering workshops in which people can learn to make items that are...

Megan Hermione Evans

Megan Hermione Evans

Clay is my canvas. I create visual compositions in sheet clay by distorting and disrupting the material to create a textural surface in which the patterns, shapes and colours can emerge and be refined. Informed by sketches from everyday life, I take inspiration from...

Ewan Gill

Ewan Gill

My work explores hybrid creations, combining the aesthetics of current technology with those of the Italian renaissance. It is a contemporary take on the...