Cressida Borrett
Cressida Borrett aims for her work to be useful as well as nice to look at. She believes that life is far too short for washing up or saving things for best so she makes all her functional pots in stoneware or porcelain. Because it is stronger than earthenware it can be put in the dishwasher, oven and microwave, and it will be more resilient to chips etc.
All the pots are either thrown or hand built by Cressida herself, in Kingston. She uses slips, underglazes and oxides for the designs and most of the work is glazed.
Her inspiration comes from plants in her garden (alliums) and walks at weekends with her family and dogs (cow parsley) She loves texture and has a large collection of objects which she uses to make marks on clay. For example, her cow parsley design is made with a nail dropped by her builders. She collects obsolete objects which no longer have a use: letterpress blocks, lace doilies, old buttons, knitting needles etc. and uses them in her work.
She also makes ceramic pictures of plants and flowers and local scenes in paper clay. She has recently started to make ceramic light shades.
About 25 years ago Cressida joined an evening class in pottery and was hooked straight away. She finds it amazing to convert a lump of mud into a beautiful pot that can be used and enjoyed. It was like an addiction to her and still is.
She spent many years at Putney School of Art on a Monday evening, became a mother, and realised that being a potter is much more family friendly than her previous marketing career. The hobby slowly became a new job, despite the sensible side of her brain telling her she should find something more lucrative. She now considers herself one of the fortunate people who have the job of their dreams.
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