Skye's landscape reflected in clay
- Patricia fell in love with ceramics at school
- She has developed her practice around raku firing
- Her materials ar sourced on the Isle of Skye where she has lived since the 1990s
Patricia Shone had two early passions: ceramics and cooking. Though she took a degree in ceramic design, her career initially centred on cooking, and she worked as a chef in top restaurants in the UK and Italy. One particular job took her to the Isle of Skye, and she has remained on the island ever since. “I fell in love with the place and the people, the ground beneath my feet and the culture which walked these hills,” says Patricia. “I stopped working as a chef and started playing with clay again.” She built a small raku kiln out of an oil drum, and gradually got back into firing. Today, Patricia makes vessels inspired by the textures of the wild landscapes around her on Skye, using locally sourced materials above all.
Interview
- Has being a chef informed your pottery?
- No. I always thought I would be able to combine food and functional ware, but my love of ceramics is not really in functional ware. I feel there is something in me that wants to come out in my work, and every time I try and force it in another direction, it fails.
- How would you define your work?
- As well as being about my own personal journey, it is about trying to recreate the forms to the land that I am living on. The textures that I see in the land – created by climate and erosion and the passage of animals and human beings – also develop in the clay that I am using.
- How did you come to prefer hand-modelling to throwing?
- I had a condition called frozen shoulder, which meant it was very painful in my shoulders and I could not throw. This is when I developed a technique that I still use now. I start with a solid piece of clay and facet it with wires, before texturing and stretching it from the inside.
- What do you like about the firing process?
- There is an element of surprise, because I am not in control of it entirely, and I like this. When you are using a natural material, there is a joy in seeing how the material wants to work, and as a craftsperson some of the skill and technique comes in allowing that to happen.
Patricia Shone is an expert artisan: she began her career in 1985 and she started teaching in 2020
Where
Patricia Shone
