Conversations in Clay on the first floor is part of a series of craft showcases where paired ceramists explore similar themes or processes in their work.
This new display features ceramic artists by ceramic artists Julia Albert Recht and Jeremy James. They both draw on human and animal forms as a central element of their practice. The pieces are further animated using colour and pattern, which play an important decorative role in their work. Story telling is key to both artists resulting in work is imaginative, narrative and richly expressive.
After retiring from a career in aid work, Julia Albert‑Recht developed a sustained and passionate engagement with clay. Working primarily with earthenware, she produces both thrown and hand-built forms, which she decorates using sgraffito and hand‑painting techniques. Largely self‑taught, her work is now collected and sold internationally. ‘For me it’s all about the decoration and I use the clay as my canvas. I’m a big fan of old English slipware and the fun of Staffordshire figures. My Czech heritage shows up with its folk-art influence. I never really plan. I like to sit down and then it comes out of my head, birds, beasts, myths and fairy stories - who knows what goes on in there’.
Jeremy James is a sculptor and printmaker based in the United Kingdom. Working as a professional artist for over 35 years, his work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is held in numerous public and private collections all over the world. Jeremy trained at Norwich, Exeter and Cardiff, specialising in sculpture. His work is concerned with animals & people and frequently, their interaction. Much of the sculptural work is made in high fired ceramic and fired in an ageing gas kiln. All the work is ‘one-off’, unique pieces with extensive hand modelling of soft stoneware clay involved in its making. Jeremy has taught and lectured at many teaching institutions throughout the UK and now works full time in his Derbyshire studio.
Header image: Julia Albert‑Recht
Past artists in the series
Heidi Soos & Helmsdale Pottery: 2 August - 27 September 2025
A new series of ceramics displays. Our first conversation will feature a range of amazing birds, both imagined and real.
Becca Brown & Evelyn Albrow: 21 October - 3 January 2026
Our second presentation in this series features hand built pots and Christmas tree decorations. The perfect Christmas present!
Fiona Robertson and Pauline Beautyman: 6 January – 28 February 2026
Both makers, Fiona Robertson and Pauline Beautyman, draw inspiration from their surrounding natural environments, yet produce markedly different bodies of work. The distinctive marks applied to their diverse forms give each vessel its own character and visual presence. Their shared approach to surface decoration conveys a strong sense of storytelling: narratives emerge through pattern, colour, and form, inviting viewers to explore their personalities embedded within each object.
Ellie Thomason and Louise & Simon Nadin: 3 March - 25 April 2026
This week new work arrived in our Craft Showcases; created by ceramic artists Ellie Thomason and Louise & Simon Nadin (Ard Beag Ceramics) who use similar techniques for firing and glazing pots. Salt and soda glazes have an element of unpredictability in the kiln creating flashes of colour and beautiful surface sheens to the pots. Salt glaze is usually used on stoneware creating a glossy, translucent and slightly orange-peel-like texture which was formed by throwing common salt into the kiln during the higher temperature part of the firing process. Sodium from the salt reacts with silica in the clay body to form a glassy coating of sodium silicate. The process of using a wood fired kiln makes each piece completely unique, so although there are many similarities within the two bodies of work each piece has its own identity.
