Posted on June 30 2017
We chatted with Lucy about what inspires her work, who she admires and what she is currently working on. It's fantastic to learn more about this talented lady and what makes inspires her beautiful creations. Lucy's bottles are beautiful individually, but also make a striking arrangement when multiples are mixed together, the rainbow of colours is sublime.
Can you tell me a bit more about yourself and why you began designing? I came to Ceramics quite late on, after several years working in the TV industry, and I studied at Camberwell as a mature student in the mid 1990s. I've been happily potting ever since (combined with teaching pottery classes to children and adults).
How would you describe your work? I make vessels on the wheel - bottles, jugs, vases and bowls - from white earthenware, then glaze them in a rainbow of different shades using my own smooth-textured glaze. I want my work to have a quality of quiet simplicity, and I'm constantly aiming for harmony of form and colour.
Where are you based and does this inspire your work? My studio is in a very quiet Hampshire farmyard, and the peace and solitude are completely conducive to making my work; the surrounding countryside is full of inspiration: the colours of the fields and trees especially give rise to me experimenting to produce different shades of green.
Which designers/artists do you admire? Lucie Rie is my favourite potter: the elegance and quiet strength of her forms are an inspiration. I'm also influenced by the artist Giorgio Morandi, who painted still-life pictures of groups of vessels: I want my work to have the same sense of being in family groups, related to each other but not identical.
What are you working on right now? Now that the teaching term is over, I can concentrate on replenishing stock in galleries, and am taking advantage of the hot weather to make as much work as possible for Autumn and Winter Craft Fairs.
What's your finest moment so far? Getting accepted at Camberwell remains a high point; also the genuine pleasure expressed by some of my students who are as hooked on Ceramics as I was when I first started - and still am!
Tell us your favourite joke A mouse went into a music shop and said 'I'd like to buy a mouse organ, please. The shopkeeper said 'That's funny, you're the second mouse who's been in today asking for a mouse organ, to which the mouse replied 'oh - that must have been our Monica.'
What's your favourite day out? On the Greek island of Symi - walking over the rocks to St Nicholas Beach and spending the day by the clear turquoise sea, with a glorious Greek salad.
See more of Lucy Burley's range of work here.