ABOUT...
Our pottery is situated in what was once the potting shed of the old walled garden on the Dashwood Estate in West Wycombe. This is part of an exciting new project to renovate this historic site and develop it into a thriving community hub which incorporates various creative enterprises and a cafe/ restaurant with childrens' soft play area.
As well as exhibiting and selling our work from the studio, we are running pottery courses, evening classes and introductory classes for beginners.
The classes are taught by potters John, Vanessa and Bobbie. We teach a range of skills and approaches to working with clay including wheel throwing, hand-building and sculpture.
OUR ADDRESS...
Walled Garden Pottery,
The Walled Garden Cafe
Chorley Road,
West Wycombe
Buckinghamshire
HP14 3AP
Telephone: 07903 124531 / 07830 492834
JOHN
John has had a very wide ranging career in ceramics. Beginning as production thrower of floristry wares, he went on to study ceramics at Harrow College of Art under Mick Casson. He then set up a series of pottery studios, building (mostly) wood-fired kilns - he has designed and built around 15 kilns of all types! He worked as a production thrower in France at Le Poterie du Don, and later at Dartington Pottery in Devon. He has worked over successive periods in most ceramic media including stoneware, saltglaze, woodfiring, terracotta, slipwares, porcelain, Raku, terra sigillata, smoke-firing. Plus a few months in a tile factory!
His work on a very lightweight form of ceramic insulation, took him to India where he carried out further research on the development of efficient village cooking stoves.
VANESSA
Vanessa studied illustration at Westminster University and has always had an interest in ceramics.
She has worked mostly in the media of watercolour, oils and acrylics, on paper and canvas, and now enjoys working with clay, which suits her illustrative style that combines well with the spacial element of the ceramic forms, taking the work from the two dimensional to the three dimensional.
Vanessa
I studied illustration at Westminster university and I’ve worked mostly in the media of watercolour and acrylic, on paper and canvas, but I have always been very interested in ceramics.
I very much enjoy working with John in the studio and I think that my illustrative approach to our work translates well from the two dimensional to the three dimensional form!
I’m fascinated by the many possibilities of working with clay, the different techniques, materials and processes.
I love the directness of handling a tactile three dimensional object that I have designed and made, and I’m excited by the continuing use and life of that object.
I have previously worked in earthenware, decorating with coloured slips, and am currently working in stoneware, experimenting with form, texture and glazes.
I'm mostly inspired by nature, the beautiful landscape of the Chiltern Hills where we are based, and the changing seasons in that landscape.
Bobbie
Bobbie joined Walled Garden Pottery in 2024 as a pottery tutor. She studied Fine Art at the University of Creative Arts where she realised her passion for working with clay. While at university she mainly worked in hand-building sculptural forms influenced by the female figure, however, since graduating in 2015 she has immersed herself in wheel throwing and loves bringing to life functional forms on the pottery wheel.
She began her journey as a pottery tutor in 2018 when living in London and has worked at several studios since.
She loves seeing her students develop their confidence and skills in clay and thoroughly enjoys working with groups of adults and children.
