The audio file for this article was produced by the Ceramic Arts Network staff and not read by the author.
Olivia Walker’s introduction to the world of ceramics arrived unexpectedly. After the artist graduated from university, where she studied history and English literature, she moved home to Devon, England, for the summer and took a job in a local crafts gallery. Arranging displays and selling ceramics by regional artists, she increasingly admired the way the pieces felt in her hands and enjoyed talking about them, prompting her to take an evening throwing class.
Among her earliest experiments, Walker made a coiled pot that she rubbed shoe polish into after it had been fired. “This was the first thing I made which I thought was an interesting object,” she says, and she gifted it to a friend who still uses it to collect spare change. This initial interest in the objecthood of ceramics laid the initial foundation of a studio practice revolving around the material qualities of clay—particularly porcelain—and an abiding desire to create work that evokes a visceral response.
The Conversation Between Form and Function
The Dartmoor-based artist’s intricate, sculptural objects merge organic forms with the beguiling delicacy of tiny porcelain pieces. “I always find it interesting how the conversation between form and function exists in the craft world,” she says. Although Walker employs wheel-throwing processes that have been traditionally applied in the making of functional ware, she is even more interested in the relationship between craft and fine art, exploring experimental avenues through formal elements like line, shape, and contrast.
“I make vessels which can contain, but they aren’t functional in any traditional sense,” Walker says. Each piece begins on the wheel, which provides the starting point for a vessel. Once its form is realized, she sometimes cuts away parts of it, rebuilding and covering some of the surface with what she calls shards—thin petals of porcelain that are applied when they are leather hard.
Tiny layers ripple across the surface in patterns redolent of coral or earth eroding beneath rivulets of water. In monochrome white, black, or dark gray, the supple textures of each piece recall growth and decay, like the way fungi appear on decomposing wood.
Other pieces are cloaked entirely in shards, which wrap around the core form and nestle up among each other in a dense cluster that appears to be moving. She began making these works when she was pregnant, and the way that a number of fragile shards grouped together exhibits a kind of protective strength was especially resonant.
The undulating surfaces provoke a range of responses, which Walker hopes are positive but sometimes converge with slight discomfort or are curiously repellent. This only compounds the appeal, inviting a gentle confrontation between elegance, vulnerability, mystery, and the biological.
Consistency, Texture, and Beauty
Walker’s pieces revel in the juxtaposition of fragility and strength by tapping into our association with porcelain as a delicate medium, when in fact it is wonderfully resilient. The artist primarily uses Limoges porcelain clay, which results in a supple smoothness once vitrified. “I like how it doesn’t need to be glazed or covered up, as its surface is already something beautiful,” she adds.
Walker works with a small team consisting of her partner Ben Long and their assistant Zakira Huntley, who helps to make the shards and keep the studio running smoothly. Walker enjoys the buzz of activity and the opportunities to experiment and brainstorm with others rather than working solo. And as the work has evolved over time and her partner joined the business, they have also begun making wall-based pieces made from tadelakt, a kind of lime plaster which can be manipulated to achieve a similar finish to porcelain. That consistency and texture are qualities Walker returns to, no matter the project.
Guided By Intuition
“I love the feel of porcelain,” she says. “It is smooth like double cream when in slip form and very tactile to throw with. I like how it can be colored to create really pure tones and sanded to make a fired surface that is smooth like a pebble.”
Walker often produces color tests using stains and oxides, fascinated by the element of chance and getting unexpected results in the kiln. For many years, she has been working on a side project exploring glazes, which she creates whenever she has a little spare time. “I don’t know exactly what I am looking for from these, and I don’t know if I will ever use them in my work properly, but making glazes is my part-time obsession,” she says.
With numerous pieces in progress at any given time, many commissioned for specific projects like a collaboration with champagne brand Lallier, for which Walker is making a small series of bowls, the artist is always noting tiny evolutions and trying new techniques. She is currently planning to expand her palette and exploring the possibility of firing stoneware to create even more hues.
Intuition guides Walker’s overall compositions, and pieces can take between a couple of days and a few months to complete. As each shard is individually placed and many hours are required to smooth and finish each piece, she hopes that “it is clear to people looking at them that they are objects of love, that have been thought about and have time deeply ingrained in them.”
the author Kate Mothes is an independent writer and art curator based in Northeast Wisconsin. She is the founder of Young Space, a platform for contemporary art. Her writing has appeared in Selvedge Magazine, Arts Midwest’s Creativity News Desk, and regularly on Colossal in her role as editor.
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The audio file for this article was produced by the Ceramic Arts Network staff and not read by the author.
Olivia Walker’s introduction to the world of ceramics arrived unexpectedly. After the artist graduated from university, where she studied history and English literature, she moved home to Devon, England, for the summer and took a job in a local crafts gallery. Arranging displays and selling ceramics by regional artists, she increasingly admired the way the pieces felt in her hands and enjoyed talking about them, prompting her to take an evening throwing class.
Among her earliest experiments, Walker made a coiled pot that she rubbed shoe polish into after it had been fired. “This was the first thing I made which I thought was an interesting object,” she says, and she gifted it to a friend who still uses it to collect spare change. This initial interest in the objecthood of ceramics laid the initial foundation of a studio practice revolving around the material qualities of clay—particularly porcelain—and an abiding desire to create work that evokes a visceral response.
The Conversation Between Form and Function
The Dartmoor-based artist’s intricate, sculptural objects merge organic forms with the beguiling delicacy of tiny porcelain pieces. “I always find it interesting how the conversation between form and function exists in the craft world,” she says. Although Walker employs wheel-throwing processes that have been traditionally applied in the making of functional ware, she is even more interested in the relationship between craft and fine art, exploring experimental avenues through formal elements like line, shape, and contrast.
“I make vessels which can contain, but they aren’t functional in any traditional sense,” Walker says. Each piece begins on the wheel, which provides the starting point for a vessel. Once its form is realized, she sometimes cuts away parts of it, rebuilding and covering some of the surface with what she calls shards—thin petals of porcelain that are applied when they are leather hard.
Tiny layers ripple across the surface in patterns redolent of coral or earth eroding beneath rivulets of water. In monochrome white, black, or dark gray, the supple textures of each piece recall growth and decay, like the way fungi appear on decomposing wood.
Other pieces are cloaked entirely in shards, which wrap around the core form and nestle up among each other in a dense cluster that appears to be moving. She began making these works when she was pregnant, and the way that a number of fragile shards grouped together exhibits a kind of protective strength was especially resonant.
The undulating surfaces provoke a range of responses, which Walker hopes are positive but sometimes converge with slight discomfort or are curiously repellent. This only compounds the appeal, inviting a gentle confrontation between elegance, vulnerability, mystery, and the biological.
Consistency, Texture, and Beauty
Walker’s pieces revel in the juxtaposition of fragility and strength by tapping into our association with porcelain as a delicate medium, when in fact it is wonderfully resilient. The artist primarily uses Limoges porcelain clay, which results in a supple smoothness once vitrified. “I like how it doesn’t need to be glazed or covered up, as its surface is already something beautiful,” she adds.
Walker works with a small team consisting of her partner Ben Long and their assistant Zakira Huntley, who helps to make the shards and keep the studio running smoothly. Walker enjoys the buzz of activity and the opportunities to experiment and brainstorm with others rather than working solo. And as the work has evolved over time and her partner joined the business, they have also begun making wall-based pieces made from tadelakt, a kind of lime plaster which can be manipulated to achieve a similar finish to porcelain. That consistency and texture are qualities Walker returns to, no matter the project.
Guided By Intuition
“I love the feel of porcelain,” she says. “It is smooth like double cream when in slip form and very tactile to throw with. I like how it can be colored to create really pure tones and sanded to make a fired surface that is smooth like a pebble.”
Walker often produces color tests using stains and oxides, fascinated by the element of chance and getting unexpected results in the kiln. For many years, she has been working on a side project exploring glazes, which she creates whenever she has a little spare time. “I don’t know exactly what I am looking for from these, and I don’t know if I will ever use them in my work properly, but making glazes is my part-time obsession,” she says.
With numerous pieces in progress at any given time, many commissioned for specific projects like a collaboration with champagne brand Lallier, for which Walker is making a small series of bowls, the artist is always noting tiny evolutions and trying new techniques. She is currently planning to expand her palette and exploring the possibility of firing stoneware to create even more hues.
Intuition guides Walker’s overall compositions, and pieces can take between a couple of days and a few months to complete. As each shard is individually placed and many hours are required to smooth and finish each piece, she hopes that “it is clear to people looking at them that they are objects of love, that have been thought about and have time deeply ingrained in them.”
the author Kate Mothes is an independent writer and art curator based in Northeast Wisconsin. She is the founder of Young Space, a platform for contemporary art. Her writing has appeared in Selvedge Magazine, Arts Midwest’s Creativity News Desk, and regularly on Colossal in her role as editor.
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