I usually work with the cheapest clay I can get my hands on: a school clay, grogged stoneware, a low-fire terra-cotta reclaim, or clay I’ve dug myself.
Primary firing temperature
If electric firing: cone 6 or cone 06; if using a wood or gas kiln, I fire closer to cone 10–12.
Favorite tools
My hands!
Studio playlist
It changes all the time; there are certain albums I’ve listened to since I was about 13, but sometimes if I just want to focus and not be distracted, I have the same song on repeat. From January–October I have bike races playing on my laptop.
Wishlist
More space!
Studio
I currently rent a studio at Cornubian Arts & Science Trust (CAST), which is about 12.4 miles (20 km) away from where I live. CAST was established in 2012 by Teresa Gleadowe with the aim of promoting participation and learning in the arts community of Cornwall and the South West. Alongside the community of studio holders, there is a café that serves amazing food and drinks, and an open-access ceramics studio called Clay Trap that is co-run by my partner, ceramic artist Sarah Fassnidge. CAST has an educational program of art workshops for children, talks and events, and an exhibition program comprised of looped video installations and screenings of moving image works by internationally renowned artists.
I’ve had a studio there ever since moving from London to Cornwall in 2023. My studio is quite small, so I have designed it to make the most of the space, building a mezzanine and several movable tables that I endlessly wheel from here to there. I use one to form my pieces from wet clay, and the second to glaze them. Beneath the making table is a plan chest that was being thrown out when I was a student at the Royal College of Art in London—it’s full of twenty years’ worth of works on paper, and on top of it are stretcher bars, tubs, clamps, and other miscellaneous things. Stored underneath the second table, on which I glaze work once it has been bisque fired, are all the raw ingredients I use in my glazes, along with the hundreds of test tiles of the hundreds of glazes I’ve made over the years. There are shelves on one wall that hold work waiting to either be bisque fired or glazed. The mezzanine is full of old work, glazes I’ve made, bare canvas, old paintings, raw pigment, books, and spiders. I have a small window that looks out across to fields that rise, impossibly steeply, and beyond them lies the sea. I recently got a second-hand easy chair that now lives beneath the window. I spend a lot of time sitting in it.
Over the years, I’ve probably had around fifteen different studios, and each one has had its own unique challenges and limitations. Though I wish I could make it bigger, for now this one feels like home and I’m very grateful to have it as a space to sit, think, make, and be.
Paying Dues (and Bills)
I haven’t had any formal training in ceramics; I studied painting at the Städelschule in Frankfurt, Germany, and before that at the Royal College of Art in London, and the University of Brighton. I was first introduced to ceramics during an “anti-vessel” ceramics residency for artists who had no prior experience working with clay, set up by Aaron Angell at his studio, Troy Town Art Pottery, in London in 2015. It was only two weeks long, with the first week spent making and the second spent glazing, but it was a transformative experience for me—especially in terms of its emphasis on making glazes.
Following that residency, I began working with clay whenever the opportunity presented itself. In 2020, I was awarded a five-year live/work residency at ACME’s Fire Station in East London, and knowing I had a secure studio for a number of years, I was able to buy my own kiln and begin investing in all the raw materials necessary to make glazes from scratch. Since then, I suppose clay has become the main material I work with.
Alongside my practice, I work three days a week as a Senior Lecturer on the BA (Hons) Fine Art degree at Falmouth University, so my studio time fits around that during term-time, with me trying to get to the studio as much as possible around my other commitments and responsibilities. I like that clay often needs time to dry between the various stages of being worked—it is a material that is sympathetic to inconsistent studio hours and an hour here and there can be an extremely productive way of working. I often produce a piece over many months and sometimes even years, with me spending a lot of time between first and second firings, thinking what to do and experimenting with new glazes.
My partner and I had a baby last year. Since then, I haven’t really had set hours in the studio. Instead, I have spent much more time making small watercolor paintings at home on the kitchen table in the evenings when time and energy allow. A lot of the ceramic work is born out of drawings and paintings, so this little cottage industry of painting is time well spent, even if the outcomes often feel a little underwhelming.
Marketing
Without wanting to sound flippant, I make the work I want to make and if it sells then so be it! Typically, if people want to buy my work, they tend to just message me either by email or on Instagram, and we go from there.
I sometimes make smaller ceramic pieces which present motifs from my works in isolation—cars, snails, snakes, planes, figures, etc. These are a lot smaller than the larger work and therefore are priced accordingly. Periodically, I will make a series of these smaller works available on Instagram and have enjoyed this as a way of making the work more accessible to a wider range of people. It is nice when people like something enough to want to live with it.
Mind
I am quite an eclectic reader and flit between lots of different genres across fiction and non-fiction. It is something I have always done for multiple reasons—inspiration, research, learning, enjoyment, but most importantly of all, escapism. Over the last year I’ve been struck in particular by books by Angela Carter, Mathias Énard, Jacqueline Harpman, and Fernanda Melchor.
I take inspiration from a range of sources—I look a lot at painting, but also look to architecture, film, and sculpture for ideas. There are some amazing artists in Cornwall and a very buoyant arts community here, which provides a good exposure to new things. Whenever I am in cities like Bristol or London, I make time to see exhibitions and shows across institutions, commercial galleries, and project spaces.
I am a very keen cyclist so, when not in the studio, at work, or with my family, I spend as much time as possible cycling. Where I live in Cornwall is extremely beautiful; the landscape is ancient and wild, rugged and lumpy. It is a hard but rewarding place to negotiate by bike, and I can’t think of anywhere I’d rather live, make, and cycle.
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Just the Facts
Clay
I usually work with the cheapest clay I can get my hands on: a school clay, grogged stoneware, a low-fire terra-cotta reclaim, or clay I’ve dug myself.
Primary firing temperature
If electric firing: cone 6 or cone 06; if using a wood or gas kiln, I fire closer to cone 10–12.
Favorite tools
My hands!
Studio playlist
It changes all the time; there are certain albums I’ve listened to since I was about 13, but sometimes if I just want to focus and not be distracted, I have the same song on repeat. From January–October I have bike races playing on my laptop.
Wishlist
More space!
Studio
I currently rent a studio at Cornubian Arts & Science Trust (CAST), which is about 12.4 miles (20 km) away from where I live. CAST was established in 2012 by Teresa Gleadowe with the aim of promoting participation and learning in the arts community of Cornwall and the South West. Alongside the community of studio holders, there is a café that serves amazing food and drinks, and an open-access ceramics studio called Clay Trap that is co-run by my partner, ceramic artist Sarah Fassnidge. CAST has an educational program of art workshops for children, talks and events, and an exhibition program comprised of looped video installations and screenings of moving image works by internationally renowned artists.
I’ve had a studio there ever since moving from London to Cornwall in 2023. My studio is quite small, so I have designed it to make the most of the space, building a mezzanine and several movable tables that I endlessly wheel from here to there. I use one to form my pieces from wet clay, and the second to glaze them. Beneath the making table is a plan chest that was being thrown out when I was a student at the Royal College of Art in London—it’s full of twenty years’ worth of works on paper, and on top of it are stretcher bars, tubs, clamps, and other miscellaneous things. Stored underneath the second table, on which I glaze work once it has been bisque fired, are all the raw ingredients I use in my glazes, along with the hundreds of test tiles of the hundreds of glazes I’ve made over the years. There are shelves on one wall that hold work waiting to either be bisque fired or glazed. The mezzanine is full of old work, glazes I’ve made, bare canvas, old paintings, raw pigment, books, and spiders. I have a small window that looks out across to fields that rise, impossibly steeply, and beyond them lies the sea. I recently got a second-hand easy chair that now lives beneath the window. I spend a lot of time sitting in it.
Over the years, I’ve probably had around fifteen different studios, and each one has had its own unique challenges and limitations. Though I wish I could make it bigger, for now this one feels like home and I’m very grateful to have it as a space to sit, think, make, and be.
Paying Dues (and Bills)
I haven’t had any formal training in ceramics; I studied painting at the Städelschule in Frankfurt, Germany, and before that at the Royal College of Art in London, and the University of Brighton. I was first introduced to ceramics during an “anti-vessel” ceramics residency for artists who had no prior experience working with clay, set up by Aaron Angell at his studio, Troy Town Art Pottery, in London in 2015. It was only two weeks long, with the first week spent making and the second spent glazing, but it was a transformative experience for me—especially in terms of its emphasis on making glazes.
Following that residency, I began working with clay whenever the opportunity presented itself. In 2020, I was awarded a five-year live/work residency at ACME’s Fire Station in East London, and knowing I had a secure studio for a number of years, I was able to buy my own kiln and begin investing in all the raw materials necessary to make glazes from scratch. Since then, I suppose clay has become the main material I work with.
Alongside my practice, I work three days a week as a Senior Lecturer on the BA (Hons) Fine Art degree at Falmouth University, so my studio time fits around that during term-time, with me trying to get to the studio as much as possible around my other commitments and responsibilities. I like that clay often needs time to dry between the various stages of being worked—it is a material that is sympathetic to inconsistent studio hours and an hour here and there can be an extremely productive way of working. I often produce a piece over many months and sometimes even years, with me spending a lot of time between first and second firings, thinking what to do and experimenting with new glazes.
My partner and I had a baby last year. Since then, I haven’t really had set hours in the studio. Instead, I have spent much more time making small watercolor paintings at home on the kitchen table in the evenings when time and energy allow. A lot of the ceramic work is born out of drawings and paintings, so this little cottage industry of painting is time well spent, even if the outcomes often feel a little underwhelming.
Marketing
Without wanting to sound flippant, I make the work I want to make and if it sells then so be it! Typically, if people want to buy my work, they tend to just message me either by email or on Instagram, and we go from there.
I sometimes make smaller ceramic pieces which present motifs from my works in isolation—cars, snails, snakes, planes, figures, etc. These are a lot smaller than the larger work and therefore are priced accordingly. Periodically, I will make a series of these smaller works available on Instagram and have enjoyed this as a way of making the work more accessible to a wider range of people. It is nice when people like something enough to want to live with it.
Mind
I am quite an eclectic reader and flit between lots of different genres across fiction and non-fiction. It is something I have always done for multiple reasons—inspiration, research, learning, enjoyment, but most importantly of all, escapism. Over the last year I’ve been struck in particular by books by Angela Carter, Mathias Énard, Jacqueline Harpman, and Fernanda Melchor.
I take inspiration from a range of sources—I look a lot at painting, but also look to architecture, film, and sculpture for ideas. There are some amazing artists in Cornwall and a very buoyant arts community here, which provides a good exposure to new things. Whenever I am in cities like Bristol or London, I make time to see exhibitions and shows across institutions, commercial galleries, and project spaces.
I am a very keen cyclist so, when not in the studio, at work, or with my family, I spend as much time as possible cycling. Where I live in Cornwall is extremely beautiful; the landscape is ancient and wild, rugged and lumpy. It is a hard but rewarding place to negotiate by bike, and I can’t think of anywhere I’d rather live, make, and cycle.
www.charlieduck.co.uk
Instagram: @charlie.duck
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