About us
As you would hope and expect, Gillshaw Pottery is an enterprise that has been built around a love of ceramics, of the perfectly formed coffee cup and the beautifully designed and decorated plate.
But more than that, Gillshaw Pottery is a love story in another way too, named after the house that was the setting for Alexander and Sophie to meet and fall in love. The pots they make undoubtedly benefit from their other skills too. Alexander as an in-demand chef and Sophie as an accomplished artist.
Sophie
Sophie has always had a passion for colour and texture. After studying textiles at Wimbledon School of Art she went on to set up ‘Rosehip’, a decorative living shop on the Munster Road, London.
Giving up her shop in 2011, she moved out of London to the wilds of East Sussex. While being a mother to her two children, Sophie poured her creative energy into painting and then into pottery. Before long she’d purchased a wheel and a second-hand kiln and found her stride as a natural thrower with fine motor control.
Inspired by nearby Charleston, shape, colour and pattern are a hallmark of her work. Whether throwing or hand building her pots, Sophie decorates with slip, tin oxide, vibrant under glazes and sgraffito. Her work radiates a warmth derived from using her favourite terracotta clay.
Alexander
Alexander has spent the last twenty-five years working as a chef in various highly regarded restaurants in London and running his own fine dining catering company - taking him around the world and up and down to London on a regular basis.
Throughout this career, finding the right plates and bowls was always frustrating, hired plates were either flat, white and boring or highly patterned – neither of which seemed to provide quite the right setting for his food.
To address this frustration, he now shares his time between potting and being the executive chef of Butler & HOG. He approaches the ceramics he makes with food in mind. The vessel being as much as part of the dish as the food itself. Nothing says homemade potted shrimps as much as when he has made the pot too.
All Alexander’s work is thrown on the wheel, his decoration is fresh and clean, providing the simple background that a good dish deserves. White tin glaze shows off Beetroot cured salmon with dill to perfection, while a darker glaze, such as a deep turquoise, provides a wonderful ceramic base for white fish dishes like pan-fried scallops with a parsnip puree.
The house range has been designed for food, all of the pieces benefitting from Sophie and Alexander’s combined flare for ceramic making and decorating, providing wonderful tableware for memorable meals.
