About Clare Sykes​

My parents, Jean and Steven Sykes, were both working potters when I was a child, sharing throwing, decorating and exhibiting. In consequence, being a child of the sixties, I did not want to follow in their footsteps!​​

I did, however, venture in the Arts, doing a course in Mural Decoration at Hammersmith School of Art. After College I went freelance, making mirror and Perspex sculptures and doing some illustration work. This lasted until marriage and children which involved the next several years. It was as the children grew up and my parents had died that the intrigue with clay resurfaced and I attended a course at North Devon College.

The hard-edge, slick approach of my youth gave way to my love of plants and texture. I chose not to devote myself to the art of throwing so late in life but discovered the magical way clay can be stretched and expanded in the hand, which gives it a very friendly quality.
Patterning the clay before it is stretched allows for a subtle expansion as the pattern grows with the form, sometimes accidental marks stretching like old scars on elephant hide.

It is an odd method of making; I don’t know of anyone doing it quite like I do so I am on a solitary but happy road at present.

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