S a r a h G r o v e
Scroll down to read about how my work is made
EDUCATION
1992 – 1993 Wimbledon School of Art - Art Foundation - BTEC Distinction.
1993 – 1996 Camberwell College of Art - BA (Hons) 2:1 Ceramics
EXHIBITION AND FAIR HIGHLIGHTS
2024 Made London, Islington, London
Ceramics in the City, Museum of the Home, London
Beautiful and Useful, Sussex Prairies
2022 Handmade in Britain, Chelsea
2021 Art in Clay Farnham
2020 Made Makers online
2019 Handmade in Britain, Chelsea
West Dean Arts and Craft Festival, West Sussex
MADE London - Canary Wharf
Contemporary Textiles Fair, Landmark Arts
2018 Selvedge Fair - Bloomsbury, London
Lustre - Lakeside Arts, Nottingham
West Dean Arts and Crafts Festival - West Dean College, West Sussex
2017 Selvedge Fair - Bloomsbury, London
Made Brighton
Lustre - Lakeside Arts, Nottingham
Selvedge fair - Charleston House, Sussex
Made West Dean, West Sussex
2016 Made Brighton - Brighton
Made West Dean, West Sussex
Made London - Bloomsbury
Contemporary Textiles Fair - Landmark Arts, Teddington
2015 Ceramics in the City, Geffrye Museum, London E2
Handmade in Britain, Chelsea Old Town Hall, London SW3
2014 Pulse (trade fair), London
Handmade in Britain, London
2009 Chelsea Art Fair, London
2008 Contemporary Craft Fair – Bovey Tracey, Devon
Breath of Fresh Air– Byard Art, Cambridge
Seeing is Deceiving – two person show, Model House, Wales
2007 Craft Council showcase – Victoria and Albert Museum
Textile Illusion - Craft2eu, Hamburg, Germany
Contemporary Craft Fair – Bovey Tracey, Devon
Ceramics in the City – Geffrye Museum, London
Origin, The London Craft Fair – Somerset House, London
Country Living Christmas Fair – Business Design Centre, London
2006 Origin - The London Craft Fair - Somerset House, London
Ceramics in the City - Geffrye Museum, London
Affordable Art Fair – Battersea, London
2005 Country Living Christmas Fair - London
Affordable Art Fair – Battersea, London
2004 Gifted – Group show – Frank T Sabin Gallery, London
Country Living Christmas Fair - London
Aston Martin selected group show–Oxo Gallery, London
Top Drawer Spring – Earl’s Court Exhibition Centre
2003 Country Living Christmas Fair–Business Design Centre
Country Living Spring Fair – Business Design Centre
1996 Slides held at National Art Library Archive V &A Museum
How it's made
My work starts its journey with a piece of textile. I hand sew patchwork, or applique, quilt or embroider in a wide range of interesting fabric textures and machine embroider motifs such as birds, shells and bees.
These textiles are then covered with plaster, which when set, I can peel the fabric away leaving me with a plaster ‘negative’ of the fabric. I now roll out a slab of porcelain, large, flat and smooth. Having worked out paper templates of a jug or vase, I lay the paper over the clay and roughly cut out the shapes needed to be joined together to make an item. Each piece is then pressed firmly against the plaster. All of the detail of the original fabric is translated onto the clay, which can then be peeled off the plaster. My paper pattern templates are then cut around more precisely and the piece I am aiming for can be constructed. Great care has to be taken not to loose textile detail or leave fingerprints and to match the textile joins where a spout meets a jug body. Details are added by sprigging, such as buttons as feet on the base or braid on a handle. The work is dried and biscuit fired, ready to be glazed or in the case of the machine embroidered work, ready to be painted with cobalt. I use a very fine brush, charge it with cobalt and carefully paint over the stitches and only over the stitches! Cobalt is a very strong oxide when fired but remarkably hard to see in its subtlety when raw and can be picked up on a finger to be spread across any other piece handled, only to be noticed after the next firing!
Once out of their second, high temperature glaze firing the plain white but highly textured pieces, have highlights added to catch the light and give interest in the form of opal, mother-of-pearl or more recently, gold lustre. These tiny additions are painted and then into the kiln the pieces go again. I hope you like the finished items and see just how much work and how many processes are involved.