S a r a h G r o v e
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
2022 Handmade in Britain, Chelsea
2021 Art in Clay Farnham
2020 Made Makers online
2019 Nov Handmade in Britain, Chelsea
June West Dean Arts and Craft Festival, West Sussex
March MADE London - Canary Wharf
Contemporary Textiles Fair, Landmark Arts
2018 December Selvedge Fair - Bloomsbury, London
November Lustre - Lakeside Arts, Nottingham
June West Dean Arts and Crafts Festival - West Dean College, West Sussex
2017 December Selvedge Fair - Bloomsbury, London
November Made Brighton
November Lustre - Lakeside Arts, Nottingham
October Selvedge fair - Charleston House, Sussex
June Made West Dean, West Sussex
2016 Sept Made Brighton - Brighton
June Made West Dean, West Sussex
April Made London - Bloomsbury
March Contemporary Textiles Fair - Landmark Arts, Teddington
2015 Sept Ceramics in the City, Geffrye Museum, London E2
Nov Handmade in Britain, Chelsea Old Town Hall, London SW3
2014 May Pulse (trade fair), London
Nov Handmade in Britain, London
2009 April Chelsea Art Fair, London
2008 June Contemporary Craft Fair – Bovey Tracey, Devon
April Breath of Fresh Air– Byard Art, Cambridge
April Seeing is Deceiving – two person show, Model House, Wales
2007 March Craft Council showcase – Victoria and Albert Museum
March Textile Illusion - Craft2eu, Hamburg, Germany
June Contemporary Craft Fair – Bovey Tracey, Devon
Sept Ceramics in the City – Geffrye Museum, London
Oct Origin, The London Craft Fair – Somerset House, London
Nov Country Living Christmas Fair – Business Design Centre, London
2006 Oct Origin - The London Craft Fair - Somerset House, London
Sept Ceramics in the City - Geffrye Museum, London
March Affordable Art Fair – Battersea, London
2005 Nov Country Living Christmas Fair - London
March Affordable Art Fair – Battersea, London
2004 Nov Gifted – Group show – Frank T Sabin Gallery, London
Nov Country Living Christmas Fair - London
April Aston Martin selected group show–Oxo Gallery, London
January Top Drawer Spring – Earl’s Court Exhibition Centre
2003 Nov Country Living Christmas Fair–Business Design Centre
March Country Living Spring Fair – Business Design Centre
1996 June 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 or mother-of-pearl lustre. These tiny additions are painted and then into the kiln the pieces go again. I hope you like the finished items and see how many processes are involved.