Ceramics

Cowal Open Studios starts this Friday and gives visitors the opportunity to visit artists and makers in their studios.  Karen McPhail spends her summers in Tighnabruaich and her work can be seen at the Hayshed Gallery at Carry Farm.

Karen makes her high fired earthenware from her studio in Renfrewshire.  Her designs are inspired by collages she collects in sketchbooks and transfers to leather hard clay using a technique of paper resist and slip, coloured with natural oxides. Each piece is hand made and fired twice in an electric kiln.  

Karen studied ceramics at Glasgow School of Art and now shows her work in galleries from Orkney and Shetland to Cornwall.  Every item is unique, however it is the processes involved in working in ceramics in the studio that Karen enjoys, with the final satisfaction of each finished piece finding a function in the home.