Jean caught the ‘clay bug’ while attending pottery classes and advanced ceramics at Crawley Technical College and Horsham Art School, under the tuition of Ray Everett, Mike Allwork and John Green.
Her inspiration comes from the Sussex countryside and her love of colour and texture. Teaching children for 30 years has also influenced her style of work.
“I was amazed at the diverse forms and finishes that can be produced from clay, coloured slips, oxides and glazes.”
Jean mainly works in earthenware, Raku and Pit fired pottery. Raku meaning ‘pleasure or enjoyment’ in Japanese, is low-fired ceramic wear first produced in Japan in 1592 as Ceremonial tea ware of the Zen Buddhist Masters. Raku pottery is removed from the kiln when red hot, it is cooled rapidly in a combustible material like sawdust or paper. Firing is usually done in a fuel-burning bin rather than an electric kiln. Each pieces of Raku pottery is unique.
Jean’s Coalshed Pottery workshop, where she has worked for the past 40 years, is in a brick built Coal shed at the rear of her Edwardian terraced cottage in Maplehurst, West Sussex.
Email: jeanholder@hotmail.co.uk
