Julie Ayton

After 18 years running a thriving community pottery, Julie moved to her own studio in central Salisbury in 2009.

She makes domestic ware and statement pieces in porcelain and stoneware. Inspired by the many ceramic traditions where decoration is central, she seeks to balance surface, form and volume.

While abstract pattern has always been part of her work, more recently a sense of urgency about threats to the natural world has emerged more overtly in recurring themes of birds and flowers, as though fixing them in ceramic could, while celebrating their wonder, help preserve them against an uncertain future.

Working directly into the damp clay Julie layers contrasting glazes and uses methods often borrowed from printmaking, followed, when possible, by a single firing.