This is me, Sophie Learmont making ceramic acorns in my starlingpots studio. 

A bit about me: With a background in architecture and design, I have taken my love of texture and form to a smaller scale with my ceramics.

From my studio in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire I design and hand craft ceramic pieces in small numbers, drawing on inspiration from the natural world for decorative themes and colour palettes.  I carefully choose slips and blend glazes to create depth, tactility and surface interest. You will see in my ‘Gallery’ images I make work of all scales for a variety of uses, for the home, magazine shoots, restaurants, cafes and gifting. I am a member of London Potters and this year’s exhibitions include The Amber Room, London and Three Stories Gallery, Nailsworth.

When I’m not in the studio creating my ceramics you will find me zooming around with the children between their large variety of clubs, squeezing in lunch with my lovely patient husband or crafting and cooking with my fabulous friends. I am always planning holidays, some of which we get to go on as we all love travel.

A bit more about small batch making: The beauty of small batch making is that each dish is truly individual, an antidote to mass manufacturing. My round dishes are not perfectly round or consistently identical which I think makes them all the more special.

I use porcelain and stoneware clays for durability, natural beauty and tactile quality. There are many processes involved in making each piece. I enjoy sketching out my ideas first to consider the form and the function, I then model in clay to test shape and structure. I prepare the clay by wedging it (great for building arm muscles!), rolling, shaping, cutting and forming it. After slowly drying and checking the pieces over the following week they are ready for their first firing in the kiln, 998 degrees of heat over the course of 24 hours. I then clean, sand and slowly glaze each piece and re-fire in the kiln at 1224 degrees.

Each stage creates its own challenges and I call this the ‘botheration factor’ when things don’t always go to plan - all part of the experience of being a maker! The joy of opening the kiln to a new batch of successfully glazed ceramics is amazing. Once the pieces are unloaded, checked for quality and ready to take to market I am back in the studio opening a new bag of clay and ready to make again.

The majority of my work is both food and dishwasher safe.

I love what I do and I hope you like it too.