Current Work

A collection of open vessels, smoke fired.

Current Work Availability:
Direct from the Studio: 4 Beckford Cottages, Hindon, Salisbury, Wiltshire.
Bircham Gallery, 14 Market Place, Holt, Norfolk.
New Ashgate Gallery, Wagon Yard, Downing STreet, Farnham, Surrey GU9 7PS
Eskandar, 134 Lots Road, London, SW10
Eskandar, 7 Rue Princesse, St Germain des Pre, Paris
Eskandar, 33 East 10th Street, New York
Sladers Yard, West Bay, Bridport, Dorset (www.sladersyard.co.uk ) 
Rabley Drawing Centre, Rabley Barn, Mildenhall, Marlborough, Wiltshire, (www.rableydrawingcentre.com
The Flint Gallery, 5, Westgate Street, Blakeney, Holt, Norfolk
The New Art Centre, Roche Court, East Winterslow, Salisbury, Wiltshire SP51BG www.sculpture.uk.com
Contemporary Ceramics Centre, Great Russell Street, London

Technical Information

The vessels have been made on a potters wheel. Each piece is then worked on by hand with a metal tool to develop the form and create an energetic surface before being lightly burnished with a smooth stone. When completely dry a fine clay ‘slip’ is applied and polished with a soft cloth to induce a slight sheen. No glaze is used. The pieces are then fired to a temperature of 950-980 degrees centigrade and when cool, are wrapped in various dry plant materials and buried in a kiln chamber filled with sawdust and wood shavings. This is lit from above and burns slowly down over several days creating a smoke filled environment which affects the pieces in unusual ways, leaving some areas deeply carbonized, others with atmospheric traces of plant imprints or smoke shadows.

Career Background

Joanna was a student at Harrow School of Art in 1974. In 1976 she married sculptor Tim Harrisson and settled in Wiltshire. With the help of a grant from the Crafts Council she set up her first pottery at Ansty, producing salt glazed stoneware which was exhibited locally until 1980. Assisted by Southern Arts in 1987 she purchased a kiln and set up the studio at Hindon, where she still lives. For many years Joanna concentrated on producing a colourful range of decorative domestic earthenware, refining and developing her technique of throwing and painting. With support from Southern Arts she was able to spend valuable time experimenting with alternative techniques in Artigas studios in Spain. Her forms have gradually been reduced from their previous characteristically rounded shapes with flowing designs, to a sparer classical simplicity. A further period of work in Mexico and Ethiopia has inspired her to return to a more elemental approach to making, where the nature of the material and the transforming process of fire is more in evidence.