Jill Ford

Much of Jill’s sculpture is thrown on the wheel. Porcelain is a fabulous clay to throw — it’s smooth and silken but is also a hard taskmaster and easily collapses. Simple graceful shapes are formed: full round bowls with an elegant footring, slender tapering vases or distinctively tall jars with the added flourish of a quirky stopper. Minimal shapes and colour allow her to indulge in her passion for texture.

Echinacea Collection

Jill Ford Echinacea Collection

After spending a day working in the walled garden of Sledmere House near to Driffield, sketching some very vigorous Echinacea plants, Jill decided to try to capture their forms in porcelain.

Vases and bowls are thrown on the wheel then pinched around the rim whilst still soft to create a deckle edge. The exuberant seed heads are carved and textured with layers of glaze and copper oxide aided by the use of wax resist - whilst on the internal surfaces a copper rich glaze is encouraged to flux and bleed softly.

Landscape Range

Jill Ford Landscape Range

Landscape range - thrown bowls with tapering footrings and tall vases also thrown on the wheel.

A stylised silver birch motif created by using an applied slip technique, decorates these thrown bowls and vases. Slender white trunks are carved deeply through the mass of dark foliage to reveal the porcelain underneath. In the background black slip shades from palest blue/grey to rich charcoal.

Jill also display jewellery at Anstey Gallery.