IN CONVERSATION WITH AMANDA COLDRIDGE
Meet the ceramic artist, Amanda Coldridge, whose work is inspired by a love of nature and experimentation.
We are delighted to announce our collaboration with talented artist, Amanda Coldridge. Inspired heavily by nature, Amanda’s ceramic creations are born out of a love for experimentation with materials, textures and processes.
Join us at the Bamford Barn, Cotswolds on Sunday 15th September from 10:30am for a celebration of craftsmanship with an exclusive exhibition of her signature ceramic mushrooms. Ahead of the exhibition, we spoke to Amanda to learn more about her journey into ceramics, her creative process and favourite piece from this exclusive collection.
Could you tell us about your journey into ceramics?
My mother is passionate about arts and crafts and is an experienced, talented designer and knitter. She has dedicated her life to promoting the arts, often through charitable means, and encourages people of all ages to embrace the therapeutic value of creativity. I really need to thank my mother for constantly encouraging and valuing my creativity as a child. The confidence she gave me is a lifelong gift.
After a move from London to the Cotswolds 18 years ago, I turned to art as a way to relax during my pregnancy and took up ceramics properly for the first time. I created a dinner service with ceramicist Alice Shepherd, carving the number of weeks I was pregnant on the base of each piece, finishing just in time! I fell in love with working with clay, and eight years ago, I approached Hilary La Force, whose work I admired, and asked if she would give me lessons. She agreed, and I began going to her regularly, several times a week. During lockdown, she lent me one of her wheels so I could improve my throwing skills at home; this inspired my own studio. Additionally, I have been studying glazes, mould making, and throwing techniques at a college in Oxford. Over the years, I’ve had individual lessons with various ceramic artists and attended numerous courses. The world of ceramics is vast and there is always more to learn!
Tell us about your love of mushrooms, and where the inspiration for this collection stems from?
During lockdown I went for longer, more frequent walks than normal. It was a way of relaxing and was incredibly beneficial on many levels. I really slowed down, observed and started taking photographs of nature. It always tends to be within the neutral colour palette. I photographed frogspawn through to fully formed frogs, and was similarly fascinated by mushrooms as they grow and alter during their lifespan, changing form and shape. I hadn’t noticed this before. I was regularly surprised by the variety of mushrooms I came across and enjoyed observing the process of rot and decay as they aged and were eaten by predators. I was inspired to look at how these stages can be broken down and reinvented in clay. I ordered a book of mushrooms and started flicking through the pages; there are so many interesting types, and some are other worldly!
Beyond mushrooms, my pieces are inspired primarily by a love of playing with texture and process. I have been experimenting and learning new glazing techniques, which influenced the creative approach to all the different types of mushrooms in this collection.
Your pieces are incredibly lifelike. Could you talk us through the various stages of your crafting process?
I start by wedging the clay (like kneading bread) to get any air bubbles out and ensure the mushrooms withstand the intensity of the kiln. This is followed by roughly 15-30 minutes of hand-building and moulding each mushroom to create the shape, then I leave them until they are leather hard. I will always tweak each mushroom slightly at this stage before they completely dry which takes a few days. They are then bisque fired which hardens them ready to take the glaze. I will then paint or dip each mushroom with various glazes and oxides, ready for the final glaze firing in the kiln.
"My process is quite experimental, and I’m not afraid to make mistakes or try new things."
Some ceramicists just use one clay in their studios, while I work with 10 different clays. My favourite is porcelain, but it is the most temperamental to work with. My mushrooms can explode, as all clay shrinks in the kiln; each clay has its own shrinkage rate. By mixing clays which contract at different rates, it is normal for them to crack or break. Varying the thickness of clay in a single piece can lead to cracks in the kiln, but I take a bold approach and embrace the fact that pursuing my ideas means accepting a fair share of failures along the way.
Do you have a favourite piece from the collection?
The shaggy ink cap mushroom is my favourite to make; I form them with 5 different clays and apply 8 glazes, so they’re time consuming but great fun to create. I’ve got some old wooden skittles I’ve been using to mould the shape of the mushroom caps, letting them dry around those.
I was inspired to create this type of mushroom as we have some growing at the top of our drive. I have researched them, and they are totally edible, but they go through a process where they melt and liquify in a matter of 12 hours meaning they aren’t viable to stock or sell in shops. Apparently (I haven’t tried one yet) they are incredibly tasty! Another fact about these mushrooms is when they liquify they create a dark, black ink, which I have been using to paint the stems of my ceramic shaggy ink cap mushrooms!
Your studio is beautiful. Can you tell us about the way you work and the environment you like to create?
I love to listen to chilled music, nothing too distracting, just background noise. If I’m working on something I've done before, and I know what I’m doing, I like to listen to an audio book to escape. On the wheel, I need silence to concentrate.
"My style is messy, and my process isn’t perfect; it’s experimental. I like to be free and relaxed, and not feel any pressure to do a certain thing. It’s all about happiness, joy, relaxation and getting in a zone to centre myself and enjoy creating. I can lose hours and hours this way!"
What does it mean to you to be collaborating with Bamford in this way?
I have always loved Bamford as a brand, especially the clothes; it’s the linens, the textures, embroidery and floaty nature of the pieces.
Years ago, I was in the Bamford store, and I said to myself “I’d love to see my work in here”. I didn’t mention it to anyone, it’s something I have just had in my mind. I do believe in manifestation and projecting what you want to achieve to the universe.
"I am hugely inspired by organic elements and nature, which aligns perfectly with Bamford’s ethos and aesthetic."
It feels like a natural partnership based on the textures and the neutral colour palettes used in my work.
