Thirty-Fourth Exhibition

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Sally Reilly is an Irish potter, trained in Paris in a Japanese tradition, now living and working in the UK and France. Fascinated as a child by seeing pots being thrown, Sally followed her ambition and by 20 became apprenticed at the Atelier du Cheval a l’Envers in Paris. Later she worked as a production thrower at Chelsea Pottery in London.

“My training led me to look to the East and the philosophy of Bernard Leach, the Arts and Crafts movement and the Mingei revival in Japan. Later I became influenced by modernism in the UK of which, for me, Lucienne Day’s designs for Heal’s are emblematic.”

Sally has an established studio in Soham, Cambridgeshire, and has more recently, set up a studio near to the famous pottery village of La Borne in France where she escapes to work on new ideas.

Sally designs and hand makes both one-off pieces and small editions of high quality tableware. She aims to bring ceremony to simple, everyday moments in a modern world where time is at a premium and ‘quality time’ is hard to come by. “I want people to stop, take time and savour – a good cup of tea or coffee, breakfast in the garden, Sunday lunch with friends.”

This show features Sally’s signature, rich brown/black teapots with colourful acrylic handles. There are jars to keep your sweets in and plates to pass them around on, bowls to drink hot chocolate from and pourers, with a choice of either right or left handed. The work Sally displays here is a celebration of coffee and tea breaks and a new collection of coffee beakers, created for the show, references the Golden Lane Estate.

Each piece is hand thrown on the wheel, using a fine, creamy white stoneware clay. Some are decorated with coloured slips brushed-on under a transparent glaze. Others are higher fired and glazed with a deep, dark, shiny Tenmoku.

7 Dec – 24 Dec