HANNAH TOUNSEND

Hannah Tounsend studied Ceramics and Glass at De Montfort University for a BA Hons, before going on to achieve Distinction in her MA of Fine Art. She combines ceramics and printmaking to create collections of sensitively realised vessel forms and subtly layered monoprints.

Hannah’s vessels are made through a lengthly and technically complicated process, a hybrid-making technique in which she skillfully combines slip-casting and throwing. Her vessels are created from two clay bodies and through two making processes. First, casting slips are built up within an open plaster mould, in a variety of forms; printed, poured and painted. After being integrated in a cast shell of white earthenware, the rim is conjoined with a cylinder of plastic clay which is already partially thrown. To finish the body of the vessel, these elements are thrown on the wheel.

Hannah is based in Chichester, but the surface and mark-makings on her pieces evoke the layered landscapes and weatherworn surfaces of the British coastline. This fascination with the coast is the result of her upbringing in the Midlands, where the sea was always an exciting destination. Her ceramics themselves embody land and sea, with the solid vessel forms representative of land and the fluid washes of colour that cover their surfaces like water. Hannah has exhibited widely and is the recipient of multiple awards, including her selection as one of ten artists for AWARD, the British Ceramics Biennial’s exhibition and prize.